We just recently welcomed Lee to our St. Jude’s Ranch family. Lee came from Colorado with his older brother after his parents were both arrested. His little brother stayed behind with their grandmother. After many struggles, Lee and his older brother ended up in a homeless shelter, where Lee awoke one morning to find that his brother had left him there alone. He had been abandonded. Again.

Lee was then taken into the custody of Child Protective Services and sent to his first foster home. For a 14 year-old boy, new to the foster care system, this was very scary and a very tough adjustment. Lee was planning to run away so he stole an iPod in order to have the means to barter for

food. His logic was that "If I can sell the iPod for food, then I will not have to sell myself for a meal." This is something no child should ever know. Luckily, Lee came to St. Jude’s Ranch before he decided to run and was taught that he would not have to steal but rather would be safe and well fed. He returned the iPod and began to settle in to home-life at St. Jude's Ranch. A staff member recently overheard Lee talking to his little brother on the phone saying "You should come here! They have food and you get to eat three times a day, whenever you are hungry!”  

When asked recently what Lee thought of St. Jude’s Ranch and whether it was like home, he said, “It is better than home, I am accepted here.”