I am so sorry for your heart ache. I have had simular experience except with my son. He was 16 yrs old when he announced that he wanted to live with me and not his father and his girlfriend. I took on the attitude that I was the better choice of his, little did I get that I was being played. Well, it wasn't too much later that he was running off with a girl he met at continuation school whose mom's brain cells have been burned out from meth. use. I was dumb founded that he came on Mother's Day and packed his back pack and left for the next two years to live on the streets using meth himself, sleeping in flea bag hotels or under brush. I was heart broken. He didn't report to school for two days and I put a missings person's out on him but he was now 18yrs and I had no parental rights anymore.
He landed in jail for drug use then he lite an abandoned house on fire and has an arson felony. It has taken a little over a year for him to getting back on track. He's 20yrs and is facing prison term for a dirty test three months ago. He has come back and is chosing to follow the program the court system placed him on and is staying with me. I rent a 15'X8' converted 1950's non-insulated garage and he sleeps on the floor. He has returned "home" and it has been a long emotional road for me. I have used my friends to support me and pray. All the while I have been going to college and working part time. Financially it has been a struggle and I know that LOVE conquers. I will keep you in my prayers.
