As the Lopez kids become young adults, they are making more and more decisions on their own, some with detrimental consequences.

Marlin graduated middle school! They got her a toga and everything to celebrate this achievement of hers. She also passed her beauty school training that she worked so hard on this year. But now comes the time to decide what to do next. Being 18, she can now work full time but also wants to attend high school full time studying electromechanics. We asked her how much she is willing to put towards that herself. The agreement last year, when she wanted to study in beauty school, is that she would use that to get a job making money to put towards her ongoing education. She does not currently seem interested in that option and would rather just go to school full time and not work. Currently, we are discussing these details with her, so we will see what she decides.

Josue, on the other hand, seems to have completely given up toward the end of the school year last year. He was behind on some things and needed to finish a video project and turn it in in order to pass the year and he neglected to do so. We asked him what he is going to do about it and he said, “I’ll just work”. We aren’t sure what has caused this change in attitude with him as he has always been a good student. Since he didn’t finish the grade last year, he cannot continue this year, so we are waiting to see what he decides if he decided to continue his education.

As for Luis, we are waiting to find out if he will continue with his college courses. Since he did not pass his first-semester last year, he could not continue. We told him that he will need to take the first semester again (a requirement of the college) but that we will not pay for it as we already paid for it once. So, we will see what he decided to do in February (when college courses start).

Please pray for them as they are learning what it means to be fully responsible for themselves and for Shirley and Jorge as they continue to guide than (and their own children) and us as we navigate encouraging these “kids” to make the right decisions but allowing them to make the decisions on their own.