Almost Home: Turning Hopelessness into Hope through the Transformative Power of Love and the Restorative Power of Forgiveness

Almost Home is our family's journey to embrace our oldest son Jon's "It-ness." At the age of nineteen, during one of his terms in prison, Jon was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. By the time Jon turned thirty, he had spent half his life in the prison system. It was during this time that we learned to accept the reality of our son's mental condition as well as embrace our parental responsibility to him. We also learned to overcome our own "It-ness" -- the social stigma of having a family member incarcerated. This book is for anyone who has ever been tagged as "It." May you embrace your "It-ness" and be a better person because, of rather than in spite of, your "It-ness."