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Dear Cross Creek,

Thank You for creating a safe place where our daughter’s life can be saved. We are serious when we say we were in a life and death situation and had we not found you our daughter would surely have perished.

Prior to choosing to send our daughter to Cross Creek we exhausted all other avenues to help her. Our moment of decision came when the executive pastor of our church told us the church was not equipped to deal with her problems. That declaration was not acceptable to us, so we chose to believe God had prepared another way for us.

That other way showed up for us in the form of a Cross Creek graduate who challenged us to save our daughters life. As we embraced this challenge, God came through for us. And we do mean us. Not only is our daughter doing fine, we are too through the powerful seminars associated with the school. Thanks for being equipped to save our family.

Bruce and Terri W.B

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Cross Creek Staff,

 

Several months ago I made one of the most difficult decisions of my life in choosing to send my daughter to Cross Creek. I knew very little about the facility then and was not familiar in any with the program. What I felt strongly was that Cross Creek could provide the structure that was need in my daughter’s life. My visit with Kathy, our family rep and Garth our therapist have been nothing less than great. They have consistently been supportive and encouraging and open to any questions. I am so grateful for their willingness to work tirelessly day in and day out with her and their other girls. They support her, encourage her and, along with her family, are her biggest fans. Their dedication to all their student’s success comes through in every phone call. I applaud your presence in my daughter’s life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

Sincerely,

 

Carol P.

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Dear Steve & John & Cross Creek Staff.

 

What a great opportunity to be able to write to you from this side.  Bruce and I wanted to express our deepest gratitude for your hard work, your commitment and your care for us and our son. Through your care and love you are helping us to go through this journey we started. You are an integral part of the process that brings everything together.

 

Thank you for everything you have done. We love you with all of our hearts for giving us back our serenity, our son and our awareness.

 

With heart felt appreciation,

 

Bruce and Mona N.

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CrossCreek
Academy for Boys,

I’m writing to thank you for having such a wonderful program that is really helping my son. He is turning into the loving, warm, compassionate person that I always thought he was.

You hold the dearest thing to my heart, my son. And you are taking such good care of him. I can’t thank you enough for giving my family a chance to be successful.

Thank You,

Tammy M.

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Dear Cross Creek,

It has been four months since we had people come in the middle of the night to transport our son to your facility. Naturally, we are very sad that things had come to this, but we would much rather be sad than scared. We know that our son is safe now. We now know peace in our home once more.

Our child has a long way to go, but he has already taken the first steps on the road to recovery and on the road back to us, his parents. Thank You.

Sincerely,

Ivan and Amy G.

Thank you

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To Our Cross Creek Family,

 

After completing Focus, we now realize how blessed we are that our daughter has enrolled us in this program. We have a new, exciting journey that without the help, guidance & love of the family at Cross Creek, and it would not have been possible. We are so happy that this is a family journey, so that we can all heal rather than just working with our daughter. Thank you Cross Creek for all you do for our child and our family as a whole.

 

God Bless,

 

Kevin and Bonnie R.

Appreciation Letter

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To Cross Creek,

Thank you for the opportunity of accepting my child, with a sharing and open heart. I will never thank you enough for helping me go through Discovery and Focus. I learned so much about myself and what my child is going through. I found through Focus that there are no coincidences. I learned that I am only accountable for my acts not for the acts of others.

Thank You so much for helping me in this situation of despair. My prayers go out to all of the staff at Cross Creek and Premier for giving us tools as parents to reach a new goal.

Sincerely,

Virginia G

Life Contract by Brian Parker MS, MFT

August 2007 Cross Creek Newsletter: 

  We are coming up to that time again that so many have been working towards and have been looking forward to for some time, Parent-Child 3.  Those who are preparing to return home or have a child to return home are often both excited and nervous.  This is the time when we are about to see if all the time, money, and work put in, will have the results that we are looking for of having the healthy family and individual relationships that we want.  Getting ready for the transition of having a child in the program to having a child back home is what I want to address.

Prior to Parent-Child 3 (or PC3), there has been a significant amount of time spent with the students and their families in developing a life contract that will be functional.  This life contract is designed to provide the structure necessary to help the student and the family readjust to having the child back living in the home, and maintaining the positive changes that have taken place.  In the life contract we are assisting the family in incorporating their own stated family values into a set of rules, consequences, opportunities, and structure for the home.  In having and living by this set of clear and well defined boundaries and values, the family will be better able to maintain open lines of communication, confront patterns of triangulation or other manipulations.  If manipulations do occur, or a poor choice is made, then there already is a set of natural consequences that have been agreed upon and will be imposed.  This implementation of the already agreed upon consequences has the benefit of taking the parents out of the role of being the “bad guys”.   This works great for those parents who have a child with a history of getting into power struggles or rebelling against the parents as the child has already agreed to the contract prior to coming home and has played a key role in its development.  When a poor choice is made that results in one of the agreed upon consequences, then the family only has to acknowledge the choice made, and refer to the life contract.  The contract also helps in addressing some of the problems that may have existed within the family dynamics prior to the program such as inconsistent parenting, follow through, power struggles, or triangulation patterns.

In my experience, I cannot stress enough the importance of incorporating the life contract into life at home upon graduation.  The life contract is absolutely critical to the continued success of the child and family.  If you do find, upon living by the life contract, that you wish to make a change, sit down as a family, consult the program or other support groups to discuss the change.  Do not just give up on the contract.   I have too often heard of stories or even received a call from a child or parent who is in crisis due to directly not following the life contract.  Parents do not give into the temptation to give your child too much too soon, or allow your child too much freedom too quickly.  Tomas Pain wrote, “That which we achieve too easily we esteem to lightly”.  It is a natural tendency to want to completely trust your child once they graduate, and believe that they are now able to take on the world.  This is a mistake in my opinion. Although your child and your family have no doubt experienced tremendous growth, you are still fragile and need time and support to be able to take on all the challenges of home, old friends, being lonely, staying sober etc. There may be times when living by the life contract is inconvenient or requires extra effort, but compared to the effort or inconvenience of dealing with a relapse into substances, or issues that you were dealing with prior to the program, it is a small price to pay.  I would encourage you to be mindful of the messages that you send your children after they have graduated.  Make sure that it is clear that the time spent in the program was not just an event, but also a commitment to a way of life.  In being committed to living the contract, the family will have a much greater chance of making the changes lasting.  That is what we have been working and hoping for since the time of enrollment, lasting changes for the better.

Teacher at Cross Creek

  Mr. John Poutinen was selected as Employee of the month.  He is a teacher on the girls’ side, and has taught school for over thirty years.  He received his B.S., B.A., and M.A. from the University of Minnesota and taught in Minneapolis for 30 years.  Mr. John is married and has one daughter.  He moved to St. George to retire three years ago, but has found a new home at Cross Creek.  He enjoys assisting, and experiencing the growth of the students. 

I Can Make a Difference - Corinne F

blog-make-difference.gif  I am a girl who’s educated, smart as can be

I can make a difference just by being me

I am so compassionate, I really want to give

I can make a difference by helping others live

I am very creative and kind of funny too

I can make a difference by laughing along with you 

I am understanding, I can hear you out

I can make a difference and not let you pout

I can make a difference by giving to those in need

By giving all I have and not thinking of greed

I can make a difference by doing my best

By giving all I got and nothing less 

I can make a difference by educating others

By teaching what I know, learning from the mothers

I can make a difference by being respectful

By staying thankful and just staying helpful

I can make a difference by bettering all

For seeing things in different ways is my call.