What is The Basket?

The Basket is a way of sharing the beautiful news that a family has been gifted the additional financial backing necessary to enlist the support of Homeward Bound as they bring their teen or young adult home from treatment.  This opportunity is made possible through the combination of love in the family’s heart and the amazing grace represented by this tiny wicker basket.

It is a gift from a mother and father who were faced with the same parenting challenges and difficult decisions that a lot of families confront. The only difference is that these parents were blessed with the financial resources to temporarily place their child in the caring hands of others during treatment and receive transition coaching after graduation. While their choice was just as gut wrenching, it was made immeasurably easier because money wasn’t a barrier.

After seeing their son “avert the perils that were destined to be” by him attending and graduating from Turn-About-Ranch (an out-of-home treatment center), and then being mentored by Homeward Bound, they were compelled to help others who weren’t as financially fortunate. The reward of The Basket is a gift from these parents and other compassionate donors, like you, who have joined the cause. This unassuming basket represents the money these benefactors are contributing, with no obligation to the families, to enable them to have the support of Homeward Bound as their son or daughter transitions back to open arms. Or, in some cases, it helps families be able to afford sending their child to either a wilderness or residential treatment center, in the first place.

The story behind it.

(As told by those who lived it.)

It was a clear winter day but I was driving in a fog, wrestling with how to help our troubled son. The fog grew murkier as my wife and I debated the thought of sending him across the country to a residential treatment center in the wilderness of Utah for over three months. The decision had to be made that night.

Having a few extra minutes before a meeting, I pulled into a Barnes & Noble bookstore. As I walked through the doors, I was flanked by two shelves of discount books. My eyes were pulled directly to a single title. It read, “Time Out in Tough Times”.

I opened it, turned to a random chapter in the middle, and cried. I would come to later realize that page 52 was about to change and bless my family forever. (I’ve reproduced page 52 here so you can experience it as I did that clear, yet foggy day.) Reading it years later, I still tear up. Because the truth crystallized for me that day as I stood inside those doors reading an arbitrary chapter in an arbitrary book.

Page 52.

I purchased the book and shared the experience with my wife. As she read the chapter, a peculiar but different sensation stirred in her as well. There was something about the phrase “A papyrus basket coated in tar and pitch”, that she couldn’t shake. It kept calling to her.

Late that very night, about 2 a.m., this random chapter, in this random book, that came during a random detour, crystallized for her as well. We had selected Turn-About-Ranch as the place to send our 17-year-old son. Torn about committing, my wife’s finger tentatively hovered over the keyboard. That’s the moment it dawned on her. TAR. The acronym for Turn-About-Ranch. It gave us both chills. But it also gave us a sense of calm. Of destiny.

Coincidence or divine intervention? She now knew, like I did in the bookstore, we were doing the right thing. Her finger dropped and hit the send button. We hugged. Sobbed. And never looked back.

Early the next morning our son was picked up by two badged transportation agents and flown to the southern mountains of Utah. Three and a half months later we were reunited as he graduated from TAR. His smile was as bright as his eyes. With his internal compass calibrated and pointing true North, we headed home.