About Us

We have decorated, and plan on going forward with the essence of Greg with us.  He wants us to keep it going while he is inside and share with him our joy.  I am so very sad on my inside but I am doing this, for all of us.  If I give in to the temptation to mourn for the next 6 years then I am also incarcerated.  That is not my path.  My path is to stay here and live and remind him why this is better.

Greg has also made the choice for himself.  He chose the things that got him where he is and the frame of mind that will get him out intact, physically and mentally.  

So here is how we celebrate with him:

1. We paint tee shirts each year with our own design and wear them.  I asked Greg to make a design and I will paint his for him.  As silly as it sounds, I asked David (my husband and Greg’s dad) to cut a tee shirt size cardboard to mount Greg’s shirt on and I have a picture of his head so Greg WILL be in the pictures this year.  I will send him the pictures with him and of us.

1. I have been sending XMAS cards every day since Thanksgiving, funny ones, happy ones, the ugliest I could find, even had a vote for the ugliest card contest going for him.  I have not yet heard the winner... you get the drift.

1.  I printed off and sent The Night Before Christmas for him to read.

1. 4.     I printed off ornament decorations and origami instructions to make ornaments, stars and trees.  I sent them so he could decorate too. Note to self for next year, he does not have scissors to cut them out.  Duh

1. I sent my “call to arms message” to family, M.I.S.S. Mom’s and friends for cards.  He has received so many, some books too.

1. I renewed his magazines and gave him the list.  I sent a book or two, myself.

1. I answer every call that I am home to receive (once or twice a week is all) and tell him how we are decorating, baking, and etc.  What he does NOT NEED from us for XMAS is to hear our lives have stopped because of him.

1. I send him pictures printed on my letters.  I tell him I love him and also share that I miss him so very much.

1. I remind him that his responsibility is to reach out to others via cards and letters to wish them a Merry Christmas, thank them and just plain love them back.  He did just that.

1. I get up every day, even the days I don’t want to get up and allow myself to know that maybe that is all I can do that day. 

Two of my other sons are coming for XMAS.  My oldest son is bringing his new wife this year.  We have a picture of the wedding and Greg made the album, I have the phone in my hand to prove it.  Yep he nearly missed that too but he made the call so I am counting it.

And I cried, I am crying now. I am not giving up, I am not giving in but I feel all the sad things too.  I also need to feel the happy things.  Greg is very much alive.  Greg would be dead.  Incarceration saved him and now he has a new purpose. He really wants to live and knows what really matters.  He not only tells me but he shows me.  He has never been so sane.  

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours.

I'd love to hear what you have done.  I am so very grateful for you all

My son made some terrible choices.  He is looking at some serious time.  
Most days I keep myself positive.  I'm a tough cookie.  Life will always have it's highs and lows but as the saying goes, my track record for making it through them so far is 100%.  But there are the other days when the full weight of it settles on me heavy and I bow under the burden, shoulders hunched and head hung low.  It was one of those days that I went searching and found this site and another called daily strength.  It sucks that a community like this is needed but I appreciate that you are here and that you understand the struggle.  I'm not a religious person. I don't pray for salvation or revelations or miracles.  But I am a humanist.  I believe we are all in this life together.  Individuals, but connected through shared resources and experiences.  And I also want to be here for you on the days when your head is hung low, when your shoulders are bowed and you've fallen to your knees with the weight of it all.  Speak and I will listen.  I will do my best to hold out a hand and help you stand. Together we can lift each other up.

Thank you for having me.

I have so many thoughts flying through my mind tonight, to begin with though I want to thank everyone for the prayers on our behalf during this time. We have truly felt the peace and love of God and I believe that it is from those prayers.  The memorial was both sad and very beautiful, Chris has many friends that drove/flew many miles to be there, he is very loved. We were able to stay at our daughters house last night so that we could attend church with her and see 2 of our grandsons in a Christmas play, then drove home and celebrated my 3 year old granddaughters birthday. I am home now and simply reflecting on this past week. Our 7 year old gson,Riley, was signing this morning to the song  'Mary Did you Know' as I watched him, I thought, wow it was just last year at this time he was still going through chemo and he couldn't go in public without a mask on, and look at him on stage, singing, signing and smiling with the other kids .. We wont get to spend Christmas with Chris this year or with Seth,(our youngest son) but what we will be doing is celebrating the birth of Seths baby, Emma who just turned 3 , I was sad,because he hasn't been to one birthday party for her, (he was arrested before she turned 1 ) but he called her on the phone and she knows his voice... we will be celebrating the life that Chris lived on this earth, we will celebrate that we still have our little Riley, and he is cancer-free and all of our precious grandchildren, and children that we love so much. You know the holidays are so hard, that first Christmas without Seth was also the first Christmas without my Dad, my father in law and 2 of my very best friends, it was hard,but we survived,  I think I was in a fog the whole year. Last year was better, I miss them all so much, but this year will even be better than last, I am choosing to celebrate and stop being so sad, I know I can choose what I think about, I still have small moments of sadness, but I intend to look at my many blessings everytime that sadness pops in my mind, this year I celebrate Christmas and life. Tomorrow will be a better day. : )Thank you all for your prayers. I will continue to pray for all of the us mothers who cannot spend the holidays with their sons and daughters, whatever the reason may be. Live, laugh and love as much as possible.  

I finally found a human at the prison yesterday. They have no record of my application for visitation. "You need to call these people at this number" I cried, I just want to see my son before Christmas! She offered to fast track it for me if I emailed her the materials. So I did. Then I called the "people" who told me my application was received on Sept. 9th and approved that week, "you need to call the facility..." I cried again. They are resenting the approval and I have to wait for the prison again. Why does this have to happen? They have stolen 3 months of visiting away from me! Trying to be patient, but this is so frustrating

Prayers needed. Our oldest son died last night, he was only 36, dont know the cause yet, waiting on autopsy, as far as we knew he was healthy, he led a healthy lifestyle. My husband is having a very rough time, also for some unknown reason, when I checked the BOP website, my son Seths release date has been changed to a later date, pray I find out what is going on. Thank you for all your prayers

The other day while at work i reached out to the county jail for the purpose of taking care of some business on my sons' behalf.  I was informed by the counselor that they had moved him and nobody woukd tell me where.  He is my only son, my only child, and not knowing why or where they took him threw me into a terror. I called his parole officer, very helpful young lady, and she did not know they ove him but she told me where I could go and look him up and should locate the facility.  I did as she instructed and found him, where I found him. I immediately went to their website for further information and learned that this is a facility for violent offenders.  Well, my son does not have any violent charges in his history, drugs possession/sales yes, but no weapons, fighting, violent behaviors no! How do I know, I have been to every court appearance, I have met with attorneys and listened to al the charges as hard as it was.  This is still hard, how could he gt into trouble again, WHILE ON PAROLE?????? ARE YOU SERIOUS??????  Well I tried calling the facility to let him know that i knew where h was, well, someone picked up the phone, she spoke incoherently to me and before I could say anything she said "hold on" and put me on hold, never came back; i would probably be on hold now, 48 hrs later.  Thank God I set up our phones to receive calls from him!

This experience through me into a panic, I cloud not think, I could not function so I made an emergency appointment with my physician, by the time i got there I was a wreck.  Well after prescribed a tranquiler i returned to work still distraught. 

I was able to speak to hs parole officer again, shared with her and she explained where he is in the process!!!!

I have to tell you, if I had one Million dollars I would pay for the best attorney and bond him out, what am i saying, I would release him from his suffering!!!!! I'm his MOM.

But here i sit, I have to walk this out with him, stay on my face praying holding up not only my son, but holding up other Moms, sons and daughters before God!!!!!!

So, I researched for a support group and found M.I.S.S. and I do not believe in coincidental, I believe in God directed, appointed situations so here I am.  My name is Miriam a member of M.I.S.S. and where I can support I will.  I will continue to pray for the Moms and Dads who have children incarcerated, on parole on probation and pretrial!!!!!  I will also be praying for those who may have children on he run and they may or may not know here they are, I pray Gods Intervention and their safety as they come to a divine decision.

God Bless you all!

Last week was a tough one. Except for two court appearances, I haven't seen Taren since December of 2015. I am really starting to miss him and it really doesn't help that the DOC won't return my calls or send me a letter regarding visiting him. It took all week to get the last of his clothes folded so I could store them. And he didn't call last week. This week has been better and when he finally called on Thursday, I found out he was unable to call because his cell mate had caused some trouble and he was roped in. It was just as well since I would have likely cried on the phone with him, which is something I never want to do! He did get two of the letters that I had sent and I'm trying to work on another one tonight. I am a terrible letter writer so each one is a feat! God bless all of you!

My son was scheduled to be paroled this Monday, November 21st. I had motel reservations in place and a lot of other arrangements made. (He will stay in California and hopefully find a job and a place to live.) Exactly one week before his scheduled release date, he was told that there had been an error, and he would have an additional six weeks before parole. He talked to another inmate who was told 24 hours (!) prior to release that an error had been made, and he had to serve another 18 months! I am hesitant to share this with M.I.S.S. because it's so discouraging, but I wonder if anyone else has had such an experience. Fortunately, my son is in a camp, so we can spend Thanksgiving with him. There is much for which to be thankful, but the system is not kind.

Hi, I don't ask for help very well but I realize I need to. My son Jeffery is in confinement for his safety which scared the heck out of me. He requested it and has been in since 10/24. He has been in the prison system for about 3 years so we are not new to everything but this is scary. Apparently quite a lot of inmates are in the same boat as well. I am calling everyday for updates but as you all know, nothing happens quickly. I'm asking for prayers and possibly anyone who wouldn't mind writing him as he is isolated. Also, any suggestions on legal guidance to review my son's case.

 His information is below...

Jeffery Jackson #D52678

Century Corr. Inst.

400 Tedder Rd

Century, Fl 32535

Thank you in advance!

Kathy Beverly

I would like to say how much I appreciate all the prayers offered up to God for our incarcerated sons and daughters.
M.I.S.S. has certainly helped us get over the rough spots. Not everyone understands our love for our children.
My daughter's former husband is in prison, and has not had contact with my grandsons in over 3 years. My niece is in a county jail and my sister is raising 3 of her kids...
The three of us ask what we did wrong to have our kids/husband turn to drugs when they were brought up in good Christian homes. This site has given me hope and allowed me to forgive myself for things I may have done in the past, such as enabling and etc.
Moms...do not beat yourselves up for something you had no control over!
Prayer, Bible study, church family have really helped! Diane

Hello! I am a mother of a 20 yr old son who has a learning disability and has received  learning support and emotional support through out his education and has a mentality between of a 13 to 15 yr old. He made a bad choice and or mistake maybe both and has been in prison since July. I signed up with M.I.S.S. like a little over a week ago due to exploring and very hesitant on talking about I will say our and his situation because he is my son and I love him very much and so in this kind of situation is also mine. I hurt a lot for my son and am angry at the same time with his father. I know its always said you can't blame others for someones wrong doing but I do and feel I am not wrong do to the circumstances. Does anybody else ever feel that way?