Gregor's Story

Due to the neglect he suffered during his early years in an Eastern European orphanage, nine-year old Gregor arrived in the U.S. with a host of physical, emotional and learning disabilities. Even allowing for the fact that English is not his first language, Gregor's math and reading skills were several years behind his peers'. He also had great difficulty getting along with other children and was struggling with numerous sensory-motor deficits. As a result, even though Gregor was happy to have been adopted and receiving plenty of love and affection from his new American mother Lisa, his academic performance kept getting worse and he was becoming more emotionally withdrawn with each passing day.

As an older single parent, Lisa had known she would need a strong support system for her and Gregor and had recruited many friends for that purpose. But the magnitude of Gregor's problems required more than caring friends could provide. So Lisa turned to JFCS' Parents Place for help.

Parents Place arranged for Gregor to work with a specialist in learning disabilities and a counselor to help him deal with his depression. JFCS also made it possible for Gregor to attend a special summer camp tailored to his needs by subsidizing his camp fees. At the same time, Lisa began taking parenting classes at Parents Place and working with a JFCS counselor to help address her concerns about parenting a child with significant learning disabilities.

Although Gregor will continue to have to many challenges due to his disabilities, both he and his mother now feel they're better equipped to handle them. As Lisa says, "Thanks to JFCS and Parents Place, we have the tools we need to get through this. And it's absolutely wonderful to finally see Gregor laughing and playing."

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