Samuel

Our buddy Samuel – or Sam, as he prefers to be called – has a story with lots of layers and depth. His journey to the Heart Gallery has been a difficult one. Sam has experienced more than his fair share of fear, loss, disappointment, and uncertainty, and those past experiences weigh pretty heavily on Sam at times. He often feels like the world is against him at every turn, and that he somehow deserves his bad fortune. When things in his life go wrong, he feels like he’s to blame (even when he’s not), and he feels like everyone else blames him when things around them go wrong, too. This life view leads to a lot of frustration, anger, despair, and anxiety, and it’s a heavy burden to carry some days. It even creeps into Sam’s nights in the form of nightmares. And these beliefs and emotions can push Sam to create the very problems he feels like he’s unfairly blamed for, perhaps just to exercise some control over his world – it’s a vicious cycle some days. But Sam has his good days, too. In between the struggle days, Sam is a very kind, sweet young man with a love of history and a great sense of humor. He also has a fun bucket list of things he wants to do in his life – he wants to see the Eiffel Tower in person, and he wants to see the Green Bay Packers play NFL football at Lambeau Field. We love this hopeful, optimistic side to Sam, and we want to see it more often. How do we accomplish that? That’s where you come in. Sam needs to know he is wanted, valued, and important. He needs to believe that the world he lives in has room for him, and it has to have room for some mistakes and missteps along the way. He needs to feel like everything will be alright, even when he’s not fully convinced it will be. The perfect family to help him do that will be a two-parent home with a strong, positive male role model. It would be best if there were no pre-teen or teen females in the home as well – Sam is still working on respecting healthy boundaries with peers, especially females. And more than anything, Sam’s perfect family needs to be positive and supportive to help Sam see a world that is different than the one he feels like he’s in now. Sam needs your help, but he’s ready to work on himself and carve out a spot in the amazing life that you can help create for him.

Age: 16