Our son was discharged from a stay in rehab.  That night he had 3 friends and alcohol in my parents home where he stays.  My parents are now out of town for winter and we went over kicked the kids out, took his keys the house and said he needed to find someplace else to stay. 

We did so the Alanon way, we told him that we loved him but that he broke the rules and would need to find somewhere else to stay.  We did not yell or preach, we did not cry or blame.  We also told him that he was still welcome to spend the night New Years Eve at our home (we had agreed upon the day of discharge so he'd have a safe non-alcohol place to be).  My son was upset, cried and yelled, slammed the doors, but we did not take it personally, we knew it was the disease.

I was convinced the next few nights I'd get a call from the police telling me my son was dead.  But that call did not come.  I read my Courage to Change and another Alanon book to deal with my anxiety. I went to my Alanon meeting.

You know what? Our son did come over on NYE, we had a lovely dinner and played board games with our son and younger child.  We counted down to midnight, hugged and watched a movie.  Today, my son did his laundry, packed a bag of clean clothes and left to go where ever it is he is staying.  We were pleasantly surprised that he left on his own.

We got thru 24 hours as a family.  I was happy to recieve this gift from my HP. I made it through one day, just today and am grateful!