To be or not to be that is the question

My counsins had to grow up with a drug addict father, and no mother. They lived with us when they were younger, but then one day the drug addict father got upset because the younger one was spanked for acting up in school. He took them away. Weeks later, we get a call begging us to take them back. Sorry no can do. The older one went to live with an aunt, actually several aunts, my mom included. I took the younger one to live with his mother, who was stable at the time. The older one ended up living with a friend durning high school. The older one will make it, going to college in the fall. Don't know about the younger one. ADD, no parental involvement, barely goes to school, always getting into trouble.
Sad just sad. But I'm a firm believer that it shouldn't matter what enviroment you grow up in. If you want to make something of yourself you can, you have the power to be somebody. I pray that these two boys both make it.