Shawn Hornbeck's family adjusts to life a year after boy's return

RICHWOODS, Mo. -- Nearly one year after Shawn Hornbeck was returned home after a long and tortuous captivity, his parents are still struggling to adjust to life as a family again.

They get recognized in restaurants and shopping malls. Strangers stop to ask for hugs.

"You put on a smiley face and do what you can to accommodate," explains Craig Akers, Shawn's stepfather.

Nearly a year has passed since Jan.12, when authorities walked into an apartment in Kirkwood and discovered not one, but two kidnapped boys. William "Ben" Ownby, then 13, was missing for four days. Shawn, then 15, had been gone four years.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that Shawn's parents, Craig and Pam Akers, are still trying to adjust to their new fame, to their new life, to their new house, to new concerns, to how everything changed the day Shawn Hornbeck came home.

"Shawn and I were talking about it in the car the other day," Craig Akers said. "We're all having issues getting our heads around the fact that it has been almost a year. Because it doesn't feel like it to any of us. Not even close."

Time seemed to crawl for four years after Shawn disappeared one afternoon in 2002 while he was riding his bike near his home. During that time, Craig and Pam Akers launched a foundation in his name that was dedicated to bringing him and other missing children home.

Since Shawn was found, reporters far and wide have beaten a path to the family's door. The network morning shows call with promises of all-expense-paid trips to New York. Pam just finished an interview with a British magazine.

But with all of that attention, Craig and Pam seek a balance. The family wants to keep the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, created when Shawn disappeared, in the news. The foundation works to find other missing children and prevent kidnapping.That takes money. Even now, Pam and Craig, who were never wealthy, work just part-time at a supply chain logistics company, not even enough hours to qualify for company health care.

While the attention keeps the foundation alive, Craig and Pam also want to protect their son. So the parents, not Shawn, talk to the media.

"He's just not ready. We're not ready," Craig said.

Shawn still resembles the young teen found nearly a year ago. Piercings in his lip and eyebrow are gone. But he has kept the piercing in both ears. His once-shaggy brown hair is worn short.

He attends a private school in the St. Louis area, which his parents have declined to identify. He is a freshman, just one year behind. He spent last summer with a tutor trying to make up for the years he was not in school. In testing, his education level rose from about the fifth-grade level to nearly the eighth.

His report card is straight A's. That means his parents will allow Shawn, who turned 16 in July, to get his driver's permit soon.

For Craig and Pam, it is difficult to imagine Shawn driving, having the freedom of a car. It would be difficult for any parent. But the couple still struggles to reconcile the 16-year-old young man Shawn is today with the 11-year-old boy they once knew.

Back in 2002, he was out riding his bike and never came home. How could they ever let him drive off in a car?

"It would be so hard to deal with anything happening to him after getting him back," Craig said. "I'm not sure we could do it again. It took a lot the first time."