I'm grateful I had these things in my fridge & my pantry tonight....cuz that's what the kids ate for dinner. I tossed them some chips & salsa too....that counts for veggies, right?
Thursdays. They're a long day for me. Granted, it's almost to Friday, which is, quite frankly, my favorite afternoon/evening of the week. Carefree, no homework, fun dinner & a movie....that's our Friday night tradition. No chores on Friday's. Life is good. But Thursdays. Well, it's my turn to teach seminary on Thursday mornings. (Early start) And homeworks takes a r.e.a.l.l.y. long time on Thursdays. (Late finish) Let me tell you why.
Another day I'll share the story of how we settled on adopting from foster care, once we made the decision to adopt. As part of the process of applying to be an adoptive parent (at least in the great state of Texas...) one fills out very specific paperwork. A certain section of the paperwork includes what you're willing to accept in a child. For example, can you take a child with physical disabilities? Can you take a child that is HIV positive? Will you take a child that has been sexually abused? Will you take a child with severe emotional disabilities? The list goes on and on. Well, I won't bore you with all of the details, but as one peruses children available for adoption, they list several categories: Developmental, Emotional, Physical & Medical Special Needs. And then they rate each category by: None, Mild, Moderate and Severe. You can go here for an example if you're curious. As we read through scores of descriptions, we decided to keep our level at None or Mild. More on that later. Now, quite honestly, I don't see how ANY child in Foster Care can be listed as None in any category. I mean, seriously. These kids have, for one reason or another, been removed from their BIRTH family. They've lost family, friends, familiarity. They've moved from home to home and school to school. Trust you me, even the most angelic child is now a special needs child. That having been said....when something is right, it's right and you do it. No matter how hard. No matter the sacrifice involved.
Fast forward to that day that we're sitting in a caseworker's office in San Antonio, seeing pictures of our two boys for the first time. As the caseworker describes J & A....we just knew. It was right. They were ours. At that point, you could have told me they were absolute monsters....and, too late. We were smitten. They were ours. Fast forward to a couple of weeks later, when we took them home and discovered that, um....they couldn't talk. Um....their speech was MAJORLY delayed. So much so that A had already been diagnosed in the 1 percentile for intellect and had qualified for full services through the school district. What?!?!?!? (I will tell you 2 full years later that the boy is ONLY delayed in speech....nothing else. He's perfectly fine) J was soon enrolled in ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and receiving speech therapy as well.
Fast forward to the day we're reading the CPS (Child Protective Services) files on our 4 girls. B has been diagnosed with dyslexia and a learning disability. Okay. I think we can handle that. We take on the 4 girls. Last school year, towards the end of 1st grade, I start noticing that S has similar patterns in her work & her reading as B. As she began 2nd grade, her grades took a dive. The work became intense. Lucky for me, S has an AWESOME attitude. She's a hard worker. What takes her brother J (also in 2nd grade) 10 minutes, takes her more than an hour.
I gave a shout for joy last week as S was FINALLY officially diagnosed with dyslexia! She also will receive the services she needs, learn the tools she needs to survive.
One final fast forward to my Thursday afternoon. I have 9 children in school. 6 are of age to have science tests, math quizzes, spelling tests,and their weekly homework packets due on Friday. So I now have two daughters with dyslexia, 1 daughter with no learning disabilities but a major attitude (this takes a LOT longer to deal with than dyslexia, let me tell you), 1 son who is super intelligent but super energetic and therefore difficult to channel his energy into his homework & studying, and 2 others who I must say....at this point in my life....feel like true Godsends. I put on my tutor/teacher/lion tamer hat from 3:30 to 7:00pm. It's intense....
But I have to admit.
When N's grades have gone from 30's and 40's one year ago....to 80's and 90's now...I take pride in that.
When S can get 14 out of 15 spelling words right...you know we do a high five.
When B realizes she really can read books that are on a 4th & 5th grade level, instead of a 1st grade level...well...that there is tangible progress.
And when my other children are able to get on the A honor roll....virtually without help from Mom.....well, I get emotional. They've been blessed with God-given talents that they are multiplying instead of burying.
Thursday is done. Welcome Friday!
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