The Story Behind Living Life with Grace Post

Last month I went by my son's school to close out his IEP. My son has special needs as classified by our local school system, but truthfully, at times, I forget that he is a little different from most kids his age. To me he is just Luke, what you see is what you get.

Background:
Luke was an answer to prayer for my husband and I. We had lost our first baby through miscarriage, and then were blessed with our oldest daughter. Then we lost a baby in 1999 as a result of Anencephaly, a neural tube defect. When I found out I was pregnant, after loosing our baby girl in 1999, what a relief it was when our little boy had no birth defects.

As Luke grew we relished all his successes and just the sweetness that he was (and still is). Luke was not the typical child. He didn't quite hit the growth milestones as he was suppose to, but the Doctor did not seem concerned, so we weren't. We just took it as Luke being who he is, nothing more, nothing less.

Instead of crawling Luke scooted on his little behind. We thought it was ingenious that he had decided to get around differently than other babies. We even got a lot of laughs out of seeing him get around. He was SOOOOOOO CUTE!

Luke also did not talk. We just figured he was a late bloomer. It wasn't until he was about 3 that he actually really started talking. My husband and I, along with his big sis, were about the only ones that could understand what he was saying and even then we had difficulty.

It wasn't until he was in school that we finally dicovered that his delayments were all because of something far beyond our control. For whatever reason God designed our boy a little different, a little unique, and filled with a whole lot of love and kindness of heart. He designed Luke to be Luke, a little boy who just learns a little different, and has some diffiultiy accomplishing a few tasks that we take for granted. Luke is also gifted with his unique prespective of the world. I am amzes everyday by him and how he sees the world. He is so much fun! (By the way, he talks ALL the time now!)

He has made milestones in the public school system, but I felt also that not everything was done to help him on his path to being all that he can be. So with the ending of this school year my husband and I chose to pull him out permanently to teach him from home.

And with that the reason why I was at school to close his IEP. I had already been looking for manipulatives to help Luke with his schooling from home. I was very excited to bring them with me to show his teachers, physical therapist, speech therapist, county school system psychologist and the school prinicipal. They were helpful and full encouragement for the seemingly huge task before me, all except for one. The Prinicipal was already not happy with me because the year before I had pulled our oldest daughter out of the system, and now I was doing the same thing with my son. After sharing with them briefly some of the things I was going to teach Luke this upcoming school year she just had to comment on my lack of considering creative writing. She commented that she seriously doubted my ability to take care of his learning needs.

Needless to say I was hot under the collar. Why would a school principal feel so highly of herslf as to right out insult a very capable parent?

My mother hen mentatlity was SOOOOO wanting to come out and just tell her what I thought of her and the public school system.

But...

I decided to handle it with grace and respond sternly, but with kindness, that I, as his mother, was fully capable of taking care of his learning needs, and that there was no way I could share in that brief time everything I was going to do with him. I told her I understood her concerns, and that I was going to do creative writing with Luke, but only when he was ready. I also told her I wanted him to feel successful, not incapable.

Not long after that I left.

After having to deal with a year of Luke feeling like he could not do his work, and not seeing more improvement as we were promised that he would have, I made a conscious decision to pull him out for his own good. I know there will be many days ahead filled with difficulty, but also there will be many, many successes for Luke. He will begin to see himself as someone who is capable of reading, writing, and arithmetic. And we will do it with grace, tears, hoorahs, and determination, because it is the right thing to do for our family, and most importantly for Luke.

Latanya

Where did I go?

Oops, I do not know what happened to me! I really don't!

Where did I go this month? Boy did I get sidetracked!

Do you ever get those moments when you just don't do what you need to do? I kept telling myself that I needed to get on this blog and write.

Do you see the date? Yikes!

Well, I am back! Hopefully I WILL NOT get sidetracked again. You are laughing! You know what? I am too!

I will post a REAL blog post in just a few minutes. You see I just got up and there are things I need to do before I am ready to really think!

See you in a bit! Hopefully I won't get sidetracked!

Latanya