Thursday Thoughts...

Above are the book bags we bought for the kids. I shared about our plans for the kids to attend the Learning Resource Center for Epic One-on-On Charter school last week. Well, this week we learned that the state is challenging Epic's ability to open an actual site for the school, since the Charter was for a "virtual school." Ho, hum. The regular public school system is so scared to lose students (and the money that comes with them) that they will do anything possible to fight innovation in education. Today several articles came out in our state, with a slant against the "school" we've chosen for our children. Of course, they found the meanest looking picture they could of the founder (when in actuality he is a super jovial guy)! The reporter for one article was at a meeting we attended last night, and interviewed our family for several minutes. Not one quote was used from our family. They were obviously just too pro-Epic! Only negative quotes for this paper please!

The good news is that even if our kids don't have the option of attending the Learning Resource Center, they will still be Epic students this upcoming school year. We have waited over a year for this school to become reality (had hoped to enroll them last year, but the state stopped it). If we don't do the awesome Calvert School curriculum on-site, we'll do awesome Bob Jones at home! No way to keep us down, I tell ya! We win either way!

I must admit, I will be a little bummed if we don't have the on-site learning option. I was sort of looking forward to seeing what it would be like to have 5 quiet hours each day to do my adoption work. At the same time, I was mourning NOT having the kids home all day. Sometimes something sounds better than it actually is, ya know? I might realize that, as nice as quiet is, it's even nicer to have my children learning next to me. The biggest bummer about possibly losing the on-site option is that we already spent money on book bags and super-cool lunch boxes! Jump the gun much Anita? Yep, sure do!

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Ha! Okay, I'm totally laughing out loud now because I just pushed the "publish" button by accident--therefore "jumping the gun" once again! I speak truth to you my friends! LOL!

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After three months of having the kiddos sleeping in our room--hoping to help with some sleeping insecurities and such--3 out of 4 are once again in their own beds. I happily shared my room for those 3 months, but honestly, there is just not enough space for 2 adults, 4 kids, and 2 dogs in one 12X14 room. I was feeling very claustrophobic. My sleeping time was pretty much the only time in my life without the kiddos, and with that gone my "window of tolerance" was being tested! Since we will be starting school again soon it seemed like a good time to start transitioning back into their beds upstairs. The exception is Bright.

Sunday night we sent Bright up to sleep in his own bed (shares a room with Samren). He was beside himself. Sometimes it's hard to tell when a kid is throwing a fit because he'd just rather sleep with mom and dad, or because he is really scared. Bright was really scared. He's always been scared to sleep by himself. Ugh. I think of all the months when he was just 2 years old that we had him sleep in his room. He didn't cry or anything, but he slept on the floor, by the door, with his hands reaching out of the threshold. I didn't recognize what a cry for help that was. [Sometimes it's so hard to see what's in front of your face!] Anyway, we did insist that Bright try to sleep in his bed on Sunday night. I prayed over him and we reassured him. He went to bed with a happy face.

Starting Monday, Bright had a horrible time. He has been doing somewhat better, but Monday and Tuesday were days full of crying and grunting and stealing and pouring/squirting. [He pours or squirts things for stress relief. He craves the happy chemicals that sugar gives him, so steals anything sweet he can find.] It was horrible. I was so sad for my baby boy. Needless to say, Bright will continue to sleep with us until some point in the future where he is recovered enough to sleep without us and not feel overwhelmed with stress and anxiety the next day.

Going back to the site-school thing....one of the reasons we thought it would be a good fit is so we could start doing more intensive stuff with Bright while the others were "at school." His needs are beyond us. We've got to get him into some sort of therapy. It's much more difficult to add therapy multiple times a week if the other three kids don't have a place to go. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. Either way, time is up. No more trying to help Bright on our own. We need help. Please pray with us that we find the RIGHT help--the help we believe the Lord has lined up for Bright if we can only discern His will in this situation!

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I have been a crocheting fool lately! I just finished three twirly scarves in Autumn colors for the AAI Holiday Project Auction. I will go and stare at all of my new skeins of yarn tonight and hope to become inspired about what comes next! I go half a year at a time without crocheting, but when I come back to it it always feels so good. There is something very soothing about the fibers sliding through my fingers--creating something out of "nothing." There are no heavy thoughts--none of the subjectivity my life is usually filled with. It's simple. Follow these instructions and something beautiful will be the result. Wow. Good for my soul.