Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Resolution....For Now

I knew going in to parenthood that I would be battling for my child all her life.  After all, I battled for a year to get her home.    I just didn't know the battles would start so soon.

I had some "surprise" issues come up with the school last week.  (You can read about them here).  They were so easy to work with when I was enrolling Sara.  I had hoped that would continue for a while.  While things aren't adversarial, I'm not as impressed with them as I was.

The issues came up at a meeting last Tuesday.  The social worker and I were the only ones at the meeting.  She said she would have to check with the director of special services about summer school and Sara's placement for next year.  I never heard back from her.  I emailed the director on Monday evening.  She's the only one I had contact information for.  I heard back from her immediately Tuesday morning.  I also got an email from the social worker with her contact information and direct line.  I guess someone didn't like that I went straight to the top.

The director told me that they hadn't offered summer school to Sara because they knew I wasn't working and didn't think I would want to send her.  What in the world  does my  job have to do with her education?  She tried to make it sound like she was doing me a favor by allowing me to have that time with my child.  They'll have her 2 1/2 hours a day for 20 days.  I'll have her the other 1,798 hours of my vacation.

We still haven't completely settled the Kindergarten issue but I'm kind of ok with it.  She will go full time in the fall.  She'll be in both the morning and afternoon Early Childhood classes.  She'll go to Kindergarten for Creative Movement (Gym), lunch, and recess.  The school hasn't ruled out her ability to "repeat" Kindergarten the following year.  If she's ready, I'd love for her to do a year of inclusion Kindergarten.  If she's not, this whole argument becomes a moot point.  Because of that, I've decided to wait a year to have this "fight."  She's only been in school a month.  No one can know where she'll be a year from now.  If she's ready for Kindergarten, I will fight for that with all the resources I have.  If she's not, we'll cross that bridge then.  I really don't see the point of continuing to fight about something that won't happen for another year and may not happen at all.

So, for now, I feel like I've won this little battle.  I know that a war rages on in front of me.  All I can do is continue fighting the battles as they appear before me


And just for fun, here are some recent pics:
Praying at her dedication


Looking way too old.


Ready for her first 5k!


Proving you CAN lick your elbow.


With Tia Anna's hat at Lauren's shower.  


Cake!


My fashionista!


1 comment:

  1. Hi Natalie,
    I LOOOOVVVVEEE Sara. She is amazing, and as she opens to all of the new experiences you are showing her and taking her through she is coming to life on these posts and these pages! Thank you for letting us all know about your lives together as you get to know each other.
    Amazing!

    Val
    Heartsent

    ReplyDelete