Together Forever Day 2019

Despite our very full weekend ten days ago, it did not slip my mind that on July 14, we reached the 8th anniversary of Rex joining our family. I did not want to let the occasion pass without note. 

Rex, when I look at these pictures, I remember a little boy terrified of water.  Your dad and I had your "shower/bath" routine down to a dry tub, a couple of cups of water, a little soap and about three minutes total during which we got clawed and hit and kicked and bitten and bombarded with terrible feral screams.  Look at you now, loving all things water: frolicking in the pool for hours each day without a care in the world, asking to go to splash pads, stripping spontaneously naked at the sight of any ocean or lake, playing joyfully in the rain, and wading in streams and rivers without fear.  You have come such a distance in every way.

This past year, you have gained a lot of maturity.  You are more in tune with your own emotions and those of others, you are even more social - in no small part due to your happy use of your speech device - and you are calmer and increasingly patient.  You're still our snuggler extraordinaire, a lover of bacon and potato chips, and a little mischief.  You've become a bit of a singer, a surprise hugger, a flirt, and a Chick-Fil-A aficionado.  We love you.  You really are a wonder.

They both listened silently to the water,

which to them was not just water,

but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.

-Hermann Hesse

Sweet Childhood

You know how sometimes you find little treasures that make you smile in your kids' coat pockets before you send their jackets into the laundry?  Well, today, I had this pleasure on a larger scale when I went through a bag Emilia had packed for herself for an imaginary trip.  I was really impressed with some of her practical choices (a pen, a scarf, a whistle #safety, a washcloth, and a phone), but more importantly I was touched by the things she chose to bring along that make her who she is: her favorite dress up outfit, a small crown, sunglasses, caricatures of herself and her siblings, and a dictionary.  I hope the sweetness of this child of mine is something I'll always remember and something that she'll never lose.

IAC 462- 464

The following referrals were issued in IAC session 462 which was held on May 9, 2019:

1) Danish dossier from August 2012 referred a male child aged 2 years and 3 months with features in health status

2) Dutch dossier from August 2013 referred two brothers aged 5 years and 3 months & 3 years and 6 months with features in health status

3) French dossier from December 2013 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

4) French dossier from October 2014 referred a male child aged 3 years and 8 months with features in health status and a family history

5) Italian dossier from August 2016 referred a brother and sister aged 5 years and 10 months & 7 years and 10 months with features in health status and a family history

6) French dossier from December 2016 referred a male child aged 8 years and 10 months

7) US dossier from May 2019 referred a waiting child  (#3323) with a profile on the MOJ site
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The following referrals were issued in IAC session 463 which was held on May 16, 2019:

1) US dossier from October 2012 referred a female child aged 1 year and 7 months with a family history

2) French dossier from October 2015 referred a male child aged 5 years with features in health status and a family history

3) Italian dossier from August 2017 referred two sisters aged 9 years and 9 months & 8 years and 2 months with features in health status

4) Italian dossier from August 2017 referred a male child aged 9 years and 4 months with features in health status

5) US dossier from April 2018 referred waiting siblings (#3731 & #3732) with profiles on the MOJ site

6) Italian dossier from December 2018 referred a brother and sister aged 10 years and 6 months & 8 years and 8 months with a family history

7) US dossier from February 2019 referred a waiting child (#3642) with a profile on the MOJ site

8) Canadian dossier from April 2019 referred a male child aged 8 years with features in health status

9) US dossier from May 2019 referred two waiting children  (#3628 & #3629) with profiles on the MOJ site

10) US dossier from May 2019 referred a waiting child  (#3373) with a profile on the MOJ site
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The following referrals were issued in IAC session 464 which was held on May 30, 2019:

1) Irish dossier from April 2014 referred two brothers aged 4 years and 11 months & 5 years and 11 months with features in health status

2) Spanish dossier from October 2014 referred a male child aged 3 years and 11 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from November 2015 referred a female child aged 4 years and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

4) US dossier from February 2016 referred a female child aged 1 year and 4 months with features in health status and a family history

5) US dossier from March 2017 referred a female child aged 2 years and 1 month with features in health status

6) US dossier from May 2019 referred a waiting child  (#3537) with a profile on the MOJ site

7) US dossier from May 2019 referred a waiting child  (#3635) with a profile on the MOJ site

8) US dossier from May 2019 referred a waiting child  (#3624) with a profile on the MOJ site

Trauma Therapy

In a recent trauma therapy session, my daughter's therapist enacted her birth using a toy dog that gave birth to a stuffed puppy which was then adopted by a bunny.  Our therapist used everyone's real names and explained a bit as she modeled the process.  After she had finished, she paused to allow my daughter a chance to give input to the situation.  My daughter picked up the newborn puppy, gently carried it to me and placed it into my cupped hands with four simple yet powerful words, "This baby is hurt."  She then crawled into my lap, asking to be held and rocked.

Over the next several days at home, my little girl continued to care for the puppy.  She kept adding layers of protection to him from a tiny sock, to a hair band, to a piece of Bulgarian ribbon, and  several feet of medical gauze.  Finally, the puppy was deemed safe and left to rest on our couch, surrounded by the bustle of our family life.

But when will my hurt baby finally feel safe?

Pictures Of The (Yester)Day

July 1 kicked off Ella's fifth grade year.  She will be a home schooler once again, but attend two days a week at a home school "school" taking these classes:

1) CSI Detectives
2) Eww, Gross, Yuck - the Human Body
3) Junior Robotics
4) Conscious Connections
5) Peace Jam Leaders (about 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners)
6) Art
7) Beginner's Guitar
8) American Sign Language

So, with ten instructional hours at the "school" and three hours with her academic intervention specialist weekly, I really only need to teach about seven hours a week myself to get to our required 900 hours. I'll be focusing on Language Arts and Math as well as geography sprinkled with a little art and music history.

Fourth Grade Is On The Books

At the stroke of noon today, Ella and I finally finished her fourth grade home school year by reaching 900 instructional hours.  This academic year was full of ups and downs, but overall we know that Ella has gained a lot of new knowledge and skills, despite her often defeatist attitude toward challenges and changes.

We learned about fractions and decimals, plant and animal cells, the Revolutionary War, factoring and factor pairs, unit conversions, the Middle Ages, poetry (including William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson), area and perimeter,  Johann Sebastian Bach and Duke Ellington, budgets and menus, sound and light, baking banana bread with no help, forces and motion, planting a garden, plotting and reading points on a coordinate grid, long division and multiplication, the history and architecture of Hagia Sophia, as well as Gothic art and architecture.

We read so many books this year that I stopped keeping a list.  We very much enjoyed the entire Little House series and topped off the year with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing this month.

The highlight of this home school year were our 28 field trips, including the ones we took in each of the five main regions of our country which we explored though our social studies curriculum.

Many challenges remain in educating a child whose brain is affected by developmental trauma, but there are strengths emerging as well, such as a knack for geometry and a deep interest in social justice.  While Ella will once again be home schooled in 2019/20, there are some changes on the horizon.  More about those later.  For now, we take a breath and relax.

IAC 459 - 461

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 459 which was held on April 11, 2019:

1) Dutch dossier from May 2012 referred a female child aged 2 years and 2 months with features in health status.

2) French dossier from October 2013 referred a male child aged 5 years and 4 months with a family history

3) Spanish dossier from September 2014 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

4) Italian dossier from December 2014 referred a male child aged 4 years and 10 months with features in health status and a family history

5) US dossier from March 2019 referred a waiting child (#3691) with a profile on the MOJ site

6) US dossier from April 2019 referred a waiting child (#3509) with a profile on the MOJ site
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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 460 which was held on April 18, 2019:

1) French dossier from November 2012 referred a female child aged 6 years and 7 months with features in health status

2) Spanish dossier from July 2015 referred a male child aged 1 year and 4 months with features in health status

3) Italian dossier from August 2017 referred two sisters aged 5 years and 3 months & 10 years

4) Italian dossier from September 2018 referred a male child aged 11 years with features in health status

5) Canadian dossier from April 2019 referred two sisters aged 11 years and 11 months & 8 years and 3 months with features in health status
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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 461 which was held on April 23, 2019:

1) French dossier from April 2014 referred a female child aged 3 years and 2 months with features in health status and a family history

2) US dossier from January 2016 referred three siblings aged 4 years and 9 months & 6 years & 3 years and 6 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from July 2017 referred a male child aged 3 years and 4 months with features in health status and a family history

4) French dossier from March 2018 referred a male child aged 9 years and 9 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from April 2019 referred two waiting siblings (#3505 & 3507) with profiles on the MOJ site

6) US dossier from April 2019 referred a waiting child (#3310) with a profile on the MOJ site