Pearls and Dreams

We had a guest speaker today. A former pastor of our church. I'd only seen him once, and I've never met him (not even today). I'd never heard him preach till today. He was quite good. I understood why he was so loved as the pastor of the church.

His love for God ...so evident ... his love for God's people of all ages ... oozed from every fiber of his being. Just as I was wondering ... can a former pastor come serve as pastor again? He made the comment of "If only I was 40 years younger!" Well, I guess not ... I guess he's saying he's retired ...and not willing to take that position. It's a shame.

Tomorrow, Benjamin starts school again. Our last day of homeschooling behind us. We are in the new district, the one with the exceptional special education program. I went to enroll him last week. The woman who was less than polite made the not so quiet remark to her co worker about it being "3 weeks into the semester, what do these parents think they're doing?"

I wanted to quip back ... "you're gossiping within ear shot of my 8th grader, what do you think you're doing?" I didn't, I pretended I didn't hear. When I was in there last summer, she'd made a negative remark about every person who came in the door, I'd learned, that she really doesn't have anything nice to say. It's her, it's not me. It's also not the district. It's sad that that is one of the first people that parents have to deal with when going to the district.

My other response was ...and this I really almost DID respond ... it's ONE day into the third week ... the first week was half a week .. and the second week was snowed out ... he's missed exactly 4 days of the semester. Please. Get real.

There was a problem with the records ... so it took all week to get that straightened out ...so tomorrow is his first day.

We're nervous. I'm hopeful. I've heard so many good things about this districts special education program for so long. But, he is so not trusting of teachers after what he's been through. He is just so sure they are going to say and do mean things. He has made so much progress through homeschooling ... he's come such a long way!

My goodness ... he read the HOBBIT! There was no way he could have read that when we pulled him out! In the time he's been out of school, he's learned about aviation history, he's learned about the egyptian mummy's, he's learned about politics and world relations. He even watched, and discussed, the Presidential address last week! He watched the whole thing, start to finish, and talked about it with his dad for about 20 minutes afterwards. He watched some of the commentary ... and told his dad why he thought some of it did, and did not make sense!

What he's learned over the last several months, is that, he can learn. That he is fairly intelligent, even if he has to learn it differently. Sometimes, it doesn't even take longer, like it was thought ...it's just DIFFERENT ... now ... it's a matter of hoping we can work with the school, to make sure those differences are appropriately addressed ... so that he can work and still learn ...and not shut down and be scared again.

After I take him to school, if I don't chicken out, I think, I'm going to go to Toastmaster's. We'll see. I have to A) be brave enough and B) feel well enough.