30 Minutes

30 Minutes

Oliver has continued to get more comfortable in school. He only cried a total of 30 minutes yesterday - this is quite an improvement. He loves music. It is by far his favorite part of the day...expect for snack. He wasn't able to go to school today, because he has been running a high fever since last night. I am hoping it is only a 24 hour bug, so he begins to feel better soon. We were able to get him orthotics this week and we can already see an improvement to his gait.

Waverly loves her summer school program. Her former preschool teacher came by to visit her yesterday. Wavey was thrilled to see her. She is continuing to have trouble feeding herself. It is so sad to watch her struggle with simply trying to put a piece of food in her mouth. I spoke with a durable medical equipment rep yesterday and they are working on getting a feeding chair approved through our insurance. This will at least allow us to stop worrying about her grabbing and throwing everything on the table she can get her hands on.

Comments

Joanne said…

Hi Shannon,

I haven't had a chance to post for a while but have been reading all your updates on how both your children are doing in school. I am so happy to hear that Oliver continues to adjust more and more each day, that is wonderful!!! Please keep these updates coming, it's so nice to read about their progress! Joanne

July 17, 2009 at 10:23 AM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.