In eleven short days, the world as Wesley knows it will quickly and suddenly change. He will no longer see the six wonderful ladies who have become a second family to us over the past three years as they have worked with him and showed us how to better help him. Instead, a yellow school bus will pull up to our driveway, and Wesley will take a long ride to an unfamiliar place to begin a new and exciting season of his life.
Somehow, I think that Wesley can sense that change is in the air. He seems less trusting of us and more resistant to anything new these past few weeks. We visited his new classroom last week, and he did not like it one bit! A new routine with new rules will take some adjusting for him. I suspect that his first week will be dreadful as he learns to trust his new teachers and understand their expectations.
But after meeting his teacher and new speech therapist and observing how they teach his classroom, I think they will be a wonderful fit for him. Once he has adjusted to his new life, I think he will love it, and he will thrive.
God has blessed us by placing us in a wonderful school district that is known for its excellent special education department. Their reputation is glowing, and in interacting with them so far, we believe this to be true. They have provided Wesley with a large amount of direct minutes working with speech, occupational and physical therapists each week along with placing him in a classroom that will easily facilitate his need for 1-on-1 instruction. As well, God has worked in their hearts as they have bent over backwards to fit Wesley into the class that would best fit his needs even though when we first started discussions with them, there was no room for him in this particular class.
Time after time, over the past couple of weeks, we have prayed to God, asking for specific things to happen that we thought were impossible, and God has worked in the hearts of these ladies in the school district so that our prayers were answered. At first they did not see a need for Wesley to have a sensory plan in place at school, but then the occupational therapist asked if she could come observe Wesley again in our home. After leaving that day, her perspective completely changed and she became Wesley's biggest advocate. A wonderful sensory plan has been put into place for him, which gives him the opportunity to succeed in mastering his goals for this year.
As well, throughout the goal writing process, the school district was open to our suggestions and happy to compromise as we discussed our goals for Wesley this year. As we read over the goals that were agreed upon at his IEP, I can see how God had his hand on the goal-writing process. God enabled these ladies to get a good picture of Wesley's strengths and weaknesses and to come up with some wonderful goals for him. If he achieves all of these goals this year, we will be overjoyed. While each goal individually is definitely attainable, just thinking about him meeting ALL of these goals along with other learning objectives in the next twelve months is an amazing thought.
Cookies made by a dear friend for Wesley's IEP
Because our IEP process was a long and drawn out five hours over two separate days, I had several opportunities to meet with Wesley's teacher and speech therapist to discuss having picture cards ready for him on his first day and to strategize on how best for me to program his communication device for him to communicate at school. I have been thrilled with their willingness to meet with me multiple times, and even more, I have enjoyed interacting with them and seeing that they truly are looking forward to having my little guy in their class.
While I will miss his joyful self tremendously each morning, I am looking forward to seeing all that God has in store for Wesley as he has been given this wonderful opportunity to learn in a fabulous preschool setting. As I let go and release him to attend school, I am entrusting him to his faithful heavenly Father, who loves him even more than I do, to watch over him and protect him each day.
3 comments:
So excited for him to take this next step. He will soar! Can't wait for him to blossom. Thankful for God's hands to be all over this transition. Praying it all goes smoothly.
I know it's been an arduous process, but I love hearing your excitement over the plan that's finally in place!
It is so wonderful to see God's plan unfolding in our child's life. When Kristen was in First Steps here in Indiana, it was so wonderful to see that every one of our therapists was a Christian. He provided just the right people when I placed it completely in His hands. When I read your post, I see this too. Sounds like Wesley is going to have an amazing place to keep blossoming, learning, and becoming the amazing person he is meant to be!
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