When I found out I was pregnant with our fourth child, I was already 10 weeks pregnant. To say that we were joyfully surprised is such an understatement. But early on, I heard the Lord whisper to me, “This one will be both a comfort and a joy to you.”
And she is exactly that!
An August baby, we made the call to enroll her in kindergarten earlier rather than later. She had already been in pre-K for a year and she was ready! Or so we thought. Within two weeks, the teacher had her pulled out regularly for extra help.
Now I confess, the teacher was young. And I really had trouble understanding how Sydney needed extra help in kindergarten, of all places. But times are a-changing and there are these tests and other things that perhaps are pushing the schools to have these kids further along than they did a few years before with our other three.
So we submitted.
By first grade, we were again two weeks in and the teacher sent home a note that Sydney needed to go back to kindergarten. She was falling behind quickly, she said.
So we did. Full day kindergarten. And the beginning of what later would become an issue with Sydney….
She went through the whole year and they started her on an early learning intervention segment. She was pulled out that whole year.
Then first grade came along again–same teacher that said we should hold her back, whom we love and respect greatly. We made it through to March–with meetings in-between. And our joy-filled, delighted child was stubbornly losing her way. She did not want to read. She said the letters “jump off the page and get mixed up”.
She felt stupid and said some kids called her dumb.
By March, with much prayer, we pulled Sydney out and began a couple of interventions for her ourselves: visual therapy and a reading program for kids with dyslexia.
My husband is dyslexic. He is also a rocket scientist (yes, really) and a National Merit Scholar. He really is brilliant. But he cannot do foreign languages (cannot compensate with his dyslexia) and there are times when he still struggles greatly with those letters turning around on him. AND he is an avid reader.
We hope and pray the same for our Sydney. We have worked together these past 6 months and in that time…
she accepted Christ and was baptized (we do devotionals every day in our homeschool–and missionary stories, too! I love it!)
she is reading a lot more fluently most of the time, but we must work on it daily.
she is growing confident again in her ability to think.
she is joyful again, twirling in dresses, drawing lovely pictures and loving to learn more about science (her favorite subject).
Sydney is our joy and comfort. She has giftings and a calling that no one else on the planet can fulfill.
She is missing her classmates, though. And she is asking to go back to school sometime this year.
So our goal? It is to get her reading fluently all of the time and reading without me prompting her to read. And she knows this. She even prays daily to not only be able to read well, but to WANT TO READ. I think that is pretty mature for an eight year old.
So this intervention? Maybe it wasn’t just for Sydney, but for all of us.
Maybe, just maybe, God is going to use this interruption for the good of generations to come behind her, as she speaks confidence and joy into children, like her, who may not feel quite as smart as the other kids or quite as worthy.
Perhaps, she’ll just pass it on.
So as you face decisions about your own kids today, remember God cares about the details.
And remember: God wants to use His interruptions more powerfully, amazingly, wonderfully and incredibly than your best thought, well-laid out plans.
Let the interruptions now be seen as blessings and see what God works out in the process of it.
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