Holding My Breath

I am holding my breath right now.  Me and probably many of my fellow parents of children with special needs.  We can't help it.  We hold our breath for the first few weeks of school because we are afraid our children will struggle.  Or worse.  Transitions are hard for kids with special needs and the beginning of a new school year can be one of the hardest transitions of all.  New teacher, new schedule, new clothes, new classmates, new bus driver......you get it.  New=hard.

I have discovered, though, that it might be time to breathe again.  Angie has hit the ground running and she is excelling at school.  She is learning to read!  And the end of the school year last year, she had (maybe) one or two sight words.  Angie's brain is absolutely on fire and she is a total rock star!  What happened, you wonder?  I don't, I know for a fact.

Angie has an outstanding team of people supporting her at school.  They have spent hours preparing her program for the year and they truly love her as their own.  They are invested.  Also, Angie started receiving treatments of the Anat Baniel Method after we heard Anat Baniel speak in Denver in July.  She has had two intensive week-long series of sessions and the results are beyond anything we could have imagined.  The treatments have truly awakened parts of her brain that she was not activating before. If you do not know about the Anat Baniel Method, please go to her website and read the testimonials and watch the videos (http://www.anatbanielmethod.com).  The treatments are effective for a wide variety of special needs.  I promise that you will be impressed.  We are total believers and we will continue to access the treatments for Angie.  If you live near Clatskanie, I encourage you to come to a ABM workshop here on October 25th and you can contact me if you are interested.

But back to Angie........I am considering starting to breathe again.  Once again, she has risen above our expectations and has proven her resilience and strength.  She is so amazing.  I am grateful for the privilege of her presence.  Every. Single. Day.  I still have so much learn and I have no doubt that she will teach me:)