A little piece of heaven

Can you believe it? Nathan starts school already! I am in shock.

I decided to send him to the state preschool for 1 month, because the Waldorf preschool doesn’t start until September. So he starts tommorrow and goes until Sept 11. Then on the 12th, we’re off to Chile. So he gets 1 month of schooling before we’re off on our next adventure.

I am still not sure about how our IEP meeting went, so I decided to just send him for this one month and see how it goes. Then, I will call another meeting and having some experience of the school etc, establish a better IEP. I am sending him to school with an aide, the wonderful Mrs. Tischia, so she will keep an eye out on everything and make sure that they are taking great care of him!

Anyways, there is more I could say about this but I am trying to keep posts short and sweet, without babbling so much, so that’s it for now! Check back tomorrow and I will post an update about his first day of school!

Scientists reveal secret of girl with ‘all seeing eye’

Fascinating article about a girl with only 1 side of her brain who has almost normal function.

A lovely friend who has tremendous wisdom has been telling me for some time now that she has never really seen “holoprosencephaly” when she sees Nathan. She sees a lovely, happy child with tremendous potential. She doesn’t see the diagnosis and she doesnt’ see the limitations.

I, on the other hand, used to always see the diagnosis first. It makes me so sad that I wasted so much time. When Nathan was first diagnosed, I spent a lot of time reading and researching about holoprosencephaly. I learned everything I could about it, believing that this diagnosis in some way defined my child. I spent hours and hours and hours reading and participating in a message group of families of children with holoprosencephaly. This is one of the greatest regrets I have.

I started believing that the diagnosis defined Nathan and that Nathan could only function at the level of other kids who shared the diagnosis. So even though I was trying with all my strength to defy the odds, I was still limited by them and I subconsciously believed in them.

Today I can happily say that I no longer see holoprosencephaly when I look at Nathan. When I look at Nathan I SEE Nathan – I see the funny, happy, charming, loving, FUN little kid he is. I see the limitless being with endless potential. I see a spiritual being who has so much to give. I no longer see the statistics – 2% of kids with HPE can walk, 10% can sit unassisted, 50% have seizures. I just see Nathan.

I love this child that I am meeting! He is so cool!!!