It begins now
2004-06-10 at 6:47 p.m.
Well, E is officially a third grader and officially no longer a student at W Elementary. His teachers showered him with gifts and cried like babies all day. His BD teacher gave him (and us) the sweetest card I think I've ever seen. She wrote:
K and L,
Thank you for sharing your wonderful boy with me. Meeting E and teaching him these last three years has been one of my best teaching experiences. I wish your family well. Please keep in touch and if I can ever help in any way - I will.
R
Dear E,
I have truly enjoyed the last three years of being your teacher. You made me laugh every day. You learned so much and it was a joy teaching you. I am very sad to see you go. Please keep in touch. We will have you over to the new house this summer to go swimming.
Mrs. H
Right now, En and J are in the backyard playing with the Spiderman disc shooter she bought for him. Mrs. M bought him a stuffed shark (he loves sharks!) and the cow from the "Home on the Range" movie. I took a picture of him sleeping with both toys the other night and put it in a thank you card to her.
They brought him McDonald's for lunch and all the junk food he could stomach. (You only graduate second grade once, you know.) I called K when he was at school with E and I was overwhelmed with sadness.
Some of you may know, but many of you don't - the life E has had. In eight short years, he's endured things no child ever should. We, as parents, have suffered, cried, agonized and lay awake nights terrifed for the future of our first born. We've seen him through five psychiatric "specialists", four diagnoses and 13 different medications, only two of which didn't cause horrific side effects. We've restrained him through psychotic rages and shielded our other sons from his wrath. We watched him gain 40 pounds in two months back in 2000, because of an anti-psychotic medication. We cried with him as he, at age four expressed a desire to commit suicide. Four! Can you even imagine what that's like??
The one thing that turned his life around was the wonderful school district we were so fortunate to have been a part of. I breathed a sigh of relief every morning knowing he was in such capable hands. I know you're all probably tired of reading about it, but not too many people these days can say that about their child's school. We can and we know how lucky we are. If I had moved to California as we had planned, E's education would have suffered immensely, not to mention that he wouldn't have had the services offered him that he did here.
Whew. For that, I'm grateful.
Okay. I think I'm ready.... Bring on..
Su
Summ
I can't say it.
Summ-mmm..mmer VACATION! WAAAAA-AAAH!!!