It takes a village

"It takes a village to raise a child." I have heard this saying over and over again, and in many ways felt resentful that the village (Abbotsford) has not taken this on...........until recently.

Kourtney was greeted warmly in her new school, not just by the educational assistants, and support staff but by teacher's, principal as well as the students. I don't think we fully "understand the undertaking" that went on to get Kourtney established in the school but we "appreciate how the team scrambled not just to accomodate Kourtney but to receive our whole family with open arms. I know that what they accomplished in 6 days generally takes months and months of planning. Thank-you ACS.

The first day of school, the plan was for me was to spend the whole morning with Kourtney at school. I had a meeting with the educational assistants (EA's), Kourtney chose to go to her English class. After the meeting, I went with her EA to her English class. Kourtney looked at me and whispers something about being "lost". I panicked thinking she was "lost on her assignment" and the the mother bear took over. She then looks again at me and I came closer, and she whispers to me "get lost". The look on my face was one of pure delight and I said ok "see you". I asked the EA if she was ok with Kourtney on her own, and she said of course, and I exited doing a little bit of a happy dance. It thrilled me to see Kourtney want to be independent again.

Todd  has been thrilled to be working with a staff and a school that is willing and able to use to help Kourtney make use out of her iPad. All her text books, and assignments will be done on her IPAD. In the 1.5 years in the public high school, not once were the team able to get Kourtney up and running so quickly in technology. It frustrated us to no end that no one seemed to care or take this on as a reasonable and best option for Kourtney.

Kourtney managed to hold up ok. She is only taking two classes, but every day is different. Some days she is there in the monring, some afternoons, some mid mornings and so it goes. We want to preserve her strength and decrease the amount of stress on her body.

All in all we still see signs of improvement, even with her strength. She is using a walker to get around the house and are praying that eventually she can use it a school to get around. We ask you to continually pray for our family. We can not survive on our own strength and know that the only way through this has been the prayers of "His people"