Well, we've moved. Throughout last year it became clear that the school system we were a part of did not have the resources or understanding to offer Seth appropriate interventions. We've learned that some areas of the company are very well versed with cochlear implants and what users of cochlear implants need to succeed in school, and some areas just haven't had enough exposure. In our school district, Seth was the first child with cochlear implants they had ever dealt with. After a lot of prayer and soul searching, John and I realized that we weren't comfortable spending Seth's pre-K year in the district we were in.
We're incredibly lucky to have a school that is designed just for kids like Seth who are deaf and use listening and spoken language to communicate just a couple of hours south of us. We visited the school and spoke with them at length, and at the end of the visit everyone involved was convinced that this was the perfect fit for Seth. The problem was that we would have to move and then qualiy Seth for an alternative placement through our local school district before he could officially be enrolled in the school.
We were so torn. But in the end John said it best. He said he would do whatever it took to make sure that Seth had all the tools to succeed, and that he was running out of time to close his language gap. (The language centers in the brain are the most flexible and adaptable in the first six or so years of life). And so we started house hunting. Of course it was a total God thing, the house we found. It's just about halfway between John's job and the school, and it was owned by a couple who bought it for their kids while they were college. It's in a college town, and they were pretty thrilled to rent it to a family instead of college students. It's an older home but it is so spacious and literally perfect for us. We met, we liked them and they liked us, and we had a great feeling about it all.
And then a month later we were moving. We've been here for a few weeks now and it wasn't until we were pulling into the garage the other day and Seth was singing out "We're HOME!" that I realized that we were. This house feels like home in a way that no other place has in a long time. Everything has fallen into place in a beautiful way.
Ava and Jace have begun school at a local charter school and they are loving it. I'm loving it. Selfishly I am loving the extra time I have with the little kids while the big kids are in school. I love homeschooling as well, don't get me wrong. But I know this was the right choice for Ava at this point in time. We've had our first case conference for Seth and we're going through the evaluation process to qualify him for the school that will be able to help him. AWANA starts this week and we're quickly learning that with a little extra space the house really does stay much more clean in general. We're down to just a few boxes that are still unpacked and for the first time since she was an infant Ava has a room to herself. Heck, for the first time since Seth was an infant John and I aren't sharing a room with a baby either!
Of course there are sacrifices as well. John has a long commute which makes for long drives for him and long days for me. I'm not burning through my own school work as quickly as I once did. Gas is crazy expensive. We're on the hunt for a new church right now and that's always hard. But overall, we know that for now, this is the place for us to be. And we know that we're incredibly blessed to have kids who make friends easily and who think of their siblings as friends. They've got friends wherever they go!
Evany is finally growing some hair! She's impossibly silly and makes us all laugh. Coen is FOURTEEN months old and is so cute that I kiss his fat cheeks entirely too many times every day. Ava is impossibly grown up for a just-barely-eight year old and Jace is an encyclopedia of random information. Seth thinks he is in charge of everyone else in the house and regularly checks with me throughout the day to make sure he knows where everyone is and when they'll be home. "Ava? Is she at school? Oh, okay." He'll nod soberly, like he's just making sure everyone is where they should be. One day I asked him if he heard the door open, and he rolled his eyes at me. "No, Mom. Dad's at WORK." He didn't say it, but there was an implied "Duh!" at the end of that sentence.
And now I've got five children in bed and a husband to hang out with before the week begins all over again. Pancake batter to make and uniforms to iron. There's always something to get done, right? I hope everyone's doing well!
