New School Arrangement and a Moment of Peace

 As an elementary teacher, I always imagined my kids would come to school with me and we'd be together as long as they are elementary age. 

Enter 2020. 

Since I am in a very high risk category I am currently teaching from home. Ella and William have both been staying home and doing our school's virtual option. While William and his gregarious extroverted kindergarten innocence has been fine and would likely be fine in any situation, Ella has been falling further and further behind. 

This is both heartbreaking and maddening because up to now school has always been the place where she has excelled and had the least behavioral concerns. It has been a daily struggle to get any of her work done. She has even intentionally answered questions wrong on many assignments. Anything that looks or says "assessment" initiates an immediate meltdown.

So last week, we took a leap of faith, spurred by an amazing chain of events. We pulled both kids from our school (where I teach) and enrolled them face to face at the school here in our neighborhood. This means new school, new district, new dress code, new almost everything. It was scary, sad, and exciting at the same time. 

The events leading up to this move can only be attributed to God moving mountains. Two weeks ago, Brandon and I had a conversation about getting William back into school and letting him go to this school by the house (we can literally watch the kids walk all the way to/from school from our front porch). We felt that he needed the social interaction, but even more, he needed the break from experiencing all that has been going on with Ella. We said then that we wished there was a way to make Ella comfortable going to back into a classroom, but couldn't see how that was possible without taking her back to my school (a 20-30 minute drive both ways).

Enter our friend Jana. Jana and I have both lived in this neighborhood for YEARS and we taught together for several of those years at my current campus. We have known each other since Ella was an infant and her son was a toddler. She has walked with us and been a wonderful sounding board for me as we've struggled through Ella's issues. While the causes are different, she has experienced many similar behaviors with her son as she has sought help for her his autism. I've taught, protected, and loved her son as my student through his early elementary years. For the last two years though, Jana has been teaching 4th grade at our neighborhood school.

A week and a half ago, she mentioned that she was switching to 3rd grade and would be taking on any new face to face third grade students as they transferred from virtual learning to in person. SAY WHAT?! I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

That Wednesday through Friday was some of the fastest and hardest decision making Brandon and I have done. We withdrew both kids from my school, enrolled them as new students, scrambled to learn their (rather strict) dress code, gather school supplies, got new prescriptions for Ella's inhaler and epipens, and did our best to prepare both of them for this big change in our routine. And Monday, one week ago, we all took a deep breath and walked them across the street to school.

Nerve wracking! 

BUT, one week later, I cannot tell you what a wonderful thing this has been for us so far! Ella is in a class of only 8 kids at the moment - who ALL started face to face learning together for the first time this year. She is with Jana who she knows and loves (and who knows me and texts me the sweetest updates!). Jana also brings Bella, her therapy-trained Golden Doodle, to class every day. Bella is literally the only dog Ella has ever really loved - we puppy sit for them occasionally.

After the first day of school Ella could not stop herself from smiling and telling us about the day (she tried really hard to not let it show, but she was too happy to help it!). That has been the case every single day since. I have not seen her this happy in a very long time. We also went from Saturday to Sunday night (last night) with ZERO meltdowns - the longest stretch of time we've had since before we started the Prozac in August! She did have one moment on Thursday where she started to spiral down but she was able to redirect herself and was ok within 10 minutes!

HUGE WIN!

I'm not ready to say we've found the magic combination of meds/schedule/people/therapy. I've been burned by that thought too many times over the years. We are still seeking answers (EEG coming up soon with the neurology clinic), finding a balance between our new therapist at "the farm" and our medications, and praying that we are on the right track. But we are also breathing prayers of thanks for at least this small moment of peace in our family last week and the way God orchestrated those pieces to fall into place. I'm amazed and I'm grateful, and I'm holding my breath that we have another good week!