Little wasn’t due another IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting until the Fall, but since we are considering a change in schools I requested we have the meeting before school got out May 27.  Talk about scrambling.  I didn’t give the team much notice and there was only a week to work in but they were champs and pulled it together, and on a day when the kids were in school too!

I can’t remember an IEP when I didn’t cry for one reason or another.  Usually it is because of the re-realization that Little is different and a new aspect that she is behind in.  This time I cried for a completely different reason.  This meeting was wonderful.  10 teachers, counselors, and administrators sitting around the table discussing the amazing progress Little has made this year, the way she lights up their days, and the hope they have for her over the next year.

It was such a joyful couple of hours and I just sat there praising the Lord for His faithfulness and thanking Him for the way he takes care of our Little treasure.  I didn’t cry until the last 15 minutes, though.  There is a page where we fill in all the accommodations she will need to be successful in the classroom for the next year.  The teachers knew about a potential change and they were being especially thorough so that a new teacher would be able to help Little quickly and completely.  All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by the length of the list and just how much these folks were doing to guarantee Little had the opportunity to be her best (be all God wants her to be – even though they wouldn’t say it that way!)  I basically interrupted to say, “I am overcome by all that you do for our Little.  It is so much WORK to have her in your school and yet you are all smiling and hopeful that you get to do it all again next year. ”  My voice grew small as I said, “Thank you.”  And then I cried.  The teachers and therapists are great but they are just evidence to my soul that my God holds our Little in the palm of His hand and He will NOT let her go.  Instead, He will be faithful to His promise to complete in her what He began February 27, 2004.

Ask most folks in the world of special needs and they will NOT say that IEPs are worshipful experiences!! Little’s IEP in May 2011 = Worship Service.  Hallelujah!

Five months of 2011 are gone.  I’ve read seven books and only three of them were really “on task” books.  I’m still moving through Disappointment with God and I’m halfway into Total Money Makeover.  Anyway, here’s how it’s lookin’ in list form:


S – Unlocked
T – Through His Eyes
L – Shopping for Time
F – The Help
F – Smokin’ Seventeen
F – another Janet Evanovich bookL – 1.  Total Money Makeover
T – 2.  Disappointment with God
L – 3.  1000 Gifts
P – 4.  Intentional Parenting
P – 5.  Bringing the Gospel to Covenant Children
P – 6.  Don’t Make Me Count to Three
L – 7.  Between Walden and the Whirlwind
T – 8.  Prodigal God
T – 9.  How People Change
T – 10.  Respectable Sins
S – 11.  Same Lake Different Boat
S – 12.  Our Special Needs Child
S – 13.  Expressing Faith in Jesus – Church Membership for People with Cognitive Impairments
M – 14. Love and Respect
L –  15. How People Change
M – 16.  Love that Lasts – when sinners say I Do

In mid-May we were approached with an opportunity to send Little to a new School – Promise Christian Academy.  What’s Promise? Well, read this from their website:

“Promise Christian Academy was founded seven years ago to service children with multiple disabilities. Our school integrates academic excellence and high nurture in a small classroom setting; we serve students who require Speech/Language Therapy and intensive Occupational Therapy support. As one of only a handful of schools in the nation that does so with a faith-infused foundation, Promise allows students with Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and other pervasive developmental delays, the encouragement to develop to their highest potential.”

Doesn’t it sound wonderful? We have never considered sending Little here because of specific barriers but when we were approached in May the question was, “What if there were no barriers? Would we WANT to send her there?”

We went to visit and Honey’s response was, “Can you give me even one reason that we wouldn’t send her there?” Little spent half a day in class there and her response was, “When do I get to go back there?”

So, we have filled out an application and are waiting to see if the Lord removes the barriers that seem like mountains to us.  Ooooh, wait – faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, eh? Well, not the faith but the God we have faith in! Pray with us as we seek His will. . .