C gets to stay at JICS! I had such mixed feelings before it was final, that I am surprised at the peace I feel now.
If I'm honest with myself, I never truly doubted that JICS was the best place for C, but I wasn't sure that his special needs wouldn't be too much for the class. Part of me was feeling a need to protect Charlie and try to get him "a break" from our new life (after all, Jason and I get a break while we're at work), and as an astute friend pointed out, part of me was trying to protect his teacher.
It's so much more complicated than just the school our foster child will attend. It's the class our biological child (who is struggling with this) is in, and the teacher is a friend of mine. We love C, but he is hard.
Thankfully, God has had it all worked out all along. C's records finally came through from his three previous schools! Mrs Babb was back to do his assessment. And most importantly, C feels a bit more at ease in his new world.
Based on everything Mrs Babb and Mr Schwartz decided to "foster" C. His records clearly showed a bright but troubled boy who should never have been promoted from K5 last spring, so first grade has been much more than he could handle. Over the next three months, they, along with Coach Townsend are going to pour into C -- not with the expectation of bringing him all the way up to grade level, but with the desire to close the gap as much as possible in the time we have.
Mrs Babb will identify his areas of particular need, and Coach Townsend will pull him out to give him one on one attention for those areas -- freeing up Mrs Babb to continue her routine with the rest of the class. We all believe that C's struggles are due more to lack of trust and defiance than to inability, so as long as he can learn to trust us, and more importantly, learn to control his defiant heart, he can stay.
Jason and I were quietly at odds over this until the decision came down yesterday. Jason believed all along that JICS is the best place for C, but I was allowing selfishness to put my own desires and friendships ahead of C's best interest. I am so incredibly grateful to work for a school that sees C's need and is committed to using the resources we have to help him. Seeing the truth of that makes me realize that I underestimated everyone and gives me great peace in the decision.
Now that that is decided, I just need to find a dentist that accepts Medicaid, arrange for counseling, coordinate visitations and keep Charlie from drowning in all of this. Or rather, I need to take a deep breath and let God do it...
"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Philippians 2:13
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