Little Alex

Some of you may have heard about this, and some of you may not have. This is a story about a little five year old boy named Alex, who actually only lives about two hours from me. Anyway, this story is sad because this poor boy had to endure the cruel judgments of his teacher AND the other children in the class. On top of that, Alex has been in the process for several months now of getting tested for, and it's presumed he has, Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of Autism. The school was the one to bring it to the attention of the parents and that's why they started testing him in the first place, which means they obviously knew he had some issues. So the story goes like this. Apparently, little Alex was put in front of his entire kindergarten class and the teacher asked EVERY SINGLE child to say why they do NOT like him. To him, he thinks this means they hate him. Very sad. Makes my heart just hurt that there are people that think this is OK. It's not. I don't care how bad someone is, that behavior is never acceptable.

After the "why we don't like Alex" session, the teacher then proceeded to hold a vote on whether little Alex should stay in the class or go. The 14-2 vote was in favor of Alex leaving the class, which included the vote of Alex's only friend in the world, whose vote was initially in favor of Alex staying, but after the teacher sternly asked the child to repeat his vote, he changed it in favor of Alex having to leave. Poor Alex thinks even his best friend hates him.

After the vote, the teacher then asked Alex how he felt. Well, gee, captain obvious, how do you think he felt?? Gosh this story really gets under my skin. And the fact that this happened so close in proximity just goes to show you some of the many reasons why I want to get out of here. To read the story, you can click here, or google it (Alex Barton) and you will find stuff all over the web.

I can't help to well up with tears when I hear this story, and when I write it as well. I think anyone with a heart and conscience would feel some emotion in regards to this story. I guess this just hits close to home for me for a couple of reasons. Back in 2-4 grades, I remember having two friends at the Catholic school I went to. For some reason, none of the kids liked me, nor did the teachers and even the principal picked on me. I remember going home and crying multiple times. I even remember being sick with Mono in the 3rd grade and I was out for almost a whole month, and I remember hearing something about the kids being glad I was out for so long. I also got stabbed in the leg with a pencil by a kid who sat in front of me for "kicking his chair." Yeah I may have kicked the chair, but stabbing someone is a crime. Nothing was done, ad even worse, when I went to tell the teacher, she told me to go sit back down. As if I was bothering her. I've never had problems with any other school like that one. From 5th grade on, I may not have been the most popular kid, but I was never ever picked on. So I have no idea what it was, maybe financial politics that started with the teachers treating me differently and then the kids following suit. Who knows. But I also did not have any conditions like Alex may have to add to the problem. I guess the other reason this hits home is that I have a daughter the same age, about to embark on her Kindergarten journey, and I can't ever imagine anyone treating her that way.

All that to say there are some really nice people in this world who want to help Alex see that he really is special. Someone is giving out her own address so that people can send cards to Alex to her, and she will then forward them onto to Alex's mother. I'm going to work with Grace this weekend on one myself. I think everyone should send Alex a card, so tell everyone you know about this. Click here for the site with the wonderfully sweet woman's address to send the cards to.

Uh Oh

For many of you that know me, you know what an "Uh Oh" is. But for those of you that might not know, let me explain. It all started almost 6 years ago when Grace was born. We gave her a pacifier and as time let on, everywhere she went, her pacifier went, too. They were inseperable. However, there were few occasions where Grace would drop her pacifier, and in turn we would say, "Uh oh," and pick it up. We did this with cups and toys and anything else that was thrown, but for some reason, Grace correlated the word Uh Oh with her pacifier, and that was what she called it. When Nate was born, we were in such a habit of calling it an Uh Oh, it felt strange to just say pacifier, so we called it that for him, too.

For Grace, we tried to get rid of her pacifier one day by just taking it away, and it was REALLY hard. We ended up giving it back to her and said we'd try again sometime soon. One day, we were out, and I don't know if we just didn't have any more pacifiers with us, or if we just didn't have any more at all (they got lost and broken), but Grace had been biting holes in them around that time. Once she bit a hole in it, she was unable to suck on them and no longer wanted that particular pacifier. Well, we were out, and she bit a hole in the only one we had there, and wanted another one. We ended up telling her that she broke it and we didn't have any and there wasn't anything we could do. It ended up being a while and she was doing well, so instead of getting her another one, we decided to try to get rid of it that day. We succeeded. From that day on, she never put another pacifier in her mouth. Well, with the exception of one day after that when she found one somewhere, and proceeded to find me and just look at me in the eyes while she sucked away- kind of with that look of, "Look at what I have in my mouth, Mom." I snatched that pacifier out of her mouth so fast!! Anyway, that was about 2 months after her 2nd birthday.

So fast forward to now, when Nate 2 years and 5 months old. I hadn't tried to get rid of his pacifiers yet, because he's been more difficult with things in the past like night feedings and coming completely off the bottle than Grace was, so I just didn't even want to hassle with it yet. However, the other night we were over Ray's parent's house having dinner, and Nate had to go several hours without his pacifier because it had gotten lost. On the drive home, over an hour past his bedtime, he did remarkably well, so I thought maybe we should try to get rid of it then. We had a good excuse for Nate-that he lost it and we couldn't find it. He also thinks that Baby Isaac has the others, since I had been prepping him in the fact that Isaac is a baby and babies need Uh Ohs and Nate is a big boy and soon we'd give Isaac all of Nate's Uh Ohs. I had a plan to take him to the post office and mail them in a box. (I'd always heard of people having their kids successfully get off of their pacifiers by giving them to other "babies" so I thought I'd try that). Well that was Monday night and here we are today and still no Uh Oh. He has slept through 2 whole nights, VERY well I might add, without them. Nap time yesterday was a major struggle, but other than that, he's done well.

So I think its safe to say we have gotten rid of Nate's Uh Oh. While I know this is a great thing, theres the little empathetic part of me that feels bad for him. Here's this thing that this little boy has had his WHOLE life, that is part of his life, and we just take it away. And he asks about it every now and then, and it just melts my heart because he asks so sweetly. Don't worry, I'm not going to give in now, we've gotten too far. But I still can't help feeling a little badly about it. Plus it also means my little guy, my baby, is growing up, and that's hard to realize sometimes. But I know that Nate will be ok, and me, too, and we don't have to worry about losing and finding Uh Ohs anymore.

I am an Aunt!!

I am SO excited, I am an Aunt! Isn't that awesome? But what's even more awesome is that Ray's brother, John and his wife, Wendi are finally parents! After 10 years of marriage, 5 of which they've been dealing with infertility, they have adopted this little boy who was just born on May 7th. This is a story that only God could have written, and it such a beautiful story at that. Here is a blog my sister-in-law, Wendi wrote telling some of the background of her relationship with the birthmom, Brianna (click here).

One other cool thing is that Isaac's due date was May 7th, which happened to be the day he was born. However, it was also Brianna's 18th birthday, and Brianna herself was adopted. So how cool is it that she was born into this life, adopted by a loving family, only 18 years later to give birth to a son and allow a loving family to adopt him.....THE VERY SAME DAY!!! God made sure that this story was really special for John and Wendi with the way He put all this together! Awesome, awesome story! Anyway, here are a few pics of my little nephew that I am just torn to pieces over that he's soooo far away from me :(

Issac finally some from the hospital- he's sooo stinkin' cute

Aunt Gabbi feeding Isaac at the hospital

Isaac leaving the hospital, getting ready to take his very first car ride!

I guess I didn't realize how hard it would be to be so far away, but Isaac just went back home today, 10 hrs away from me, and I'm already missing him like crazy. And all he does is sit there and look cute!!! I guess I'm sad that he's hardly going to know his Aunt Gabbi and he'll know tons more people way better than me because they live so close to him and I don't. Anyway, I'll be ok. I know he'll know me more when he's older. Or I'll have to move closer! :)

Prayer Request

Hi everyone. This blog is here to request your prayers for Michael. I can't really go into detail, just keep him in your prayers. If you read my previous blog that had more information, please keep that info to yourself, and pray.

Thanks.

Helping Others

Here is a story I'm sure you all may have heard by now, but I just think that its one we all need to hear over and over again. This is such a great example of the love we should extend to others in their time of need. Its a story a college senior softball player hitting her first ever home run and then tearing her ACL and is unable to run the bases. If you don't know the story, then watch and see what unfolds. It's certainly touching, and I can't help but get all teary eyed every time I watch it.

A Quiz

Got this idea from Wendi. So.....how well do you know me?

Take My Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com Can you Ace my quiz? Yes! No Let's Find Out!