There is a significant section in the story of K's life in which she is the heroine. It is written in permanent ink, and will be read often

There was a part of me still hoping...

maybe there was some way that things would go the way we expected,

hoped,

thought was the very best thing for our little boy.


I made calls and I fought change and I pushed... for a while.

But it is time for her to impact the lives of other kids {she's going to do that so well}...

And it is time for me to gracefully embrace change.


Deep breath.

I could write a thousand posts about how hard change is for me,

how hard this particular change was for me,

how many facets of this shifting in K's educational support made no sense,

and how we are still struggling with things like

a union,

and seniority,

and wording of IEP's

bidding on jobs instead of taking a students best into consideration.

Yes, this is the public school system.

I know, I know, I know.


And we are making a choice.

That choice is to send our kids to this school,

to advocate tirelessly for K,

that he might learn in the best way he possibly can to reach his highest potential,

while upholding a testimony of gentleness, kindness, and respect.


Deep breath again.

Never could we forget the two years that she has invested deeply in the life of our K. Never ever.

He will remember her too.

She was strong enough to not allow him to play her or push her around, and soft enough to love him.

I'm a mom. That is priceless to me.

I think there were weeks that she may have spent  more waking time with him than I did.

She taught him.

Learned who he was.

Adjusted with him.

Made copies of homework in huge print to accommodate his visual impairments.

Enlarged, wrote, tweaked... so much that I probably never even knew.


She was his one-on-one aid for two years. She is called a "para pro"- a parent professional. And I think that is such an appropriate term.


Because in alot of ways she has a mommy heart - the parent part, while still having a high level of professionalism. Kind of the best of both world, you see.

This isn't the way she thought it was going to go either.


The bar is set pretty high.

I think she may have spoiled us.

I know we will come to know the next one who will fill her shoes.

It will all be okay. It's just... hard. Because we really love her.

I have no doubt in my mind that her support and expertise is a huge part of why our child, with too many labels to list, was able to be in a mainstream classroom and keep up with a kindergarten class two years ago, and then 26 first graders last year.

We will always, always be grateful.