Brooklynn required pretty intensive therapy and lots of it.I enrolled her in therapy in Knoxville and we would drive there 2-3 times a week (when she wasn't in the hospital). So, when the big day came that she turned 3 the only way to get those therapies was to enroll her in school. I couldn't believe she had to go to school at 3! Now, if you don't have them in school by 3 they say they get behind?? Wow, times have changed. So, I enrolled her in the preschool program there where we lived. The first week of school was about to begin and the teacher wanted to meet with me. I went to talk to her and she said that Brooklynn couldn't start school that week. She was afraid that her disabilities would scare the other children so she needed a week to explain some things to them. She said that she was going to tie their arms together and legs together to show them what it was like for Brooke not to be able to move well. I said OK and a week later she started. My dad and Timmy were furious. They said they would have never even noticed her disability had they not made such a big deal about. I was OK with it tho, we had been through so much that that was a mild bump in the road. A few weeks went by and I went with her everyday. The kids loved her, (especially the boys). I told her they were only using her for her cool wheels (wheelchair), lol. Timmy and I had decided that we needed to move to Somerset. We put our house up for sale and looked at some houses up here. We found the perfect house for us but still needed to sell ours. We began to pray and a knock came to the door, it was a buyer! The exact amount we needed for a down payment on our new home was the exact amount they gave us down! We knew that was confirmation that we had done the right thing. I didn't want to leave my family so the one condition for us moving tho was that Timmy would go to church where I picked because I had been going with him since we were married. He agreed and after the first service he was hooked!
The new move meant a new school and that for me was scary, especially after what we had been through. I had requested her records but after 2 weeks the school had not received them. I finally called the director of the special education dept and while he had the phone down I heard him say, "Send the records she's not our problem anymore". Now, let me say I don't get angry easy. I can probably count on both hands the times that I was angry, angry enough to cry and every time it was over my girls. There's an old say that hell hath no furry like a woman scorned. They should have replaced woman with mother. My very sweet pastors wife said once that if you want to see me make a complete fool of myself then mess with my children. How right she was. I got into my car and drove 30 mins straight to his office. I walked in and my friend was the receptionist she looked at me and said, "are you ok". I said "I am, but he's not going to be". I sat there and bawled like a baby in anger. He opened that door and I said,"I have came to tell you one thing and one thing only. My child is not a problem, these children who are handicapped are not problems, if you feel like they are then you need to find a new job. Now, where are her records". He gave me the records and I left.
I took the new records and enrolled her in Southern Elem. Brooklynn not only got a new school that day but we got a new family. The kids absolutely adored her. Her first day she got a note from a boy telling her how cute she was. They never noticed her disabilities. It was so funny, 2 yrs later one little classmate walked up to me and said, "Ms. King, why cant Brookie walk". I said, "well, her legs don't work. We are still waiting on God to fix them but until then he gave her these cool wheels:. She said, "Oh, ok" and went back to playing and that was the only time in her 8 yrs there that I even remember anyone asking. Brooklynn felt so at home there, every morning Timmy would take her and they would roll down the halls and she would say hi to all of the teachers and her little friends. I went with her for 2 yrs but after that I knew it was time to separate. I was offered a teaching job at Headstart and took it so that we could still be on the same schedule. The first morning I left her there I was sitting in the parking lot crying. One of the lunch ladies pecked on my window. She asked if I was ok and I was so embarrassed. I said yes but I've realized something today. I always thought Brooklynn couldn't make it without me, that she needed me but all along I needed her. I remember her teacher told me once that another teacher was talking about how sorry she felt for me. I thought how could someone fell sorry for me, I have the best child in the whole world. I could not have asked for a more loving, sweet daughter. She ate anything we gave her, wore anything I put on her, let me fix her hair anyway I wanted to. I always told her that she was just a little angel that fell straight from heaven and landed in my arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment