"Brave Year"
Each person who is born into this world definitely comes with their own personality, and their own set of challenges that they have to face. It sometimes amazes me how different my kids are from one another.
I took this picture of the girls last summer, and it is one of my favorites. It captures parts of their personalities and relationship so well. Most people who know Rachel know her as this little girl depicted in this picture. Few get to see what we see at home.
It has been hard as a Mom to see her struggle as she faces social situations, start school and have to begin to grow up a little. I'm grateful that our schools take and honor parent requests for teachers because I have hand picked her preschool & Kindergarten teachers. I've made myself appointments with the pediatrician to talk about Rachel. Is she just shy, does she have an anxiety disorder, a social phobia, is she selectively mute? All these things have run through my mind.
We should have know that she came to earth with a special challenge to overcome; with her intense cry as an infant and separation anxiety setting in early and lasting long.
At 6 months old when I took her to get her picture taken she would not sit on the "table". Finally the quick thinking photographer sat me on the table, put the backdrop over me and put Rachel in my lap. Rachel tolerated this but was not happy. My Mom used to watch Rachel once a week from the time she was about 6 months old, while I took Elizabeth to music class. As soon as she saw Grandma Sue walk in the door she would bury her head in the carpet and cry. It took a year to get over this. When we would go to play dates it would take her until just about the end of the 2 hour play date before she would venture off of my lap.
She went through preschool without ever talking to another child in her class, and only saying the bare minimum to her teachers. The first several months of Kindergarten were very hard. There were a few days after dropping her off, I walked down the hallway of her school in tears because of how hard I knew things were for her.
Many prayers have been said for her. IT became the routine last fall to say a prayer each morning before we got out of the car at school. This is what finally helped her adjust and have the courage to whisper in her teachers ear if she needed something or had to answer a question.
She has a angel of a teacher this year! At parent teacher conference last fall we had a long discussion as to what we can to do help Rachel feel safe enough in class to participate even a little, let alone to participate fully. We devised a plan, implemented it and with her teacher's help Rachel has been able to, baby step by baby step, begin to work at overcoming her shyness and anxiety.
A few weeks ago I was walking with Rachel down the street to deliver some Girl Scout cookies to a neighbor. As we were walking I was telling her how proud I was of her for being brave and doing so many "new" hard things. We talked about how she talks to her teacher (not in a whisper, but a quiet voice), how she talks to the other kids and how she doesn't suck her thumb anymore (except at night). After a second she says to me, "Five years old has been my brave year." Yes it has!
And since that conversation we have seen tons more progress. She participates fully in primary at church. She will even get up and give a talk. Her school teacher told me the other day how there must be something magical about turning 6 because Rachel has been talking more, and loud enough that someone across the room could hear her. When they were singing a song with actions, Rachel not only sang but was doing all of the silly actions too. And one of the kids in her class told me, "Rachel talks now. And I can hear her!"
I don't know that Rachel will ever be a social butterfly or the life of the party, but I am confident that she will be able to succeed. She really has had a brave year!
I took this picture of the girls last summer, and it is one of my favorites. It captures parts of their personalities and relationship so well. Most people who know Rachel know her as this little girl depicted in this picture. Few get to see what we see at home.
It has been hard as a Mom to see her struggle as she faces social situations, start school and have to begin to grow up a little. I'm grateful that our schools take and honor parent requests for teachers because I have hand picked her preschool & Kindergarten teachers. I've made myself appointments with the pediatrician to talk about Rachel. Is she just shy, does she have an anxiety disorder, a social phobia, is she selectively mute? All these things have run through my mind.We should have know that she came to earth with a special challenge to overcome; with her intense cry as an infant and separation anxiety setting in early and lasting long.
At 6 months old when I took her to get her picture taken she would not sit on the "table". Finally the quick thinking photographer sat me on the table, put the backdrop over me and put Rachel in my lap. Rachel tolerated this but was not happy. My Mom used to watch Rachel once a week from the time she was about 6 months old, while I took Elizabeth to music class. As soon as she saw Grandma Sue walk in the door she would bury her head in the carpet and cry. It took a year to get over this. When we would go to play dates it would take her until just about the end of the 2 hour play date before she would venture off of my lap.
She went through preschool without ever talking to another child in her class, and only saying the bare minimum to her teachers. The first several months of Kindergarten were very hard. There were a few days after dropping her off, I walked down the hallway of her school in tears because of how hard I knew things were for her.
Many prayers have been said for her. IT became the routine last fall to say a prayer each morning before we got out of the car at school. This is what finally helped her adjust and have the courage to whisper in her teachers ear if she needed something or had to answer a question.
She has a angel of a teacher this year! At parent teacher conference last fall we had a long discussion as to what we can to do help Rachel feel safe enough in class to participate even a little, let alone to participate fully. We devised a plan, implemented it and with her teacher's help Rachel has been able to, baby step by baby step, begin to work at overcoming her shyness and anxiety.
A few weeks ago I was walking with Rachel down the street to deliver some Girl Scout cookies to a neighbor. As we were walking I was telling her how proud I was of her for being brave and doing so many "new" hard things. We talked about how she talks to her teacher (not in a whisper, but a quiet voice), how she talks to the other kids and how she doesn't suck her thumb anymore (except at night). After a second she says to me, "Five years old has been my brave year." Yes it has!
And since that conversation we have seen tons more progress. She participates fully in primary at church. She will even get up and give a talk. Her school teacher told me the other day how there must be something magical about turning 6 because Rachel has been talking more, and loud enough that someone across the room could hear her. When they were singing a song with actions, Rachel not only sang but was doing all of the silly actions too. And one of the kids in her class told me, "Rachel talks now. And I can hear her!"
I don't know that Rachel will ever be a social butterfly or the life of the party, but I am confident that she will be able to succeed. She really has had a brave year!
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PS Can I cry with you?