First Day of School
September 21, 2004 by · Leave a Comment
I wanted to update you all on Savanna’s 1st day of school yesterday. My little 3 year-old is now in school 5 days a week. Savanna did wonderful. The bus picks her up at 7:20 and brings her back home at 11:00. I’ll have to send the picture we took of her being loaded on the bus by the hydraulic lift. Her eyes were as big as saucers, but she never cried or got upset. Of course we had to follow the bus to school and I had to go back at 10:50 to see how she did. She was such a big girl. No tears (except for Mommy, of course). I told her I would see her after school and she said, “Okay. Bye-bye Mama” as some other child was screaming and another one who was being dropped off decided to join in.
I know most of you cannot believe she is in school already. Believe me, I can’t either, but I’ve had a year of knowing this to get myself adjusted to the idea. I came home from school yesterday and had to get myself busy cleaning the house or I would have cried myself silly! When children are handicapped, they start school after their 3rd birthday so they can get all their therapies. It’s nice to see our hard-earned tax dollars at work. It’s called PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities). There are 2 classes for 3 year-olds and Savanna is in the self-contained classroom. That just means they are less severely handicapped. We want to mainstream her as much as possible since she is such a smarty-pants. There are about 9 children in her class and she is the only one in a wheelchair. She has a nurse assigned to her that rides the bus with her and takes care of her while she is at school. We are very excited for her, to watch her learn and grow and hopefully come out of her shell more, since she is so shy (just like her Daddy, ha ha; she’ll be grabbing the microphone any day now to belt out some tunes)
As for the fundraiser, we felt like it was very successful. Our preliminary figures are about $30,000, but we hope to have a final number closer to $35,000. We are waiting for some matching grants and that might take a few months still. We had 5 SMA children there (including Savanna). When I spoke with FSMA last week, they said that was wonderful to have that many SMA children present. They are in Ilinois and they are lucky to have a few show up to a fundraiser. I’m so thankful for my local SMA families and the support we are able to give each other.
Lastly, as for Savanna’s health, she is doing really good. She has been wearing her back brace for several hours a day, no problem. It’s amazing to me that the doctors didn’t want to even do this and now she is doing so well with it, that her doctor wants to see her again in a few weeks and possibly add supports to the brace that will actually help improve the scoliosis. She can sit up on the couch with her brace on and that has helped her gain strength in her arms and endurance. She is still on her ventilator and the right lung still needs improvement, but she seems to be feeling good. We continue to ask prayers for her healing, especially in her lungs so that she can come back off this ventilator.
We appreciate all your prayers and support for our little Sunshine.
Love,
Mindy