Christmas and Kindergarten!

This last Christmas, our family received a wonderful surprise: David, my wonderful brother-in-law, secretly invited and paid for my parents to come to Portland to spend Christmas and the New Year with us! It was truly wonderful. We were all so pleasantly shocked by this, and we took full advantage of them being here. On top of that, my wife's brother and his wife came from Brazil for the first time. They had never seen snow before, and they were greeted by the most snow that Portland has seen in over 30 years. We had 4 foot snowdrifts at our house, making for a beautiful white Christmas.

During the Christmas break, Luiza and I prayed about Calvin starting school again. We felt that his social skills had improved to the point where he was constantly wanting to be engaged with people. Volunteers have proved difficult to come by and difficult to keep for any extended length of time, so the therapy time had fallen exclusively on Luiza's (and to a lesser extent my) shoulders. We spoke with Sweetbriar Elementary down the street, and they told us they would be happy to see if they could work with Calvin.

Calvin went in for an interview with Luiza and some staff from the school. They were impressed with Calvin's interaction and how well he used his words. So, they decided that he could be placed in a "typical" classroom, rather than a special-ed classroom. We were thrilled to no end.

So, Monday, January 12th, Calvin went to school. He made it for through the whole classtime, but by the end, he wanted to go home, so the teacher called Luiza to come and pick him up. Since then, he's been staying the entire 3 hours of his class. This gives Luiza a much needed break and allows her to help Brendon with his homeschooling, not to mention just to have a few minutes to have some quiet. We're so proud of our little boy. The teacher was also amazed that he could read every word that she gave him to read. She called him a "delight" to have in her class!