Snow, School Days and Sisters

There is just enough snow that I can justify keeping Kid3 home from school tomorrow. I am a horribly nervous winter driver, and that extends to getting in cars driven by other people, or letting my girls get in anyone's car when the road are bad.

Kid3 has been enjoying the snow. It's too cold for the little ones to be out, but Spouse bundled up Kid3 and took her and her little friend from next door outside to build a snow hut, shovel the drive and make snow angels once the wind died down. After about 3 hours, they all came in soaked, and tired. There is going to be some mighty fine sleeping in this house tonight.

School has been trying for Kid3. She is frustrated being the only child in her ESL class who speaks Russian, or any other tongue from that language family. Most of the kids speak Spanish(we have had an influx of Mexican immigrants in the last 12 months), and tend to speak it whenever they are not being closely monitored by their teachers. Kid3 speaks good English: she understands what people say to her, and they understand her. She wants to be in an English language class, we want her to be there, even if it means holding her back a year, but the school board disagrees. We've had to put her in an ESL program because she has no experience with the Latin alphabet, although she can read and write with Cyrillic characters. There has been some discussion of pulling her out of the program and home schooling her until September, when we would have to hold her back a grade anyways. She is supposed to be going into second grade, but I doubt we could get her reading fluency up to that level in 9 months. Argh! Decisions about education are so difficult.

On the bright side, Kid3 is adjusting to her siblings better than anyone expected. It can't be easy to be dropped into a family dealing with multiple disabilities, two hectic work schedules and endless therapy and medical appointments. She has quickly become friends with Kid1, and I usually find them in Kid1's bedroom in the morning - Kid3 hears her sister wake up and goes in to talk and play with her until I get up to start the day. She is patient, and will wait for Kid1 to catch up in her gait trainer, or for Kid1 to choose a movie, meal or toy - something that her cousins often struggle with. Everyday, Kid3 does something for her sisters that makes me proud of her.

We have been struggling with doubts. Was this in the best interests of all of our girls, to bring another child into an extremely high-maintenance household? We don't know. But we are hopeful that it will be the right path for all of us. Everyday, by words and actions, we feel as if we are lighting another lamp on our cloudy pathway.