Rory writes……
Joey had every intention of home-schooling Indy as she grew up. For many reasons. But life http://www.thislifeilive.comhas changed that plan.
I have written before about our desire to live our lives with “high hopes and low expectationsâ€â€¦ but during the month of January, when Joey and I decided we needed to start researching what and where the next-best option for school for Indy might be…we had no idea that God would lead us to a place called, of all things… ‘High Hopes’.
It’s a Developmental Center and preschool in Franklin, TN about 25 minutes north of our farm. We had heard about it from our sweet banker friend Lisa Harless and were soon reading all about it online and speaking with the director Gail on the phone. Half of the Center is a preschool and the other half is a state-of-the-art therapy center for children with special needs. When I showed this video about their program to Joey, she wiped the tears from her eyes and with a beautiful smile said, “that’s the one honey… that’s the oneâ€.
About forty percent of the kids in the school have special needs and after walking through and touring the facility the first time we visited High Hopes, it was easy to see that the other parents, the teachers and the staff there all have special hearts too. Joey was so excited about Indy getting the chance to come to High Hopes and I was so thankful that she felt great about it. Somehow she managed to transform her disappointment of not getting to raise and teach Indy into a real hope of something even better. I don’t know how, but she did. And she never cried another tear over it.
Indy has been in the preschool a couple days a week for the last week and a half now and is loving every minute of it.
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She is making lots of new friends and loves being around all the other kids…
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She likes recess and playing outside…
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And getting to ride on fun toys…
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and learning lots of new things…
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She even likes her new nap time…
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Indy has already started physical therapy classes to help her learn to walk and speech therapy to start turning all the words that she can say with her hands into sentences she can say with her mouth. I can hardly imagine how special it will be when the time finally comes that she can walk beside me and talk with me.
I believe that God gives us just what we need, when we need it. Sometimes it’s not what we had planned or what we thought we wanted, but if we keep an open mind… it just might even be better than what we originally hoped for.
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When I came to pick her up at the end of her first day of preschool, Indiana’s teacher Miss Susan told me that Indy had found a little plastic figure in one of the toy boxes and was holding it up and signing “Papaâ€!
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Though it’s hard for me to be away from Indiana at all, I also know that it’s a wonderful opportunity for her. And after her living with me in one small bedroom of a house for the last 5 months and not having much to do, she is ready for more stimulation and learning, and her new preschool is truly a blessing from heaven.
Indy and I are trying to adjust to our new life at home. To the empty chair at our table and pillow on the other side of my bed. Desperately missing Joey and carrying her in our hearts with us everywhere we go. Knowing, believing… that she’s looking down each morning as I take Indy into High Hopes, still smiling saying, “that’s the one honey…that’s the oneâ€.
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