A Not So Small Victory

It's that time of the year...Parent Teacher Conferences. Yesterday I went to meet with one of my son's teacher's. Usually his teacher says something like, "He is such a sweet, smart boy, BUT he has a lot of trouble...listening, following directions, getting his work done, staying on task..."

Well, this past spring, He was diagnosed with Non-hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder. It seemed to take forever to get a diagnosis because he is not hyper like most kids with ADHD. Also, I was looking for him to have anything but ADD, because I did not fully understand it, and therefor had some serious misconceptions about it. I was not about to put my kid on Ritalin to calm him down or make it easier for me to manage him. (Again me being seriously uneducated about the disorder and the medications to treat it). I basically thought ADD was something that teachers/parents made up to have an excuse to sedate out of control boys (well, mostly boys). Wow, how offensive am I?!

Anyway, after several doctors and lots of research, we finally got him the diagnosis he needed. His first medication worked somewhat, but it was not the results we hoped for. Last month we changed his meds, and WOW! what an amazing difference. It is like there has been a cloud hanging around him his whole life, and the cloud has been lifted. His brilliant personality is now shining through. He is starting to succeed, and you can just see the excitement and self pride in his eyes.

Back to the Parent-Teacher conference: This year, his teacher is beaming about him. And no BUT.. She raved that he has been able to fully participate and even lead in class. He went from doing 20-25 math problems in a minute to doing 50! He read a chapter book in 2 days! This is all huge! Then came the bomb. She shows me his report card, and not only does he have straight A's, but he has satisfactory behavior in every category (that has never happened!). I actually started to cry. I felt like an idiot, but who cares. My son is victorious. Finally! He is free from the obstacle that has been holding him back, frustrating him and us, and slowly tearing down his self esteem.

I have prayed for so long for God to take this burden from him, and my prayers have been answered. This reminded me of a verse I memorized this past year:

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 5:9

I cannot tell you how defeated I felt when I chose that verse. I felt like we'd never figure out how to help our son, like the daughter we longed for would never be ours, and so many other things. But I do believe the Lord is fulfilling his promise. The harvest is coming in, and it is a bountiful harvest this year! Praise God!

ps: sorry, no cute pics today. The flu is making it's way through our house, so I thought I'd spare you pics of our tired eyes and snotty noses.