Update - Nathan

My ever sweet, unpredictable, loving, challenging, curious, wise beyond his years, playful, energy filled, boundary testing, detail orientated 5 1/2 year old who acts like he's going on 2 years old OR 42 years old Nathan has certainly been keeping me on my knees in prayer for his precious life filled with all those things mentioned for the last 2 months...OK, last 5 1/2 years!

LOTS of changes (too many!), both good and difficult, have come about for Nathan over the last couple of months. It explains a lot about his decision making with friends, tantrums, disobedience and occasional lie.

Nathan has learned how to meditate from a classmate at school (who was explaining to him how Chinese kids calm themselves! You can imagine how nuts I went over this one!) so then we discussed how Jesus brings us calmness and peace anytime we call unto Him for it. I suggested he now tell his "friend" about how we calm ourselves, by prayer. For the next several days at school, Nathan had prayed with not only the 1 friend, but like 6-7 friends! Nathan shared that he taught them how to bow their heads, close their eyes, fold their hands and talk out loud to the Lord. He said they prayed that the whole class would be calm, good, "stay on green" (best behavior cards...green being best), that they'll all get to visit the treasure box (their reward at the end of the week for consistant good behaviour throughout the week) on Friday and that everyone will play nicely together. WHAT A SWEETHEART! Nathan always wants to be a leader and I shared with him that on those days, he was being a leader for Jesus. That really made him feel good. :-)

Baseball...Nathan definitely prefers to be a fan vs. an actual player on the field. He complains he never gets the ball, he strongly dislikes wearing his glove and batting helmet and often spends his fielding twirling, singing, building dirt castles and complaining that it's boring or hot. SOOOO...needless to say, we are NOT going to put any of us through this kind of torture for another season...we'll stick with Musicals for this kiddo! For now, forget any chance of learning some skill at the game, we're just enforcing the ever so important life lesson of finishing what you start, about commitment, about supporting your teammates and giving your best at all times...even if we don't want to.

School...besides prayer and meditation...Nathan has been doing an OUTSTANDING job in Kindergarten!!! So much so, many of his school resources for math, reading, etc are being pulled early this year (I 100% agree and supported that decision). Nathan gets 100% on math (about 15-20 questions) and spelling (5 spelling words a week), and has only missed 1-2 questions on reading tests (10-15 questions), but is already at a 1st grade reading & comprehession level (has been since Jan or Feb). After a TON of prayer, grilling his teacher (she is SO in support of him going to 1st), special ed peeps, looking at Jackson's 1st grade curriculm, listening to my gut, etc. Nathan will be going to 1st grade next school year! This is definitely a big step of faith in the Lord and confidence in Nathan's ability to rise and succeed in any challenge.

Back to Nathan doing so well with his special ed stuff... So Nathan has been such a hard worker in Speech Therapy that after 4 years of this practice, work, frustration, enjoyment and success, Nathan is finally done with the intense level of Speech Therapy. Nathan was receiving 2 hours of Speech/week; 1 hr private, 1 hr at school. Now Nathan will be down to just the 1 hr school based speech. Hence, more change...Nathan has been receiving all sorts (and I mean ALL sorts) of services at McRory Pediatrics since he was 11 months old!!! The owner, Director and ALL of the therapists there have become like family to us. There was a long time there that Nathan was there EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. recieving services and I have got to tell you...IT SHOWS (*tear*tear)!!! Nathan already has an amazing testimony and daily I get the pleasure and gift (and challenge at times, I must confess) to watch his testimony continue to expand. We already miss the therapists at McRory's but their graduation for Nathan, signed (by many therapists) certificate, pictures and all our memories, we will have forever.

Everyday brings new challenges for Nathan, but Nathan never fails to rise to that challenge and take it head on. Quite a good character trait if you ask me!