On Wanting More.....

Here's another photo from Ayla's Book Week Celebration. She's dressed as her favourite book character, Clara the Cat.



It's funny the things that happen when you openly tell the universe..."I WANT MORE!!!". More is exactly what I'm getting.

It's been a couple of weeks since the "Is it wrong to want more?" post. If you feel like you need to refresh...just click here. So much has happened since then but I just wasn't able to share it because it was big....really BIG. And I made it happen! I think I was so shocked at the level of my success that I was literally rendered speechless. I know you don't believe me.

I have re-written this part of the post several times now (on the computer and in my head), but I've decided to give you the short version....for the sake of your sanity and mine ;)

In the few days following Ayla's visit to the Early Intervention unit at the Specialist school I was a cauldron of emotions....angry, upset, disappointed, livid, frustrated and hopeless. And then one day I was just pulling into a car park at the gym when I heard this song on the radio. I have no idea what the song was or who sings it. I only heard one line of the song as I was switching the car off....kinda like it was talking to ME. It said, "You've never been one to back down, so why are you walking away now?". That's it. That's all I heard. And as I walked into the gym to burn off some of my anger I thought...."Hell yeah! Since when have I backed down and given up?" I worked my butt off through that session and then got back in the car, took my phone out and started looking up Conductive Ed in Canberra and contacting some people who were mentioned to me on the Cpecial Parents forum.

And now for the long story, short.....

In the following days I contacted the Principal of the Specialist school to explain to her why I was NOT enrolling Ayla in her school. She was fantastic by the way....no defensiveness. Just listened and took it all on board. And I'm proud to say that everything that was in that last post was said to the Principal. She had mentioned previously that she had an interest in Conductive Education so I thought that I would explore that a little further with her. She's not just interested. Since our first meeting with her she has been exploring her options on how she might introduce it at the school but has met with opposition. Steven and I offered to help her. In fact, we offered our COMMITMENT to her and her school in offering Conductive Ed.....and here it began to snowball.....AVALANCHE style!

Since that day we have had the President of Friends of Brain Injured Children pledge her support and has offered to also help the Principal, the Conductor (Conductive Ed trained teacher) has contacted the principal, the principal of the Specialist school has contacted the principal of Xavier Conductive Ed Unit, 2 teachers from the Specialist school are going on holidays to Europe and the USA and both have organised to spend a couple of days in Conductive Ed units whilst on their holidays, the Principal is travelling to Brisbane to visit Xavier next term with 1 other teacher and an LSA (learning support assistant), and another set of parents have pledged their support and help in introducing CE as well. At this stage, the Principal had expressed that she was very excited but reminded me that nothing was set in stone although she 'thinks' she can do it.

Today I had another meeting with the principal where she expressed again that "she thinks she can do it"....and I thought I would jump in with ...."Actually, I know WE can do it!"......brazen, I know :). When I left there today, she didn't think she could do it anymore, it was.........."Gosh Darnit!!!! Let's Do It!!!! ".

So, the planets have aligned.....the avalanche is beginning to settle and it seems the real work is about to begin. At the beginning of next term there will be our first official meeting with the Principal, the Conductor, ourselves and the other parents and all of the Conductive Ed visits will begin. Not bad for 2 weeks work! Although things are still not set in stone, the Principal pledged today that she would like to have her first group beginning CE by the start of Term 1, 2011 and she's already ear-marked the kids she thinks will be suitable. NOICE.

Ayla is attending the school on Wednesdays only and only as a 'Playday' so that we can enmesh ourselves in the school community, get involved and help Karin to introduce CE from the inside. I have made it abundantly clear that the programme is by no means good enough for any child in Early Intervention. But, it's a means to an end and Ayla still has her preschool days.

Oh and just on a side note....the Specialist School has a little vege patch started....and today I convinced the Principal that she also needed chooks to make it complete :) So our chook pen will be arriving at the school on Monday and the chooks a few days after that! I'm totally scaring myself.