k-5 update :)

Here is a new post from Harper's mommy about Harper starting school. :) 

i truly hope that i can keep this mentality for the rest of my life: counting my blessings like it's my job.  no credit to me...God's made it really easy.

we are at the beginning of week 3 of kindergarten for Harper.  SHE IS THRIVING.  our little social butterfly is truly in her element, and could care less if half of every day she's taught in a "foreign" language.  we found out toward the end of june that Harper had been chosen in a lottery to be a student in Jupiter Elementary's dual-language program.  i was super stoked about it and was (and still am) convinced that this extra challenge would be a great distraction in the midst of her learning to live with her new difference.  when she gets to school, she heads to her homeroom, Senora' Cardona's class.  for the first 3 hours, she is spoken to ONLY in spanish.  there is no translation, but so far it hasn't seemed to bother her.  half of the kids in her class are primarily spanish-speaking, so i think they must help their english-speaking classmates out at least a little. (if something is really important, i.e. a fire drill, she'll speak english, but it is VERY minimal.)  the last 3 hours of the day are spent in Mr. Nardelli's class...he speaks english.  my hope is that in his class, the english-speakers are doing a little translating for the spanish kids, but harper hasn't said much about it.  she wakes up every morning super excited, and comes home every afternoon saying, "i love school!!"

we are trying to teach her about compassion...agape' love (loving others the way God loves us), but it is a daily battle to train a child to think about anything but themselves, unfortunately even after they've been through a terrible accident.  she is a very strong-willed little girl with a big personality, has never met a stranger and wants everyone to know it when she walks into a room.  my prayer is that she'll be known at school, not for that big personality, but for a heart that loves others and goes out of her way to be kind and helpful to her classmates.  i'd like her name to be remembered not because she's missing 3 fingers, but because she is a LIGHT...because she is not your average naturally-selfish kid.

her hand is scab-free now, and she is very excited to get to participate in PE and recess after a week of waiting for that last bit of scab to heal.  the next step in her healing is going to be another surgery.  this surgery will be in a few months, and will be to seperate her current "stump" (eek...always a lack of a better term for what her hand is right now...sorry) into 3 little digits.  the tissue around those 3 little bones (below the knuckle) is doing really great as of right now.  there is alot of scarring, which we expected, but it really gets better and better every day.  we are still putting aquaphor on her hand every day, to get the skin as healthy as possible before the next surgery, but other than that, everything is totally normal.  i spent some time last week taking apart the medicine box we've had on the kitchen counter since june 6th.  it felt good.  normalcy is bliss as far as i'm concerned.

i feel like a broken record saying this again and again, but we have been incredibly overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and familly and our friends' friends and our family's families.  the fact that we don't have to really worry about medical expenses at this point is unbelievable.  one less major stress for us to worry about, fight about, cry about.  THANK YOU.  the body of Christ is a powerful, far-reaching, unique GIFT.  and again, we are counting our blessings.  there are so many others out there who are hurting so much worse than we ever did and going through so much more than we ever will.  we are aware of that, and we know that all of you could give your time and money and prayers to them instead.  so, THANK YOU.

will try to update again next month, but just remember:  no news is good news! 

Much love and thanks,

Katie (and Ryan, Harper, Layne, & Maitland)