Don't Give Up Before the Miracle Happens

My son was diagnosed with ADHD at 4 years old and was eligible for a wonderful kindergarten program for children with special needs. The teacher was amazing and with her help I was able to manage my son’s behavior without having to medicate him. The kindergarten was in a different school than the elementary school he’d be attending for first through sixth grade; the school his older sister had been attending for the past three years. At the end of the kindergarten year I was abruptly informed by the Director of Special Needs that the first graders with special needs would not be going to my local elementary school but would be bused to another school entirely. That was incomprehensible to me. I had worked very hard to not label my son or to make him feel like he was different than other children. He was excited about going to the school where his older sister and his neighborhood friends were going and now the school district was changing that. The Director explained that the final decision was being made the next day and I’d just have to “deal with it”. I was very upset but determined to do something.

I drove to the school district Superintendent’s office without an appointment and planned on sitting there all day until she gave me five minutes of her time. After a short wait she welcomed me into her office and I explained my issue. I told her that I knew the school district had the best interests of the children at heart; I knew that she could understand the importance of normalcy and consistency for children with ADHD; I knew that she could understand how important it was for my son to not feel “different”; I knew that having been a former special needs teacher, she would be impressed with the improvements that my son was making and that sending him to a different school than his sister and his friends would be detrimental to his tender self-esteem. She listened, validated my feelings and told me that although the decision was already 95% made, she’d take my conce
s into account.

I received a phone call from the annoyed Director of Special Needs two days later wanting to know what I did and said because the Superintendent changed her mind and moved the first grade program to my local school. I thought to myself

“I didn’t give up before the miracle happened”

That was a huge lesson and an even bigger turning point for me. I realized that giving up because I hit some bumps along the journey should never be an option. The smaller lesson was that I was going to have to fight for my son’s rights along every step of his education; the larger lesson was that no action is ever wasted. The decision that the Superintendent made that day many years ago set my son on a path that eventually led to him taking advanced classes in middle school and earning his place on the High Honor Roll most semesters. He still has challenges but he faces them head on with such a kind, compassionate disposition that I am often in awe; he has become one of my greatest teachers.

There are so many moments in our lives where we are given a choice. We never really know the outcome of choice A or choice B, but we are always given a choice. What I see now, looking back at that day sitting in the Superintendent’s office, is that I chose to believe that anything was possible. I chose to believe that miracles can happen in the simplest of circumstances yet I could not have known the future power of that choice and how it would affect our lives.

• What miracles have happened in your life that you may have overlooked?
• If you were guaranteed to hear “yes”, what would you ask for? Why aren’t you?
• What choices do you have right now that could change the course of your life?