Whew

Another batshit-crazy day is over, the fifth or sixth in a row.  Thankfully, the next few days will be a bit easier.  Feeling rather like an Army general with all the planning needed to get everyone to where they need to be with the right equipment when they need to be there.

But today was a big day for Thing Two--he made me proud.

First, I got a note from his aide telling me that she's seeing real improvement in his social skills at school.  This is his primary area of weakness other than the language processing problem, so this is a big deal for him.  As his language skills improve, his ability to pick up social cues and conform to social norms seems to be coming along as well, thanks be to God.

And that was just a bonus. The big thing on the radar for him today was a taekwondo belt test.

Now, this is the kid whom I fully expected to be told could not handle the class at all, way back when he started.  It's all verbal directions, all the time.  And for a borderline-ADHD kid to hack the self-control component, on top of that??  No way.

But he surprised me. Stripe after stripe came, then his first new belt, and his second.  Tonight, he earned his third, the Senior Yellow.  Bless the child: every day he moves a little bit forward, and the proof of his progress is marked in the stripes of electrical tape on his old belts in the bag in my closet.

After the testing, the head instructor calls each student to the front individually to receive their new belt and certificate.  The convention is that the student then bows to the instructors and other students before returning directly to his place in the back of the room.

Thing Two, seeing me off to the side videotaping his new belt ceremony for my husband, made an unexpected detour on the way back to his seat to hug me.  The rest of the room laughed, but to me it was almost a benediction, as if he were saying without words (to the person who worries most about him) that everything is going to be okay.  May it be so...