Most improved in her class.

Last Friday was quite a day for SS and I needed to document the yucky part first. This is after all the longest winded baby book ever. We wanted to separate the neuro stuff from a beautiful surprise.  When I dropped off SS that morning her teacher, Mrs. S, gave me wonderful news.  She tested SS in reading and SS read up to level 12! Mrs. S stated that SS improved the most in her class in reading.  SS went from level 4 to 8 over the winter break and we were beyond pleased. This was icing on an already amazing cake. Some may rightfully think, wait, your kid is delayed and you are happy? First, no one but us lived through kinder hell. We can't say it enough, it was a wasted year, so hell yeah we are proud of SS's improvement.

But this was no simple yeah she did it news. Mrs. S's demeanor when she told me the good news surprised me. I understand that as a teacher she would be proud. But everything about her was more than pride at her teaching skills. Mrs. S was beaming, the same way I was about our amazing girl. I told P that I thought she was teary eyed as well. And that is a HUGE difference from SS's teacher last year. The teacher that thought SS was the cutest, most amazing thing ever, until she read her file and realized she was born China. Damn, we thought after meeting all three of us before school began, someone with a masters would have figured it out before reading SS's file.  After that she ignored our daughter, only to tell us that SS "needs to get in there, into the mix, and make herself heard." Way to understand post institutionalized behavior, you charlatan with a two cent masters degree.

This is not about last year, this is about SS's improvement and how grateful we are for Mrs. S.  Our kid is beautiful (we had nothing to do with that) and people (other than her kinder teacher) are just drawn to her. Mrs. S accepted SS from day one, perhaps did not expect such a tiny, fragile looking girl to be a super hero obsessed girl. But Mrs. S embraced SS's love for so called "boy things." Mrs. S obviously does not have an issue with SS being adopted from China by (GASP!) an interracial couple. She has accepted SS's quirks, understood and taken into consideration our girl's past, but has challenged SS to reach her full potential.  I will never forget her expression that morning because it was priceless. We are incredibly fortunate that SS has Mrs. S as a teacher.

By the way, there are two more reading levels in first grade, and Mrs. S is confident SS will be at level 16 by May.  JJ has already made it his goal to help SS reach that goal before May. When I returned to work we worried about the impact on SS's education the most. We have been blessed with JJ and Mrs. S, and we know how fortunate we are. 

Look, a hat to honor Dr. Seuss's birthday. This did not happen last year when SS's teacher was allowed to deprive children of these simple joys with her "I don't celebrate man made holidays" belief. We respect her religion, but why did the kids have to do without?

Mrs. S's mother knitted worm bookmarks for all the children in her class. So thoughtful and cute.