School

Yesterday and today we met with some people from the school systems. Keith is doing really well in school, as is Anna. We are thinking we will try to reintroduce Iryna to school. I have been really impressed with Keith's teacher and so we are going to see how Iryna does in his class. I am hopeful that it will be as good of a fit as it has been for Keithy.

While we were talking with the people about both Keith & Iryna's backgrounds in Ukraine, it occurred to me that Keith's mom didn't leave him at the hospital after he was born - she took he and his twin sister home with her. In a country where women are highly encouraged by the doctors to leave their special needs children at the hospital - this woman took them home. She kept Keith and his twin for 4 months before taking them to the orphanage. I think that she tried to make it work, she tried to be their mother - she gave it 4 months, which isn't an insignificant amount of time. I'm not sure of her circumstances or why she gave them up for adoption and I don't know that I'll ever know all the details, but, I suddenly feel so much more grateful to her as a person and in awe of what she tried to do - be a single parent to twins with special needs. I hope that one day - either in this life or the next - that I will be able to hug her and thank her for trying to parent my son, Keith, and for giving him her love for the first 4 months of his life.