I loaded up my kids and took them to Utah the first part of January. I was tired of having no answers for what was going on with James' reading. I was told the next step was to have him tested for vision therapy. I had an appointment in March in Hotchkiss, Colorado but I was tired of waiting. On a whim, I loaded the boys up and headed out. Doctor Duval took several hours testing him. He said, James tested in the lowest one percent for being able to track, meaning moving from line to line as he reads. He pulls letters from the line above and line below into the line he is working on. His eye muscles are weak. Lastly, both of his eyes are not able to come together to see one letter. (I believe in our day we would have said that he has two lazy eyes.) One wanders and then the other.
He showed him a graph with a straight line. He said your brain is point A on the line and your eyes are point B. Most people's eyes and brain work together and they go from A to B really easily. When someone is injured then things reroute. Instead of going from A to B easily, the brain runs a marathon touching several points before it finds B. I am almost certain, it happened when
he feel down the cement stairs. I took pictures days after. I didn't dare take a picture right after it happened, it was bad.
So, what happens now? Through vision therapy he can become whole. It is just going to take a lot of work. We won't expect him to start reading fluidly for at least a year if not two. He is determined to learn to read and I count that a blessing. He is exact about praying nightly for his eyes to work with his brain. I am certain we will see miracles. I don't know why James was given this thorn in the flesh but I am certain that through the Savior all weak things can be made strong.
I have been having severe exhaustion lately. The doctor recommended vitamin D3. I took the boys with me to the store to pick up my vitamins. They have helped, but if I take them too late in the day I have weird dreams and trouble sleeping. I am grateful for the energy boost. I have wanted to fall asleep between one and three every day. I have been taking naps more often than I would care to admit. My friends in the Relief Society presidency have been worried about me and kept encouraging me to see a doctor. I did a bunch of blood work but it was just a deficiency in D3. Who knew sunlight or one little pill could make such a difference.
We went to James' 1st grad concert. He was so excited for us to come and watch him and his class mates preform. I love the charter school my children attend. Both the music teachers wept as they thanked us for a privilege of teaching our children. I was touched by their sincerity.
Another trip to Utah for vision therapy. We were trying to go weekly and then that was too exhausting, so we tried to go every other week. Now, we go about once every six weeks and do the rest on-line via zoom. I am grateful for technology. This is Kaylee, James loves her and she is hilarious and she helped make our trips enjoyable.
We bought several games to help with James' vision and one of those games was called STARE. It is a fun simple game and is recommended for homeschoolers. You stare at a card and memorize everything your can and then you answer questions assigned to numbers which propels your piece along the board. All my children love playing.
I am not even sure when we started doing church at home because of COVID-19. I think it was after my birthday this year. If that is truth, and I think it is, then we have been doing home church for five weeks. To say our Sunday meetings are filled with the spirit and are organized is laughable, but I certainly have not once felt an absence of church in my life, so despite our flawed, very flawed, attempts Heavenly Father has been gracious to us. We have a short Sacrament meeting and then Nate and I divide the children. He takes the girls and I take the boys and we teach them Come Follow Me. We learned about Enos this week. I have had some tender spirit filled moments with my boys.
Easter. We had an Easter Egg basket search on Saturday and dyed eggs. Then we talked of Christ on Sunday. James gave the lesson for our little primary. He prepared some stick puppets, and told a story about the Savior's resurrection. He also hid Easter eggs around the bedrooms and had the boys find them and in each plastic egg was a symbol of Christ's final week. The boys have loved home church.
