The First Three Hours

I don't even know where to begin. Today was mind-blowing! We were only there for three hours and I think my mind had about 100 "oh's" and "ah's". Dr. Champagne knows her stuff. The next few weeks hold 15-25 hours of testing before her assessment. It's a huge financial and time sacrifice, but after today, I know it's worth it.

 One wild thing that happened today was I discovered that Jared's right and left hemispheres don't communicate. I mentioned to Dr. C. that we can't really figure out if Jared is right or left handed. At the beginning of his life, we thought he was left handed. In preschool-3, the teacher thought he was left dominant. Then, in preschool-4, the teacher decided to teach him to write with his right hand. However, if something happens to his right hand (i.e. fire ant bites), he keeps writing with his left. I just figured he was ambidextrious, but Dr. C. actually brought the neurological aspect out. If his body is neither dominant, it can be very confusing. And guess what? She did a test and I watched and was blown out of the water. My son won't cross his body... for anything! "Jared, use your right hand to touch your left shoulder." He won't or can't. He can touch his left shoulder or he can use his right hand to touch his right shoulder. He doesn't cross a line down the center of his body.... not the knee or the elbow or anything! It suddenly made sense as to why he can't write X's normally. He uses 4 separate lines to make an X and he sometimes stops mid letter or number and picks up his pencil to continue a line. Bizarre.

Another thing that was confirmed was that Jared is not good at sequences. He thinks randomly, verses sequential. This was confirmed over and over again. The only way he knows his numbers and letters is because he can recall them from memory. This is why he also seems dyslexic. He just jumbles words and letters around. And you know what happens when he does that? Avoidance. That is his coping mechanism. That came up multiple times today. When things became too hard, he would negotiate with her or avoid it all together. She said he has learned that because he doesn't want to feel inadequate.

There was actually so much mentioned that I can't even think of all of it all right now. It's been a long day. Dr. C. did wonder if Jared's birthmother did drugs when she was pregnant with him. His birthmother told us she didn't, and I do believe her. I don't quite understand where Jared's neurological issues originated, though. Today, they were evident. I guess that's the whole point. She was able to do about 3 tests of the 36 tests that she must do before she presents her report.

He has another 3 hours of tests scheduled for Saturday and 3 1/2 hours scheduled for next Thursday. Please pray for us.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phillipians 4:6