It just occurred to me that in the busyness of life, I have not posted since spring. We have had a hectic summer. It started with an unfortunate bout of strep throat for all the kids in the Crosby household, then the stomach bug and our string of illness culminated with an ER trip for Cullen. After some meds and some serious snuggle time recovery, we are all back to good health.
Ironically, in the midst of all the ickiness around here, Cullen learned to swim this summer. I was at home one night with the older kids recovering, and this made for some rare alone time for Cullen and his Aunt Kay who was visiting from TN. She and Cullen played in the pool for hours and she coaxed him to go under the water, fully submerged. There was a slow, trust building opportunity that Kay seized, and before long, he realized he was buoyant and began to swim. That was in mid-June and he has been swimming ever since; no flotation devices what so ever. Just he and his natural sculling abilities! Praise God!
This summer, swimming was a bigger goal for us than language development because swimming will save his life, and we are a swimming family! We are forever grateful to Aunt Kay for the time she spent patiently teaching him to swim. Love you Kay!!
On another note, I have been saying for years now that I would never homeschool Cullen, however, never say never!!!! I was at a training seminar learning about how to teach utilizing the classical Christian model and we were focusing on the nature of a child….”A Contemplation in Nature.” While listening to the teacher speak on various philosophies throughout history, and their impact on modern education, it occurred to me, or rather God hit me up side of the head, and told me that I was treating Cullen very different than my older children. I sought some counsel from some others in my life, far wiser than I, and we concluded that Daniel and I know Cullen better than anyone. We understand his very nature and it is our job to look at Cullen the same as his siblings, that is, as souls to be nurtured rather than products to be measured. It broke my heart when I realized that I measure him all the time up against a standard set by I do not even know who. Anyway, we have pursued this revelation regarding Cullen’s education post-Meyer Center and have arrived at the fact that we feel led by God to homeschool Cullen utilizing the classical Christian model. It just makes sense. We will not go at it alone, however. We live in a day where resources are readily available. We have registered him for Classical Conversations www.classicalconversations.com (CC) with his older siblings this fall. He will attend tutoring one day a week with his peers and continue at the Meyer Center on the other days until he graduates next spring. Then he will continue with CC and Daniel and I will seek direction from a team of professionals to assist with his speech and occupational therapies. Oh what a peace we have. As a matter of fact, the night we voiced the idea and prayed as a family to God about this possibility, we saw a double rainbow, stretching from one side of HWY 123, all the way to the other side of the highway. Could it have been a confirmation that this was the right choice. Perhaps to some it was not, but to us, it was a sign that God has been with us, continues to be with us, and will forever remain with us on this journey with Cullen. His name is afterall Cullen “Asher”, which means a happy pilgrimage. Praise God for his faithfulness and for not allowing us to go on this pilgrimage alone!! And praise God for a supportive family who walks along side of us, without judgement, just support.
We pray you are having a wonderful summer and that you are drawing close to God. He pursues us regardless I think, but loves it when we respond to his pursuits….don’t we all!!!
Love,
Tresh