HI Brad,
You are so on target with your comments on chris. I do still try to
continue to encourage his artistic interests, but right now he doesn’t
think that art is cool. I’ve shared with him how I would use art, in my
case music, as a way of escape and finding peace and re-collecting
myself. I suppose that he gets some artistic venting as he works on his
shed in the back yard. Also, he does build models of guns out of duct
tape and cardboard and popsycle sticks, but that isn’t the direction that
I would like to see him go. Suggesting something other, however, becomes
another opportunity for him to just say "no," so I end up doing a lot of
praying.
I’m not overly concerned about his, "dead brain," comments yet. Yes,
Chris has self esteem issues, but I think that it is his way of playing
with the concept to try it on and get used to it. Perhaps you did
something similar when you learned that you would be losing your vision
or learned why you are losing your vision. What chris said last night to
us is that learning about this has provided a lot of answers for him
about why he is so different than the rest of us. He was making some
pretty healthy comments about knowing that he can’t use this knowledge as
an excuse for his behavior, but he recognizes too that he will have to
work harder at gaining controll of himself. He also seemed to be making
more positive comments about continuing with Eric last night, but we’ll
just have to wait and see.
One of our biggest disappointments for chris has been that he has not
been able to take an art class this year at his new school. That was his
favorite class last year because he was with other creative kids, but
this year, being the new kid and all, he couldn’t get into any art
classes because they were already full. We practicly begged them to find
room for him, but they weren’t concerned. This school doesn’t seem to
have much concern for chris anyway. If it weren’t for us staying so
involved, I can see how he could slip through the cracks very easily.
Yes, chris is talented. Greg and I often remark that if anyone in our
family is going to get somewhere it will be him. We recognize this about
him, but we want him to choose the right direction in which to travel.
IN Him,
Kathy

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!