School Meeting

One of my most dreaded meetings happened today - the meeting with the public school board and staff of the school that Kasia will hopefully attend in September. A full two hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin, I started to feel sick. A stress headache that radiated down into my neck, a queasy stomach and the kind of sickly nervousness that comes with job interviews and blind dates. As Dino drove us into the parking lot of the school, I felt certain that I would throw up, pee my pants, faint or all of the above. Dino just looked scared. Scared of how scared I looked.



I pulled it together though. Well....sort of. I believe that I was firmly in control of myself and my emotions right up until about the 3rd minute of the meeting, when I was asked to tell everyone a little bit about Kasia. That's when I fell apart. sigh......



It's so hard to talk about a part of your life that is so emotionally charged, so pain inducing, and so fresh. Amazingly, my feelings still sit right under the surface - ready to burst out and cause awkard moments for all involved. Luckily our social worker stepped in and spoke about Kasia for me at that point.



And then, something amazing happened. The special needs resource consultant for the entire public school board - the person who will be a huge part in deciding whether or not Kasia will get the extra services she needs at school - walked into the room. I smiled.



"I apologize for being late", he said. "I'll just quickly introduce myself since we've never met."



"But we have met." I said.



Confused, he cocked his head and said, "Really? Where?"



"When we were kids. We went to school together." I said, starting to feel some anxiety slip away.



"Kara? You're Kara Price??"



"Used to be."



Shaking his head, "Wow. It's so nice to see you again!"



"You too..."



The room fell silent.



And then Dino, the comic relief says this:



"Hi, and I'm her husband!"



The entire room broke into peals of laughter.



After that, everything just seemed better. The next hour flew by and the meeting wrapped up. As we walked out into the hall, our social worker had a look of shock and surprise written all over her face and told us that the meeting had gone really well. Since she's been to countless of those meetings in the last eight years, I'll take her word for it.

So, we should hear in about a week if Kasia will get a one-on-one assisstant - something that was determined she would need in order to keep her safe at school. If one-on-one can't be provided, I'm not sure what our options will be, but I'm not going to think about that yet. Instead I'm going to think positive thoughts and hope that growing up in a small town may just have some benefits.