The main difference between LuLu and the school system, though, is LuLu not only recognizes that she’s stuck, but she wants to change. She’s trying very hard. The school district, though, has us pretty much where they want us for now. LuLu isn’t in their classrooms or able to access any of their services, so she isn’t their problem. Heck, no one really even shows that much interest in LuLu at all. I was surprised that they readily accepted the goals I proposed at Friday’s IEP, but I shouldn’t have been. After all, I am the teacher and if those were the goals I need to teach to, who were they to question? And further more, what do they care? There’s no plan on their side but to offer the same alternative school to us regardless of our response. No attempt to try to move beyond us being “stuck”. We’ve BEEN THERE….STILL THERE a whole calendar year later. And that’s just fine with them because they don’t have to change their systems or provide us with a thing.

For both LuLu’s trauma and our school district battles there are only two potential solutions: give up or go through it. For the trauma, giving up is definitely not the option. The only way to heal it is to go in there and get the splinter out. We’re waiting to hear back from the therapists, but we will be trying some new therapeutic approaches in the coming weeks. Each time I remain hopeful that we will get her closer to healing her trauma, because she wants to be rid of it so very badly.

For the school battles, I would be less-than-honest if I didn’t tell you that giving up is an increasingly tempting option. Or at least it was until I saw that Amazing Grace movie last Friday night. Ol’ William Wilberforce definitely could have plastered a Been There…Still There bumper sticker on the back of his horse-drawn carriage. It took him 20 years of campaigning in the British parliament to abolish slavery. And yes, he struggled mightily with giving up as well. But giving up wasn’t the right answer. And, sigh, it’s not the right answer for us, either.

So, I wonder how long my new bumper sticker will be pertinent to my life stage? Will I need it even after my car is no longer operational? As a friend so aptly pointed out to me yesterday when I whined that our battle might be prolonged like Mr. Wilberforce’s, “Julie, you won’t be fighting the school for 20 years, because LuLu will be 30 by then!” Well…he’s got a point…maybe I can hang in there after all!