Thank you all for your concern, encouragement and prayers from my last post. Fear and anxiety is obviously more common than people like to admit and seems easy to diagnose but harder to "cure." It is a newfound struggle in our household and one we are learning to cope with better each and every day.
Brayden is better, however I do believe this will take time. He has left 2 mornings this week without crying which is definitely an improvement. He still can't seem to turn his mind "off" of school, worrying constantly about the next day's assignments and challenges. Each time he is presented with a new challenge at school, it seems to reignite the frustrations and anxieties that come along with it, sometimes resulting in tears. He has never not finished his work or not been able to complete one, yet he still fears that the next one will be "too hard." He is a perfectionist when it comes to his work and wants to complete an assignment as fast as possible for fear of running out of time, even if he has all week to complete the assignment. For example, he was given a list of sight words yesterday to work on at home for the whole 9 weeks and he insisted (even though I tried to convince him to go outside and play or ride his bike) that he not finish until he got all of them right! He is serious about this! Each day is better, yet this is a process.
This is the panda bear he drew in his first art class in Kindergarten...
This is what afternoons at our house looks like....homework.
He was given all week to do this homework packet yet he completed it all on Monday as soon as he walked through the door. And when he thought he colored something "wrong" I had to convince him that I would write a note on it to his teacher explaining it. He is doing great but seems to think if he gets something wrong, it is the end of the world.
During this struggle, he is a little sponge right now. He continues to ask over and over again, "Mom, what does that verse say?!?! Read it to me again." Then he asks at least 30 times a day, "Mom are you going to pray for me tomorrow? Mom, don't forget to pray for me!" I always tell him of course I will and I already have but he needs that reassurance all the time. I read him this verse (along with others) every day. I do think this is drawing him closer and closer to salvation. His little heart is thirsty for the WORD!
He wanted me to draw this cross on his hand to remind him to pray before he starts his work and that God is with him wherever he goes. I have to "redo" it with a sharpie every day before he goes back to school.
Brayden has had to have alot of attention these past two weeks because of this struggle and I never want to leave these other two sweet peas out. Karis has been so sweet and understanding.
We have had to take a serious inventory of our "family" time at night. We try to do things that will take his mind off of school and to have fun. The other night Jay got out the water hose to water the plants and started spraying them and it turned into a night of fun. School has become the "s" word at our house and there are times of day when it is off limits to say the "s" word. I am trying to teach him to not think about it ALL. DAY. LONG. Hopefully it is working.
Watermelon is ALWAYS a hit at our house!
Progress is being made although we haven't arrived yet. Thanks and continue to pray!
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