Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

This day, April 24th in history: while some might remember that Churchill was knighted on this day in 1953; or that in 1800 the Library of Congress was established by President John Adams; or that such famous people as Shirley MacLaine or Robert Penn Warren were born today, something very important happened to me on this date. After 40 hours of labor ScienceKid was born.

Those 40 hrs are engrained in my memory as is holding my baby for the first time and being amazed at how quickly he started nursing. The following 48 hrs were stressful as we waited to learn whether or not our baby had a deadly strep infection. He did not; and when the pediatrician examined him her reassuring words hit my heart; look at him wiggly, look at how he holds his head up.  My heart would never, ever be the same.
Motherhood began for me that day, but little did I realize how my life would change. Where did the years go? How could any of us foresee where we would be today, 14 years later? Sure we knew that this little person would change our priorities, and steal our heart with his smiles. Little did we know that he would test our will as a highly-spirited boy emerged, or teach us so much about how a parent must fight for their child.

The years slipped by; years in daycare, a head-count reduction at work that sent me home, and while I desperately searched for employment DH career took off; ScienceKid started public school, we learned that according to the PS he would never, ever read and that was OK. What a turning point? Several times in my life I can point to an event that changed my life-course.

There was the time in high school when I passed the school councilor’s office, spotted the sign advertising the “Be-an-Engineer-for-a-Day”, but against the advice of the school councilor who said girls could not be engineers, I signed up for the day anyway. I didn’t want to be an engineer but I did want to get out of school for the day. What senior really wants to be in school? Upon returning home from being an Engineer-for-a-day I declared to my folks that I would be an engineer. They were quite shocked to say the least, and tried to convince me that ‘girls could not be engineers’. Working as an engineer for 20 years certainly shaped me.

Then there was the x-country ski trip I reluctantly joined, but thankfully did. I met my husband on that trip.

But another day that sits in my mind as a turning-point was the school meeting where we were told ScienceKid; this very bright, no brilliant child, would never, ever read and that according to these professionals that was OKAY. HA, not on my life would I not fight for this child’s need to learn to read. Determined I searched the internet for information on how to teach my child to read, how to find out what was the underlying problem, and how to fix everything. In this search I also read numerous homeschooling sites and decided that we would start homeschooling. What a life-changing event and I have the public school to thank.

But today is ScienceKid’s day.

His birthday.

Someday, perhaps his birthdate and his name will be in the list of famous folks who were born today.   I too wonder what life changing events will be his? Perhaps one happened this past year when he went to the National Science Olympics held at U of IL; or perhaps it will be this spring when he joins his team at the NSO’s to be held at U of IN, but it will probably be years before we know what they are for him.

Happy Birthday son, I have so enjoyed these past 14 years and look forward to our journey together over the coming years.