Akila and the Bee

Many of you have maybe seen the movie "Akeelah and the Bee", it is one of our favorites, of course!! Today is the day after Thanksgiving and a good time to reflect on what I am thankful for. There are many things and by reading this blog, you may not think that I am ever thankful. That is because this blog is kind of my venting avenue, and after a short while, I have found it to be quite therapeutic. I especially appreciate it when people post comments as I then know that people are reading my rants and for some reason, that feels good. Enough on that.

Some of you know this, but Akila is an excellent reader. I am so thankful for this. She enjoys reading and has never really struggled with the concepts. She is also a gifted speller- go figure (Akila is in 3rd grade)!!! She amazes me in spelling, and she seems to enjoy it as well. The really nice thing with this is that it is something we can praise her for -legitimately. I am going to try to post my first picture, I took one of her spelling test from last week. All year, she has usually been getting one wrong which is awesome and we praise her for it. Last week she got them all right and walked in the door from the bus with a giant smile and on a total high. She was excited the entire night from that spelling test-Praise the Lord!!! It is of course hanging up and probably will be all year. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. Akila loves it!!! The girls name is Akeelah Anderson, so close to Akila Clark!!!

I am also thankful for my family. Last night, I was laying on my bed with all 4 of my kids watching the Incredibles and I felt truly blessed. We had spent the day at Grandma Kathy's having a Thanksgiving feast (that is what my kids love to call it) and the kids were pretty well behaved. As we are at the beginning of the holiday season, I start to think a lot of my mom and how 3 years ago, she started to rapidly go downhill. As a matter of fact, the day after Thanksgiving is when we were at the "good" Oncologist who told us that mom had already surpassed her life expectancy for her diagnosis, and probably had only a few months left. It is interesting how these dates stick in my head. It was the year after mom died that we figured out Akila has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). I wish we had known when mom was alive as Akila drove her nuts! My understanding and patience for Akila have grown tremendously since we figured out her FASD (and it still needs to grow). I think it would have helped my mom be more patient with her as well. I will stop rambling now. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! P.S. I also had to post a picture of my kids since I figured out how to upload the pictures! Hezekiah is on the far left, then Akila, Imani with hear arm around Zeke who has the cheesy smile.