Our wonderful Aislyn is quite often the subject of my prayers. So much of the time I feel completely inadequate in raising her. Things I do with the other children just don't work for her. Sometimes things can feel pretty hopeless. But where do you turn when things are hard, when things don't make sense, when it all just seems pointless? I have learned that there's only one place you can turn. Heavenly Father. So it was at the beginning of this summer. Aislyn had spent a year in public school with tons of special help and attention and still had not made any progress academically that I could see. And her self esteem had been decimated because of the human tendency for comparison. I took her back out of school. But now what? I just wanted so much for her to start reading, to see a glimmer of hope. And so I prayed and I prayed. I prayed that this would be the summer that Aislyn learned how to read. In my head I pictured it being a torturous summer of crying, temper tantrums but that if I persevered enough, if we worked hard enough, she would learn.
And then I met Karen Davidson. I met her just two weeks after I began earnestly praying for my baby girl to learn to read. I do not have the words to adequately describe my admiration and love for this wonderful woman! She raised seven boys of her own and home schooled them part of the time. She has developed, written, and had published her own reading curriculum called Number Phonics. She spends so much of her time in charitable pursuits. She is such an example to me.
She started coming to our home two days a weeks and working with Aislyn with her reading program. It has been nothing short of a miracle. Where no method or approach seemed to reach her before, Karen Davidson did! Aislyn has progressed by leaps and bounds. I have even found her reading for fun all by herself. The process has been nothing but a joy. No crying or temper tantrums. And although I was willing to do just about anything, I didn't have to. An angel was sent and did the work for me. Sometimes all we have to do is humble ourselves and ask!
I am so thankful for this miracle in our family. I am so thankful beautiful people who live their lives so as to be the answer to other peoples' prayers. Most of all I am thankful for a heavenly Father who knows and loves me and my family. He provides everything and knows best how everything can work out.
