Brayden Andrew

God never ever ceases to blow me away. 

Just yesterday I spent the entire day feeling inadequate and as though I was running a rat race and there was no piece of cheese at the end of my box.  But I found rest in His word and I started over and I did so with a smile.  It may have taken every effort to put that smile on my face, but I did it just the same.

Today I was rewarded.

Let's talk about this guy right here.

Brayden is a thinker.  He always has been.  When he was little he would always carry around a notebook with him in which he would draw out very calculated and often very outlandish experiments that he made up that he would one day like to do. 

Can an elephant dive from a high dive into a swimming pool?
Could humans create a new planet in our solar system that is life stable and send people to live there if Earth becomes over populated?
What exactly is Styrofoam made out of and why is it so light?

We must have a hundred "journals" around the house full of Brayden's questions and drawings.  He's a smart kid.  In fact he's a very smart kid.

He is also a social kid and an emotional kid.  He's easily distracted because he has so many friends and interests and not enough time in the day to devote to everything.  And he feels thing harder than some other boys his age would.  He takes things to heart.

Brayden is and always was a straight A student.  On Tuesday, however, he brought home a progress report from school saying that he had a C in math. 

I immediately scheduled a conference with his teacher.  No big deal.  If there was something that he wasn't understanding I just wanted more information on the material so that he and I could work on it at home.  Unfortunately his math troubles (and as consequence his devastation and worry over it) compounded with all of my other issues left me feeling as if I had somehow failed my son.  How did I not notice that he was struggling in this subject?

I walking into that school today with the mindset of a parent determined not to see her child lacking in anything.  I walked out as a parent who couldn't be more proud (and who was maybe kicking herself a little for getting so worked up in the first place without having actually having a conversation with the teacher).

Brayden is not struggling with math after all.  He is struggling with boredom and a tendency to rush through his work, which results in careless mistakes.  He knows the material backwards and forwards.  He just doesn't check his work on tests because the call of whatever book he has tucked away in his desk is there.  His teacher told me that he is by far one of the brightest students she has ever had and that he is a massive encouragement to the other students in the class.

Brayden's star is shinning so brightly, there's no limit to how high he can fly.

Yesterday I was a wreck, worried that my baby was struggling and that I wasn't doing all that I could to intercede for him.
Today I had one of that rare moments that truly validates that I am, in fact, a good mother. 
Tomorrow, Brayden will start the evaluation process for testing into his schools gifted program.