SHE DID IT!

Don't get me wrong, your little ones running around in graduation caps are adorable! Really, the cuteness of each and every one of them on Facebook makes me smile. But in general, I tend to side with Bob from The Incredibles when it comes to pre-school, kindergarten, even elementary school graduations:

Helen: I can't believe you don't want to go to your own son's graduation.

Bob: It's not a graduation. He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.

Helen: It's a ceremony!

Bob: It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...

Since we didn't have any superhero world-saving to otherwise occupy us, my parents, Jon, and I attended Angie's "ceremony" for moving from 5th grade to 6th grade, yesterday. 

As the children crossed the stage, some all dolled up seemingly ready for prom, some wearing the polo and khakis of their class uniform, the school counselor read what awards lay waiting for them in their big white envelope. Principal's Gold Award, Principal's Silver Award, Citizenship Award, Orchestra something or other, Perfect Attendance, Most Improved Math, Academic Achievement Science, Academic Achievement Writing, Academic Achievement Reading, Academic Achievement All Subjects, etc. etc. etc. Since we had nothing but time while we waited for the processional to reach the "S" of Spears, I leaned over to Jon and facetiously asked "What do you think Angie will get?" He gently replied, "A Certificate of Diploma!" with a tone of voice that shamed me for thinking anything could be greater.

You see, it's one thing for a child to glide seamlessly from one grade to the next, advancing from pre-K, to K, to 1st,... 5th, and then make the jump into the great unknown of middle school. And I don't doubt each step of that progression might have been fraught with obstacles for many children. I mean it's no less than a miracle to get them out of bed some days, then add learning to read, to write, HOMEWORK, bullies, multiplication, division, long division, crushes on boys, the state capitals.........

 But what Angie has done is another thing all together, and nothing short of incredible!  Before Angie made it into the orphanage where I found her, she lived with a family who treated her very poorly, so poorly in fact that they only put her in school for about a week, then pulled her out when the school required her to have supplies. So, there was no pre-K in Angie's background, nor kindergarten. She finally started elementary school once she'd escaped to Talita Cumi, but by this point she was way behind. 

First grade for her was half days in a Bolivian Spanish public school for kids from orphanages. Then I turned her world upside down. For less money than it would have cost me to get her daycare for the second half of the day, I switched her to a Bolivian bi-lingual private school for 2nd grade. After a year of learning some English from Bolivian accented teachers, we realized we might be coming back to the States so we switched her to an international school, where she had U.S. teachers, U.S. curriculum, and the entire day was in English. The school year also flipped from the Southern hemisphere to using the Northern school calendar, so we could either drop her back a semester or bump her up one. Since she was so far behind already we convinced her 3rd grade teacher to let her skip half of a year, and we crammed a semester of 3rd grade in at home over Christmas break.

After one semester of 3rd grade, she began 4th at the same school. One semester later, we moved back to the U.S. where the policy is to put a child in the grade where their age belongs. So she then skipped the second half of 4th grade and the first half of 5th to join her peers in a new culture and still perplexing language. So, to sum up: Angie skipped half of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades while switching languages, cultures and families. Talk about a recipe for stress!

Although I would not in a million years recommend this accelerated method to anyone who's IQ is less than say 200, we made it. She made it! With the help of her grandparents, teachers like Lisa Speyers, Martha Thomas, Rachel Rogers, and God Himself, Angie has graduated fifth grade against all odds. 

I'm fully aware that we have a ways to go before she's reading on a sixth grade level, or understands U.S. history, but we've come a long way Baby, and I'm so proud of her!