We Made It! - First Full Week of School

Jessica made it through her first first full week of school with classes all day. It started off pretty good. The usual routine is - come home and do homework and get to bed by 8:30. She did take our dog on a short walk down the street (maybe 1/2 mile?) a couple of nights. And one day, she met some friends at Sonic for a cherry vanilla root beer and a short visit - to celebrate a friend's birthday - on her way home from school.

Most nights so far, the homework hasn't been too bad, so we've had a little time to unwind in front of the tv. We've found that we love the dvr! We record our favorite shows and watch them the next night. Why watch them the night they're on when you can watch the following night and skip commercials! That and it makes it easier to make our 8:30 bedtime. Wednesday night we were watching "America's Got Talent" from the night before, when Jessica asked how much longer was left. I realized that meant she was tired. It was just 7:30, but we turned off the tv and got ready for bed.

Thursday morning she said she was tired, but headed on out to school. (So far, she's been waking up with her alarm ok.) I noticed on Facebook a little later that morning that she'd changed her status to "Jessica is not feeling well :(." So, I kept my phone closeby - but she made it through the day. She said that morning at school, she felt really tired, her throat was hurting, and everyone was telling her that she looked pale. She laid her head down on her desk, and her teacher gave her some papers to pass out - telling her that getting up and passing out the papers would help her wake up. Ugh! I did email the teachers explaining CFS, but I'm not sure that everyone still gets it. Jessica dozed off in class the other day, so I thought it was best that they have a little background.

In Jessica's favorite class, Creative Writing, they are writing they're memoirs. Jessica chose to write on her journey with CFS and how her faith has helped her through it. As she was working on her second draft of it last night, she read it to me. I was in tears by the time she was through. I'm amazed at how she has such a good handle on things, her strength, her faith, and her willingness to share her whole story including the ups and downs. They've been reading their memoirs in front of the class. In this memoir, she talks about being healed though "this nagging problem [CFS] will never go away, and I'm ok with that, because I know that the Lord has something better in store for me." I am so very proud of her! And guess what she titled her essay - A Time To Heal.

Overall, it's been a pretty good first week.