for Jena. This is Jena waiting for the bus on Monday, August 28th, and ready for her first day of school at the Vista Education Center. This year she will attend there on Mondays and Fridays. She was excited to see her teachers and her friends.
However, the bigger event came on Monday evening when another grand adventure and school day began for her. This is what I wrote on Facebook:
When we adopted Jena, one of the questions/comments I often heard was "But she will always live with you." In deciding whether to adopt a child, our question was "Is this the right child for us?"--we tried not to try to worry too far in advance about the "ifs and buts" of the future. However when she was very little, I would sometimes think that our life was going to look different from our friends. But by the time she was five or six I was more "how lucky are we that she will always live with us." It was kind of my "ace up the sleeve." When my friends lamented about their kids growing up and moving away, I felt contented because we would be blessed by Jena always in our home.
Until last night......... when this young adult started her new adventure in the Wonderwood College Bridge program. She will be living in an apartment in Provo from Monday night through Thursday afternoon with 2 other girls with Down syndrome and 3 BYU students. They will visit college classes in the mornings on Tuesday and Thursday on BYU campus and then come back for afternoon classes in cooking, speech, reading and math. Wednesday Hannah Price one of their roommates and an amazing mentor will take them on a young adult activity during the day and to Institute at night.
Jena has been saying that she was going to college since she was little and she did it! It will be an amazing experience (and experiment). She has not stopped smiling since we ask her about 3 weeks ago if she wanted to do it.
Yesterday evening as we were moving boxes in, some students from the complex stopped in to meet the girls and invite them to Family Night Outdoor Movie night in the yard just north of their townhome. Without hesitation, Jena was ready to go. After getting names and phone numbers, Jena was off and got to watch "Sandlot" on a blanket with about 30 other students, It was a perfect beginning to her college adventure. I am not going to lie...I teared up when I stepped out and watched her surrounded by her peers on the grass. Life is good!
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A terrible picture, but a perfect way to start her College Bridge experience.
And I know which face is hers laying on the grass with the biggest smile possible
on her face!! |
She has been preparing for days and gathering the needed supplies. Sometimes I would walk in her room and see her sitting on the floor surrounded by her "stuff" organizing things and I would have to walk out and compose myself--it is the same with each of the people I get to call my children--when stuff is being backed up and they are headed in a new direction--it is that strange feeling of excitement, love, and sorrow all rolled up in one--and this happened whether it is the first time they left or after several times. Motherhood----
On the wall in Jena's room is a quote she chose years ago:
It was perfect for preparing for this next adventure in her life.
Moving in evening----
Gary and I both came down--I from work and Gary with Jena and all of her stuff. We first visited Ben and had Chinese food with him and then headed to the apartment. Gary helped carry in her boxes and then headed home. I was planning on helping Jena get settled but as mentioned before, she got invited to an outdoor movie so off she went. That gave me an opportunity to spend some time with Sara's mom and to meet Hannah's mom as well. Hannah is the person we have hired to provide some structure for the girls. Her mom, Robyn, wanted to come and "meet the moms were so brave to do this for their daughters." She has a 17 year old daughter with Down syndrome named Kylie. She was more tearful than we were. It was so fun to meet her as well. In the mix of our conversations, we discovered that her husband served a mission in Hong Kong in the early 1980s and that Sara's sister Laurel had served in the late 1990s...small world!
After the movie ended, I said my goodbyes to Jena and headed up to Eileen Bradford's home in northern Provo. She is a close friend from Hong Kong days....and it probably isn't a surprise to anyone that we talked until 1:30 a.m. You would think we were old enough to know better than that.
Tuesday morning I headed back to the apartment to meet the girls and Vicki Elhen (the mastermind of all of this) to help with the BYU orientation for the girls. I can't walk around the campus without being filled with great memories and so it was as I walked with Jena on this first day of her College Bridge program.
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| the townhouse |
Heading to campus for the first time as a group----
Sending texts at the landmark "Rock" which is one potential meeting spot for them.
We visited inside some of the buildings to give them a flavor of the university. Jena picked the Eyring Science Building which we had visited a month ago.
Ice cream at the Wilkinson Center--Emily, Jena and Sara
Jena unpacked and set up her room by herself with no problem...
After our campus tour, I joined Eileen, Dad and Eileen's mom and sister for lunch in Provo while the girls had their first afternoon of Wonderwood which is their reading, math, computer, and speech part of this program.
Then I headed back to the apartment to deliver pizza for their first apartment dinner and found them with Hannah doing a puzzle Jena had brought. They didn't want to stop to eat pizza then so I grabbed a piece and headed back to Syracuse.....and really left Jena there.
Hannah sent this selfie of the four of them on Wednesday when they headed out to go bowling. They will do an activity from 10-2 each Wednesday and they are being joined by Amy (who has autism and is partially deaf) and her aide as well. From all reports they had a great time.............
When I saw Jena on Thursday evening when I got home from work, she was happy but very, very tired.....it probably had something to do with late nights in the apartment. She sent me a good night text at 12:47 on Wednesday night. When I asked her about it, she said she and Emily (who share a room) were having fun.
And so the grand adventure/experience/experiment begins............Scott called a week ago and was asking me what the purpose of this was (he was expressing some of his worries for her safety), I told him that 1-It was one of her goals for herself and even if it only lasts one semester no one can take away that she accomplished her goal and 2. The more independence she can achieve the better she will be able to function in adult life--at work, volunteering or at Church. Even if she always lives with us, these experiences of young adulthood will be great for her.
(Do we worry, yes! But I am a mom and I worry about all of you...and your spouses....and your children! It is what I do. Hopefully we have made it as safe as possible, but whatever happens, we are just taking it one day, one week at a time.)
Jena is a Cougar!!! Classes start this week.
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