Tagumpay (Victory) Part 2

continuation ...

i remember crying to my husband about this dyslexia thing. of course, as the mother, i can't accept this. but my husband would not hear about this. he insisted that my son is not dyslexic. he just needs extra help. and so, i gave him all the help i can give him. i know it was really tough for miggy and i was careful not to break his little soul. but it was tough for me too. i was trying to balance my career and my motherhood. around that time, my boss resigned so his responsibilities were transferred to me.

now, i haven't even talked about his mandarin classes. as i said, we are not chinese and none of us speaks a word of chinese. so, learning mandarin for miggy, i believe, was the toughest. i had to get a tutor to help him with his homework. he was even taken out of the mainstream mandarin classes to another class consisting of those students who just doesn't get mandarin. learning han yu pinyin was difficult. learning the chinese characters were the extreme! whenever miggy has a homework in mandarin, i would spend about 3 hours browsing every page of his 4 mandarin books looking for the chinese characters in his homework to get the han yu pinyin counterpart. once, i have the han yu pinyin, i will use the internet to translate it to english. tough. really.

but through miggy's hard work, i noticed he got better. he overcame his letter problems. i noticed he is quite good in math. his mandarin tutor said he is getting better. and i forgot about dyslexia. i thought, well, i just overreacted in the beginning.

then came september. again, i received a note from school. this time, i was informed that my son was just screened for dyslexia and, again, i have to attend a parents' orientation about the school's dyslexia program. just when i thought everything was already getting better!

for this, again, i cried. i told my husband maybe it's about time i quit my career and concentrate on my kids. i asked him, what use do i have for my career and the money i am earning if my kids are suffering? i felt guilty. i would always remember a friend who would always drop everything she's doing for weeks every time her son would have an exams. her life would stop just so she could help her son revise his lessons. and i kept thinking, i should do the same. i have to do the same.

but i also thought, my son can't be dyslexic! i mean, i know my son. dyslexics' memory is not good. miggy's memory is very good! sometimes, he surprises me with the things that he remembers. take him to a place once and he'd remember it. he'd hear a song once, and next thing i know, i'm hearing him sing it. so, he can't be dyslexic.

during the orientation, we were told that the kids were screened based on their teachers' feedbacks. they were the kids whom the teachers suspect could be dyslexic. but around that time, the results were not yet out. and we still have to wait for october for the results. we were told that by october, if my son is proven to be dyslexic, i would receive a note and another invitation to attend a full-blown parents orientation. and so we waited.

and waited. meanwhile, i continued guiding miggy with his studies. i got him an exercise book for math. i bought books that are interesting for his age like spiderwick, beastly business, etc. i also regularly brought him to the library to further increase his interest in books.

october passed and i didn't receive anything. my husband and i were both anxious about the results. i even called up the school to ask about about it. but i was told to just wait for their note. and so, we waited again.

then, november came. and i received a note. finally!

but it wasn't what i was expecting. the note said that i am invited to attend the school's prize-giving day because my son will be receiving the best in progress award! omg! to be honest, i wasn't sure at first of what award he's really getting. i thought maybe it's most friendly or something like that. today, i told a friend that miggy received an award in school, and her reaction was, "what did he get? is it the most friendly student award?" so, i do have reason to think that maybe that's what he was getting because miggy is known to be very friendly.

but when my husband talked to miggy's teacher and it was confirmed that indeed he is getting the best in progress award, i had a big sigh of relief. it was as if a very big thorn was removed from within me. this award is not merely an achievement for miggy. no. this award is a symbol of his success. miggy has triumphed against every challenge he faced this year. he has proven that he is not dyslexic. and he has proven that he is what i thought he is.

in miggy's own words, "finally, all the hard work has paid off!" and that is victory indeed!

^_^