“What has SOAR meant to my family? In order to truly express that, you must understand our lives before SOAR. None of us ever asked to become a special needs family, but you learn to laugh and cry, and laugh in spite of it all. Above all, we have learned to rely on our faith in God. Hayden has brought us inexpressible JOY. But watching him struggle in school has brought us untold sorrow.

Prior to coming to SOAR, Hayden had truly lost his JOY for learning. As a veteran teacher of 22 years, 14 of which was spent teaching special education, I know that special needs children frequently fall through the cracks. Hayden not only fell through the cracks, when he went to middle school, he fell into an abyss of hopelessness and despair. He hated school. The day that he came home and said to me “Mom those people at school don’t understand me. They don’t think I’m smart”, was the day my heart broke. Not only was my child not thriving and progressing in school, he was actually regressing. Hayden didn’t receive any instruction on his level. All types of therapy had been cut out because they didn’t relate to academics. It felt like we were in a war for our child. And we were losing!

Then we found SOAR and it felt as if someone had declared a “cease fire!” We had arrived! It feels like we have finally come home. SOAR has given Hayden his JOY back. Now, he cannot wait to get up and go to school. His entire attitude and outlook has changed. Now he feels confident, worthy, smart and most importantly, he is happy and loves learning. Every day when he gets home, he can’t wait to show me what he learned at school that day. I am so amazed at the progress in his reading and writing skills. But, SOAR not only provides for the children’s academic needs, they serve the whole child….academics, therapy, skills of daily living, and most importantly lots of love and dedication.

Even though it has placed an enormous financial burden on our family, it is by far the most “bang for our buck” that we have ever gotten. We truly don’t know from month to month where we will get the money for Hayden’s tuition. But we know in our hearts, that God led us to SOAR and that it is where God wants Hayden to be. So, we just have faith that God will provide the means for Hayden to attend SOAR.

If you’ve ever read Emily Perl Kingsley’s “Welcome to Holland” (below), SOAR has definitely proven to be the very special, very beautiful things about “Holland”… beautiful tulips, windmills and Rembrandts for our family. Most people see things and say “Why”; But Teresa Loving and her staff DREAM things and say “Why not?” These ladies hold each child at SOAR’s heart with love and their hand with encouragement. They give all they can from their hearts. They have shown us as parents that we can dream new dreams for our children.  Dreams for our children to SOAR!"

~Sarah O., Hayden’s mother~

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.