Tumaini & Rosslyn Academy

Tumaini is a counseling center run by Africa Inland Mission (AIM) in partnership with many other organizations. People, mostly missionaries, come from all over Africa for counseling at Tumaini. I was surprised at how many missionaries are actually in counseling. The battlefield of the mind seems to be an active place for Satan. If he can't disrupt the actual work, he disrupts the worker. Please pray that we are vigilant in keeping our defenses up with these attacks on and in our minds. That we can identify and hold captive thoughts that are lies planted by the enemy and that we can constantly renew our minds in the Word.

Tumaini is also the place we took Ashley for what we hope will be a positive identification of a learning disability. Strange to say, "I hope my daughter has a learning disability," but it's better than saying, "I hope my daughter is openly defiant of my instruction and that of her teachers!" Before we went, however, we had to complete an 80 question survey of Ashley's behavior. All of her teachers also had to do this. It was supposed to have been completed by Monday morning at 8am, but the teachers didn't get the survey until Thursday and trying to get 4 teachers all to do the survey by Monday at 8am was too much to ask. Consequently, Jeff had to drive to school to obtain the surveys and hand carry them to Tumaini. This was not met with a friendly spirit at the school. Oh well, be that as it may, we were able to continue with our appointment Tuesday even if it had to be pushed back a bit.

The counselor said it is highly likely that Ashley has ADHD with the Hyperactivity portion exhibiting itself as impulsivity rather than hyperactivity. However, he recommended we have a few more sessions and some other testing to identify whether or not she has other factors contributing to this. So, this summer will be a series of tests and counseling sessions to determine how best to help her. Please pray for God's guidance.

Ashley finished up school OK. She brought most of her grades up a little from the first quarter, so we're happy about that. She also got her SAT's back and though her math was very low, her reading levels put her at post high school. Guess I know what we'll be doing this summer...Math!

Pole sana, Ashley! (I'm so sorry.)

Friday we visited the other MK school in Nairobi, Rosslyn Academy. Most of our friends have sent their children there. We opted not to because Rosslyn is an hour away and West Nairobi is 20 minutes away. Rosslyn is also more expensive than WNS. However, we've heard that Rosslyn is better able to handle kids with learning issues and that their students are very welcoming to new kids..something Ashley did not experience at WNS. We weren't able to get Ashley in to shadow for a day at Rosslyn before school let out, and we weren't able to meet with either the Resource Teacher or either of the two second grade teachers, unfortunately. We did get a good tour of the facilities, though. The campus is very large (40 acres), but the student body is nearly twice as large as well. They have more availability for extracurriculars like sports, drama, music, etc. They also have a theater, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool. However, it is also more of a college preparatory school and the academic requirements and responsibilities are greater than those of West Nairobi.

I'm not sure which is the lesser evil: having 5 hours of homework each night, or having no friends at school. Actually, in this last few months, Ashley has made a couple of friends at WNS. It's far from the warm, friendly environment we were hoping for, but it's giant leaps ahead of where she was when we got to Kenya.

Anyway, we were told by Rosslyn admissions that although 6th grade doesn't have any openings just now, we would be put on the list in the first position if we could get our application turned in by Wednesday next week. Seems missionaries have a higher priority than others, so we could slip in before the others in line if they have not yet turned in their applications. We're supposed to turn in a completed IEP (Individual Education Plan) with our application, but we won't even have that until Ashley finishes counseling. Please pray for wisdom for us as we desire to do the best for our daughter and stay in line with God's ultimate plan for her. Sometimes working through difficult situations is God's plan as it grows us in ways that comfort and ease can not.