September 21, 2003
This is Polar helping us in the yard after the hurricane came through! He just loves to help!

And, here is Polar with his big Golden sister, Xyla. He is showing her the neat stuffed animal a very nice lady at Goldstock got for him. She gave it too him as she said she saw it and immediately thought of him! It is so very nice, don't you think?

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October 5, 2003

This is Polar in the school gymnasium meeting two of the four new students in his class! I think he was pretty excited to be back at school with the children. And, that ball must look like something interesting as well!

As we drove to the school for our scheduled visit on September 26th, I wondered how the children would react to Polar visiting them without his wheelchair. He has been doing so well without it, able to stay up for very long periods of time. And, he seems to be 100 times more comfortable out of the wheelchair as in. So, Polar and I decided to do our visit without it!

We entered the front door of the school as we normally do, buzzing in. As we made it to the carpet inside the front door, I heard Mrs. Harsh yell from up the hallway that they were ready for us to come on down! So off we went. The hallways are very slippery as the janitorial staff at Brechnock do such a great job. That causes Polar to have a small problem negotiating the halls, but we managed, and into the classroom we went.

The children were all at their desks working on pictures that they were coloring, practicing their color instructions. They wanted to tell Polar what they were doing, but to my surprise they didn't recognize Polar or myself. Chanse and Rosa didn't seem to want to talk to Polar at first because they didn't know who he was. But we persisted, my explaining to them that it was indeed Polar without his wheels and that he was very interested in what they were doing! We went to each desk and talked to each child. Then, when they were sure it was Polar, they all started asking a million questions all at once. So, we had to go to the front of the room and get in a circle so that the questions could be answered.

They all wanted to know where Polar's wheelchair was and how he was able to walk without it, along with lots of other questions. We, of course, tried to answer them all. Then it was time for us to go. Why does the time always fly by so fast during our visits? We said good-bye and out the door we walked. That was a very good feeling, walking out the door with Polar. He just knew that what he was doing was very special!

Polar is such a good guy and was on his best behavior. I asked Mrs. Brown the next day if it was a problem for him to come to visit out of his wheelchair, due to the reaction the students had towards him. But, she said absolutely not and to do what Polar was most comfortable with doing. She and the children are very excited about his improvement and that it is a blessing he is able to walk. I agree. So, probably on future visits we will be wheelchair-less, as long as Polar is comfortable.

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