gabe’s trip to the zoo.

Our friend from church, Mrs. Peggy (pronounced “Miss Peggy” by us Southerners), is a retired school teacher, and comes over once a week to tutor Gabe.

He loves anything to do with science and nature, so this year they’ve used studying about animals to work on concentration, retention, and to practice articulating the things he’s learning. Gabe’s very smart, and it’s obvious there’s so much going on in that head of his, we’re working to help him use his words to express himself.

After several weeks of studying animals, Gabe and Mrs. Peggy took a trip to the zoo, just the two of them. He was thrilled for the one-on-one attention, and told her when they arrived, “I want to see every single animal.” He loves details and learning how things work, and wanted to use the map to navigate.

We have a big zoo, so they didn’t quite make it to every exhibit, but they came close!

I’ve seen Gabe flourish so much even in these last six months. Interacting with people has been such a challenge to him, not because he’s shy, but I think struggling with language has made him hang back. We’ve loved see him “find his words” through lots of practice, and with that, his confidence in social settings has grown.

Noah used to be our most outgoing kid, but now I see Gabe march up to kids his age on the playground and play with them. He’s become more comfortable at church. He used to feel overwhelmed when grown-ups spoke to him, but more and more, I’ll glance over from my own conversations to see him off chatting with someone.

He’s especially drawn to people his grandparents’ age and has quite a few buddies he likes to talk with on Sundays. He asked to sit with our friend PJ at church last week, which made my heart happy. I love seeing him find his place.

Being apart of church plants, I grew up with so many adult friends and mentor figures with whom we did life, and I’ve always prayed for those relationships for my kids. Especially as they enter those tricky tween and teen years, I want them to have adults they trust who they can talk to when Mom and Dad may not always be at the top of the list.

We’re so very thankful for Mrs. Peggy, and the other people in our life who pour into our kids.