Life doesn’t need to be easy to be beautiful. Our eldest was born on a summer day when it was already getting a little cooler. She was tiny, but a fighter. We learned right there, minutes after being born, that she had a congenital defect on her left foot. She was born with Talipes Equinovarus, also known as clubfoot. It didn’t change one bit about how we felt about the love that was growing in our hearts by the minute. So many other challenges arrived in her life, trying to shake her, but she is unstoppable. We had so many doctors’ visits for many different reasons, but not one hinted at seeking a diagnosis for Autism and ADHD. We used to joke that she was hyper, but always as something funny and not as an actual and life-changing condition. Fast forward to January 2024, we finally got an official diagnosis: no schools, pediatricians, any other health care provider, etc nobody pointed us to the right direction. We had to find it on our own with lots of tears and sleepless nights. She started pre-school in 2023 and didn’t enjoy it very much. We blamed Covid. She started the school year with zero friends and left it with zero and a million questions in our minds. Kindergarten was not much different. She was learning slow, but steady, however thats when we learned she did not enjoy the school one bit. The idea of going, having friends, a teacher was all nice, but would not keep her focused and entertained for the entire day. The end of Kindergarten we had our first IEP meeting and it was DENIED. The school offered us a 504 Plan instead because we thought 1) we could change it to an IEP whenever we have decided that the 504 acccomodations were no longer helping her, 2) she was not keeping up academically with grade levels,3) had behaviors, 4) worst one: in our minds we thought that maybe, just maybe she was not that “special.” All of the above were wrong. She hated being in school in first grade as much as I hated taking her and chasing the administration to finally give us an IEP. After pushing our concerns under the rugs over and over again, they finally said NO IEP one more time. And that was the straw that broke our camel’s back. We didn’t even wanted to fight. We just wanted her to be in the comfort of her home and try to figure out, with us, her family the best way she can learn. We are just beginning this journey, and I know it’s not always going to be rainbows and butterflies, but I fully believe that together, we will learn how to do to this.