[Nfbwv-talk] updates on the Svendsens

[Keri Svendsen]

good morning all,

Some of you know that Nicolai doesn't know grade 2 braille. He only 
knows grade 1 english braille because he took a course in it in Denmark 
by his own wanting. Well, we've been meaning to start grade 2 lessons, 
but life has been so crazy and busy for us. We begun yesterday however, 
and day 1 was a success. I did want to share a very funny moment with 
you all. He was reading, and I was following along and he came across 
the word jabbed, but he said jab bed. It may not seem as funny in text, 
but I assure you that the way it was said cracked us both up. He will 
sometimes say words like this with weird accents. Those that know 
Nicolai may find it hard to believe that this happens from time to time 
since his english is so great, but it does.
He had fun with his lessons, and I did too. At least I have my husband 
to be my test dummy before I actually tutor someone in braille in the 
future!

For the past few months my pain has been much better. I'm still in pain all the time, but I'm managing it much better now. My medicine dosage has been raised, and it should stay where it is. I stay tired though, so that is the big problem  I plan to start doing light exercise at my school's fitness center when it opens back up in August. It has been closed because CU is doing renavations to two of its dorms this summer, and the fitness center is in one of those dorms.

For those who don't know as of May 11, 2016 Nicolai is a permament resident of the US. We are pretty excited, and the interview with immigration was painless. He has been accepted to CU where he will study Social Work with a minor in pre-law. We are hoping he can attend starting this fall, but it may be spring. We are still waiting to see if FAFSA will give him any money to attend school. He has been awarded a scholarship from CU just for being international that is 1500 a semester for a year. DRS may not be able to support him for fall, and if we can't get the additional cost figured out, then he'll have to wait for spring when DRS can cover the remaining cost. It's a bit frustrating, but we are hoping and praying. He'll get instate costs, so his will be around 3 thousand and five or six hundred. My cost for the semester is three thousand sixhundred and fifteen, so his will be close to that.

The final thing I wanted to share with you is that I took on a 12 year old girl through a program called WE Can this past spring as a mentee, and I was pretty sure it would be a good match and work. Well, Cheyenne got distant from everyone, and got to the point where she wanted to do nothing, and her mom would make her do things with me. Sometimes she had fun, and other times she was grumpy. Her baby sister though who is 9 took to me quick. Gracie and I grew closer over the coming months, and as June 29 Gracie is officially my mentee now too. Cheyenne these days never does anything with me, but that's ok Gracie and I spend a lot of time having fun. We may be discontinuing the match between Cheyenne and I offically, but I'll still see her of course. I'm fine with it either way, but I hope that a mentor can be found who may be able to connect with her more. Both girls may kill me with these six hour swimmeets first though. lol They both are on the  local swimteam, and I promised them I'd go to every meet there was room for me. I've kept my promise, and I sit through the icky heat of their indoor pool for home games, and cheer them on.

  I ask that those of you who pray please continue to pray for us, and for those who don't please send good thoughts our way.
-- 
Keri Svendsen