Switched at Birth Part 2

The picture was made Easter of 1966 maybe?  I would have been in either 4th or 5th grade. I am on the right front.

 Psalm 46:1 says:  "God is our strong refuge; he is truly our helper in times of trouble. (Net Bible)  If I had not had God in my life, I'm not sure how I would have made it through my 4th, 5th and 6th grade years. 

As I mentioned in "Switched at Birth Part 1", as I started my fourth grade year, we were living in the mountains of NC.  To be specific, Marshall, NC. As the school year started, I was placed in a class with an excellent fourth grade teacher.  However, that was not for long.  Dad had accepted a church  in Canton, NC.  That meant we would be moving and I'd have to attend a different school.  

It also meant moving to a town that had a paper mill with a bad odor.  To hang the clothing on the line to dry meant being sure of the wind direction or you would end up with little yellow spots on the what you had hung on the line.  You never got used to the odor.

This was my older sister's senior year of high school.  Dad decide that it would be best if she did not have to transfer schools her senior year and arranged for her to live with one of his sisters  in South Carolina.  That was very hard on me as I was very close to this sister.  Every time she came home for a visit, I cried for her to not go  back.

I have often heard my students talk about having very bad teachers in math in their early schooling.  I often think that they believe that I don't understand that.  There they are very wrong.  This became the year that I found out what it was like to have  a very bad teacher. 

It started when for some reason mom and dad needed me to leave school early one day for some reason.  I had a note to that affect and was sure to ask for my homework that would be due the next day.  She told me there was none.  However the next day, I received a zero (0) on my math homework.  Of course I had not  done the homework as she had told me that there would be none.  She also told me that I should have called a friend to find out what I had missed.  A friend? I had not been there long enough to make friends.

My parents expected me to obey the teachers and to do my best work in school.  If I got in trouble at school, I was also in trouble at home.  Mom and dad did not often come to my defense when I got in trouble at school. I could only recall one other time that had happened.  That was in first grade when my teacher slapped me in the face for talking in class. I was in trouble for talking in class but mom let the teacher know that she was never to slap me in the face again. It was okay to paddle me on my behind, but not to slap me in the face.  Well, this became the second time that they came to my defense. They went to the principle about the mater and he tood the teacher's side.  I found someone in the class that I could call to find out what I had missed from then on.

Many things happened that year.  Mom and dad. who usually were not involved in the Parent Teacher Association, got involved in the PTA.

It was also during this school year that I had the Three Day Measles and the Mumps. I had just gotten over the measles or so we thought when over spring break we drove to Panama City, FL where dad would be preaching the revival in the church where his brother attended.  On the way down, my sister and I broke back in with the measles.  We were still welcomed into my uncle's home and the measles  didn't last long.  However, I was sent with the cousins to an Easter Egg Hunt at the church and my older cousin and I were not allowed to take part as we were too old for this group.  I then got sick and had to be taken to the ER as they thought I might have appendicitis.  I didn't have it and they said most likely a slight case of food poisoning.

My 5th grade year was a little better.  At least the teacher tried to make school enjoyable for us.  She was the vice principle.  Each term we did a craft project.  I thought that was so neat.

Now let me note here that this school's form of PE was not fun. We did jumping jacks, and ran and ran and ran.  The principle of the school was our PE person and he told me that if I fell again, he would paddle me.  I didn't fall again but  my younger sister did. We were running on payment and there was rock salt on it from snow we had earlier that week.  She fell and really messed her knee up from the fall.  Her 4th grade teacher and the principle did nothing to help her.  However the 5th grade teacher did try to stop the bleeding and called mom. I'd loved to have been hidden when mom got there because her first question was did they paddle her.  They had not and wanted to know why that question.  Mom reminded them of what the principle had said to me. 

It was around this time that I started to have a health concern that was never really figured out.  I'd double over in pain in my right side.  The doctor had us get some green, nasty tasting  medication that help some.

The summer after my 5th grade year, the local eye doctor convinced my parents that I should have eye surgery to correct my crossed eyes.  He also insisted that they take me to Johnson City, TN where there was a world known eye hospital and surgeon.  This surgeon became my doctor.  That summer I had the surgery and was on of the first to have both eyes corrected at one time and no  bandages applied after the surgery.  This also meant no more glasses for some years.  However, just before I was taken into surgery, the doctor came and told my parents that they had found a heart murmur . They did not feel it was bad enough to stop me from having the surgery and promised to keep a close eye on me.  

A funny thing happened in surgery that could have turned out really bad.  I hated the smell of the gas they were using to put me out. I got very still and very quiet, but they kept on holding the mask over my face.  That is when I spoke up and said "You can start now, I'm asleep."  They later reported that they had honestly thought I was asleep and were fixing to start the surgery when I spoke up.  Good thing I spoke up.

The next morning was not fun. I woke up to find that I could open neither eye and the doctor missed me on his rounds.  So they took me downstairs to the clinic and my eyes were okay.

I was in the hospital for about a week and during this time  we watched lots of car racing with the group gathered around the TV in the waiting room/lobby of the hospital.  I still enjoy a good car race.

Upon returning home, I say my usual doctor and he explained the heart murmur was small and most likely would close on its own as I got older.  It never did but has caused very few problem

Then came 6th grade.  I had two teachers.  The principle was the  math person.  I had a  local minister's wife for English.  This was my worst year of all.  Math had always been an easy subject for me and I loved it.  But this year we started signed numbers and I just could not understand how to do the math. Mom and dad could not help me and dad was usually very good with math.  They actually got a girl down the street from us to tutor me.

I always set at the front or close to the front of the class so I could see well, but also so I could hear.  I recall in class one day that  I didn't hear what the teacher said.  I asked her to repeat and she would not and she made fun of me and claimed I was not paying attention.  I started to cry.  She sent me to the office and I got a bad lecture about about my crying.  I must of cried a lot that year as someone from the school sent social services to our house.  However, they backed off when mom explained the situation at the school. 

Mom and dad get very active in PTA.  Even serving as the president.  I remember dad getting many calls from parents about things happening at the school.  In the meantime, he discovered that the principle was going to run for political office.  He got to checking the school board policies on this  and it wasn't long until the principle resigned.  We got a really neat person to teach in his place.  This teacher would even sneak us out before time for recess so we could play ball and have fun in place of running!

Things were so bad at the school my parents even considered putting us in a private school.  There were none in our town.

There were good things that happened while living there.  I got to be a part of GA's which was an organization for girls that was part of the Women's Missionary Union of our denomination. I had always wanted to be a part of that organization.  Mom had been the leader at the first church dad had pastored and I go to attend only because of that.  We did lots of fun things and learned much abount missions around the world and we did missions in our community.  I started working on my forwards steps which were an important part of GA's.  I know I finished my Maiden step while there and most likely some others.  In doing so, I learned many scriptures from memory and the importance of reading my Bible daily.

I also made some friends and we would visit each other and play games.  The church was a growing and active church and I remember many fellowships in the basement of our house.  The church owned the house.

Mom's sister's family would come and spend some weekends at the house.  I had a cousin a few years older than me.  He, my younger sister and I would  set in the middle of the bed and play Monopoly.  When it was time for him to go home, we would write down where we were and who had what.  The next time they came we would continue the game.  When I lived in Oklahoma years later, this cousin moved close by.  When I'd go visit him and his family, we would play Monopoly.

I also learned the lesson of death.  Every week there were one or two funerals at the church.  Many deaths were paper mill related if it could have been proved.  The church grew and needed space.  Dad designed the new educational building but God called him to another place before it was built. 

It was while here that God began to work with me concerning  missions and also laid on my heart to teach math.

Canton was a special place even though school was no fun.  In 2012 as I drove my mom back to SC, she suddenly said as we went in to NC that she'd like to go to Canton.  I asked why.  She explained that she would like to see a lady that lived just the other side of the church on our street.  I took her to Canton that day.  We got to visit the mother of the girl that tutored me as well as the lady mom wanted to visit and her daughter.  When no one came to the door of the home where mom wanted to visit, she went across the  street to ask about the person. As soon as she the lady who she was, she and I were welcomed with open arms.  We did get to visit the person mom wanted to see also that day and again we were were welcomed with open arms.

More to follow in "Switched at Birth Part 3".

Switched at Birth Part 1

 

The picture  is me in first grade.  I was crying because the photographer tried to make me take off my glasses and mom and had told me not to do that.

Psalm 139 speaks of us being fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Today as I was doing errands, I got to thinking of all that has happened in my life. It is a miracle that I am even here. I want to share part of my story with you today. I'll call it "Switched at Birth Part 1" 

My parents had one child and then mom lost the next child. After nine years God heard their prayers and gave them me. When it came time for me to go home from the hospital I was switched with another baby. God let my mother know that she had the wrong child and she insisted  to the nurse that she had brought her the wrong baby and that was true. By the time I was 4 years of age, my parents knew something was wrong. I could not walk across the floor without falling over my two feet. Thanks to the Lions Club, I got glasses to correct for my very crossed eyes. I also had a speech defect. So in first and second grade I had to go to a speech specialist at my school. I hated it because I had to miss part of my class for that day. 

My Dad was ordained as a Baptist minister when I was 4. His pay was about $25 a week. So he and mom worked in the cotton mills to make ends meet. I learned from them during this time that I was loved and God provides. Mom made most of my cloths from seconds that cost just a few cents a yard and Dad's sister gave her fabric many times. We always had Bible Study and prayer each night. So, I learned what the Bible taught at an early age.

 My first grade Easter is one I'll never forget. I had the chicken pox for the second time along with the German Hard measles. I didn't get to go to church that Sunday. Mom taught me my Sunday School lesson in bed and gave me the sugar marshmallow chicks to eat. 

During an August revival the summer between my 1st and 2nd grades, God touched my heart during the revival and since I often slept during preaching at church, I told mom that if I was sleeping at invitation time to please wake me up. I didn't fall asleep that night. I went forward and prayed for Jesus to come into my heart. A couple of nights later, my younger sister (15 months younger) and I were left in the pew as mom went to help share the gospel with people who were coming forward. I knew what the Bible taught about baptism. I pulled my sister one pew at a time until we were at the front pew. I seated her on the front pew and went forward to ask for baptism. I was later baptized in a river. My Dad, who had quite school in 6th grade, finished Bible school by 2nd grade year. By October, he had accepted a new church and we moved way up in the mountains of NC. 

 In the church he pastored the children set up front, women on one side and men on the the other side of the church. Things I recall from there are that on the last day of Vacation Bible School, they mixed all the Kool-aid that was brought into on big pot and it was black or deep brown. There was a young man in a wheel chair who lived across he street from the church and dad made sure he got to come to church. I got bee stung during service one night and a lady form the church took mom and I to her house and put tobacco on the sting and I didn't have a bad reaction as I normally did to stings. That church voted on the pastor every year. I recall being in the car waiting for the results of the vote. The roads were gravel and if meeting another vehicle the smaller had to back to the nearest drive and let the other pass. Heavy rains caused flooding and since the school was on an island in the middle of the French Broad River, we had a week off from school. We didn't know it had flooded and wondered why the school bus had not come that morning. We rented a house from a family that went on down the road and lived in a log cabin where often snakes with get in on the logs. They needed the rent money. By the way we stayed until I was in fourth grade. 

During this time I learned that God loved even me and it didn't matter that I wore glasses or sometimes still had problems with certain words in my speech. More to come in Switched a Birth 2.