The kids have been alone because we were in a city in southern Thailand and there were no international schools. There were only a handful of other missionaries in the city, and none lived close to us. There were a total of 4 other missionary kids in the city, and we saw them from time to time, but not weekly. At one point, we all lived near each other, and the kids played together a few times a week--that was the best year or so for my kids. But then we all moved in different directions...
Matt has a strong faith. In fact, when he came to his conclusion of the "meaninglessness" of life, he began to say, "Why couldn't God just bring me home to Him now that I've accept Him?
I've tried explaining about God's plan for man and how man is to relate to the earth and to one another. And he accepts that for other people, but for himself, he says that he can't be bothered having to learn everything you need to learn to live in the adult world.
Honestly, I think a good deal of it comes from watching his dad--my husband has been having mental health issues, and we are in the process of getting it diagnosed (that's why we are back in the States this year). He is probably bi-polar, and when he is in the depressed state, he doesn't interact with us much. So I think sub-consciously Matt doesn't like what he sees of "adult life" in his dad. After my husband is diagnosed, then we're going to do some family counseling and individual counseling for the kids.
What good does it do to have a pschy. dr. diagnose him as "gifted?" He exhibits many signs--when he was 2 years old, the adults in the church nursery would spend the time talking with my son rather than watching the other kids, and they would tell me how much they enjoyed the conversations with him because he was so deep and philosophical, and it goes on from there--what will a diagnose do for us? When he was about a year old, and Sophia was 3, a friend was working at a pre-school for the gifted, and she said I should read some books about gifted children, as she observed my daughter was very much gifted like the children with whom she was working. I read several books, one of which was a woman's testimony of having been gifted and raising a gifted child. I cried as I read the book because it was like reading a story about my childhood. But I made it through without being clinically diagnosed. Albeit, my school system had a marvelous program for gifted children--in 7th grade thirty of us were separated out from the other 900 and we began high school curriculum, and the last two years of high school we took AP courses. So I was in a peer group just like me--we had similar interests, sense of humor, etc.
So I'm thinking that if I could find my son some friends who were gifted, or if I could get one of the college-age guys at the house of prayer here to hang with him...maybe that would help him. What would a doctor's diagnosis do for us?
