yesterday you asked me to send you the story of zak. so here it is. when i had zak i was very young. i made some dumb choices in my life and as a result zak was the victim. when he was 4 months old, his drunk father dropped him. i spent 4 agonizing days with him at primary childrens. he suffered a tramatic brain injury. he had a number of delays but as a very young mother i did not see it as a problem. "every child develops on their own schedule" he had severe problems coping with anger. once he went into school it became a lot worse and i was forced to see the problem. he could not keep up with the kids his age in reading, math, etc. he fell farther and farther behind. he could not stay focused. to complete the daily school work we had to spend 3 to 4 hours every night and most of the weekend to complete it. this for a 2nd grader. the harder we tried to help him the more frustrated he would get. the anger outbursts got progressivley worse. it wen! t as far as throwing a chair at his teacher. at that point i sought out help. with the help of our physician and a neuro-psychologist we put him on some meds. he was able to control the anger but it did not really help with the focusing on the task or the delays. he has taken the medications now for 2 ½ years. our neuro-psychologist wanted us to ween him off of the meds to see how he did over the summer. i was very worried about it. at this time we started karate. when i was told that he would have to know the kata's to progress to the next level i was very worried. this was a child who struggles to memorize anything. how can he poss. do this? his self asteem is so low from all of the other problems if he can not do this how will he react?

well he knows the first kata. he is even able to help the new kids with the first kata. he is learning to focus. bless his heart. when he was told he had to work on the rules during the time at the end, he would close his eyes so tight so that the others could not distract him. he has become more verbal. he is not as timid. and his self esteem has improved 10 fold. this in only 4 months. how could this be? i have tried everthing. i never thought that he would be able to do it. i hope that he will be able to use the skills that he has learned and will still learn to help him in school. we will see how it goes. i am so pleased that he can control the anger without the medications. you have given something to my son that i never could give. there is no way that i could ever repay you for that. he loves to come to karate and he worries about disappointing you. the day he got that yellow belt he was so proud. we had to go show grandma and grandpa and call all his! aunts and uncles. i look forward to many years of zak training with you. thank you for all that you have done.

melissa