Dear Friends,

For the past four days, our telephone has been ringing and our e-mail box
has been overflowing with offers of assistance, terrific ideas, and sincere
caring.  All of this in response to my requests for support of our son,
Collin, and our family's quest for his fair and equal education in our
neighborhood school in Fairfax County, VA.  We have been absolutely
overwhelmed by all the kind words and sincere gestures.  

We recognize that our family has been truly blessed. I could not ask for a
more loving, strong husband.  We have lovely children who bring us endless
joy and laughter.  Our community is welcoming and friendly.  We have
received incredible attention from disability advocates.  We have been able
to secure superb legal and educational advocacy counsel. 

To all of the advocates and activists who do not live near us, I would like
to ask you to consider sharing your talents and energy by supporting parents
in their search for a fair and appropriate public education for their
children in your communities.  You can do this by reaching out to families
of children who are experiencing similar situations right in your own
neighborhoods.  All of you professional educators, lawyers, advocates,
writers, programmers, and such; please give your time and gifts and share
your wisdom with those families who are fighting the good fight, every
single day, right under your noses.  Please seek out, and create
possibilities for partnership for kids with disabilities in your hometowns.

For those parents who wrote to me sharing your own stories of ongoing
struggles for educational equality, I pray that you may seek and find the
same kind of terrific support, and experience the power of collective
advocacy, as our family has been blessed with.  

I wish I could send each and every one of you a personal note. Obviously, we
have so much work to do right now to get ready for the next step, this is
not possible.  Please accept our warmest and most sincere thanks, and
understand that, if you do not hear from me as often as in the past, it is
only because we are working to reach our goals while still trying to
maintain a real life each and every day.  

I have a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on my fridge that has been there,
scribbled on a post-it-note, for years.  It helps me to feel strong when I
begin to waiver.  It reminds me that I know what is best for my children.
It reminds me to stick to it.  "If a man stands on his instinct and there
abide, the huge world will come 'round him."  

May each and every one of you experience the same strength and commitment of
your own huge worlds, as that with which we have been gifted, here in ours. 

As ever -- 

In Freedom,

Paul, Jill, Sarah, Laura, and Collin Jacobs




%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%