Word to the Wise

I was trolling facebook the other day and there was a suggested link to a Huffington Post Parents article that caught my attention. Autism is not a parenting fail.  With a title like that, I had to read it and, boy, am I glad I did.  I'll tell you what, I've read it at least 3 times a day since then.  Brenda Rothman's words were exactly what I needed to hear that day.  It's my new mantra.  You should check it out.

I read the article aloud to Mr B.  We were both silent for sometime after.  It was just this sense of....I don't know....camaraderie....no....being understood?  Maybe.  It's hard to explain.  I think its hard to find words that describe so many moments in our lives.  This was one of those moments.  I swear she could have been a fly on the wall in our house during those early days.  My mommy radar was telling me, "something isn't right."  But everyone else was telling me otherwise.  Always listen to the mommy radar.

A few weeks ago, I spent the night out of town with my dear friend.  We were shopping for wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses.  Such a precious time.  I made many memories that weekend.  While in town, I also managed to squeeze in some QT with a dear friend I'd nearly lost touch with (and probably would have without FB).  When I was in college, I worked teaching the 2-year old class in a Mother's Day Out Program.  It was during my first school year teaching MDO that I met the P Family.  Susie and I clicked from the start and I fell in love with her mini-me...a quirky, smart, little 2-year old.  I remember the Thursday morning before Christmas break that Susie told me that sweet little peanut was on the spectrum.  I thought...there's no way!  She's so smart and she seems so capable.  Lord, I hope I didn't say the things that came to my mind, but I can't remember.  I just remember feeling the palpable heartbreak and fear and 5,000,000 other emotions that I wouldn't understand for 10 more years.

Fast forward and I am having that same tear-filled conversation with a day care staff 100 miles away.  I am on such a similar journey.  She knows my fears because the same ones kept her up at night, she knows the isolation, she knows teh sense of utter helplessness, she knows the joy and the awe that I experience daily.  She's never met my boy, but she knows.  How good it was to share coffee and break bread with someone who knows.

In other news, the B's have our fingers crossed for a visit from Gramma and Grandaddy this weekend.  Don't tell them , but if they decide they can't make it up north, we may take the crazy wagon down south to visit them.  LJB has his first in over a year visit to the dentist in the morning.  Last week was crazy between illnesses, injuries, and work meetings, but we survived and this week has already been less dramatic.  Next week LJB has his final evaluation for the Early Intervention program, a home visit from his new ABA therapist, and his pre-school evaluation.  All this schedule change will likely make us a flappy, echolalaic, pacing bunch of crazy...but I guess I'd rather get it all over with at once.  At least we can engage in kitty therapy at the end of every day : )

Thanks to the United Way!

I have been fortunate enough to work for companies that truly model a giving spirit. This past year, we benefitted from some of those gifts. I am a firm believer that you should always give credit where credit is due. 

 

I recently sent the below email to the United Way contact for the property management firm where Mr B and I both work. Please consider making a donation to the United Way!

 

Dear Meg-

 

For the past eight years, I have always participated in United Way giving campaigns, first while I worked as a banker and then for the past five years as a property manager. 

 

During the summer of 2012 I found myself in a position I could have never imagined.  My son, Lennon who was born in May of 2010 had developed fairly typically as an infant but by his first birthday, he began missing milestones.  By the time his second birthday was approaching, I was at my wit's end.  Lennon was not talking.  Some of the skills he had mastered were lost.  He rarely looked at me and was off in his own world most of the time.  He didn't interact with other children and had begun having severe temper tantrums.  My husband and I began living like hermits because Lennon was so predictably volatile in groups of people and public places that it was too stressful for all of us to even leave the house.  At his 2 year well-child appointment, we were referred to First Steps, Kentucky's Early Intervention Program, by his pediatrician.  First Steps was able to provide some support for us, but not enough.  Though all the therapists that evaluated Lennon suspected that he had autism, in order to have a diagnosis and qualify for more support, he needed an intensive level evaluation.

 

This type of evaluation is very costly and not covered by our insurance.  Thanks to funding from the United Way and some other groups, Lennon was able to have the evaluation at New Perceptions in Edgewood, KY.  The day his formal diagnosis came back was hard, but having the financial burden of the tests lifted off my shoulders made it easier to cope with.

 

Seven months later, Lennon is attending Redwood Rehab (also a United Way Recipient) in their inclusive pre-school program.  He has made many strides thanks to the therapy he has received and will continue to receive as a direct result of his intensive level evaluation that would not have been possible without donations to the United Way.  Additionally, in May, when he turns 3 and ages out of First Steps, he will attend a Summer program at Redwood to bridge the gap between early intervention services and school-age services for children with special needs.  This program is also funded at least in part by donations to the United Way. 

 

I am so thankful for the United Way and all the hard work that folks like you do to get funding for these programs.  I truly don't know where we would be right now if it wasn't for the support from the United Way!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

 

Yours Truly,

 

Leanna Bush