My how things have changed...

Wow, we have had some major changes in every aspect of life. In some ways it has gotten a lot easier, in other ways much trickier.

Fall now has full support at school. She has been recognized as having ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and visual perception deficits, and a laundry list of other learning hindrances. We are managing things really well. She works with an ABA aide most of the day, who is really good at helping her work without working for her. She also has her own 1:1 support aide for two hours each morning. This aide walks her to her resource class, keeps her on task, and just basically stays on top of any needs that arise. We now have Fall getting out of the car in the morning and walking into school alone. The ABA aide that works with her insisted that this was a step we needed to make in order to ensure she is capable of handling school on her own one day. We started with the aide getting her out of the car, moved on to her getting out and meeting the aide at the gate, and now she does it on her own most days. We still have days where she needs someone to meet her at the gate and that is okay. I know she needs this. We struggle mainly with independence, so this is going to play a huge role in making her less dependent on Mommy. It also helps her with her upper body strength. She sees an Occupational Therapist for her physical strength once a week, and goes to the resource room for math each day. I worry, when things get into a nice groove, that they will take some services away because she is doing so well. Her team is aware that she is surviving because of the support, so the nerves are more like background noise right now. Sure is nice to play a less active role in her education these days. I think most parents try as hard as possible to stay involved while I try hard to step back and let Fall be her own biggest advocate. That is what the next few years is all about, getting her to take charge and be her own leader. She can do this. With the proper support, and love, she can do anything.

Looking back...

A friend wrote me this weekend asking me about Aspergers, Autism, and developmental disorders. She wanted to know if she could send me some stories about her son, could I look them over and help her decide if he needed help. Of course, wanting to help, I went back and forth with her over email. The entire time we were writing all of the memories of that era in our lives came flooding back to me. Fall's fourth and fifth years of life were probably some of the most painful years of my life. The pain of admitting that our child was not a typical, well developing child was almost too much to bear. We prayed, begged, pleaded and cried for the ease of a normal life for our baby. "Please take this pain and frustration away from our sweet child" was my daily plead to God. Looking back, I realize now that these were the years where things were going to turn around for her. These were the years where we built her a foundation in her education, we laid some ground rules on how she should be taught, what she should receive modifications for and what she was capable of. We figured out how to help her deal with her eyes, and how to handle her when she just couldn't deal anymore.
Life is not going to be easy for her, we know this and we struggle every day accepting the challenges she may face. The good news is that instead of praying to make her "normal", we now pray to help her face her struggles with strength and determination. Don't take away who she is, just please make her stronger and better for the challenges she faces.