Everything I Can Think Of

I had a moment of sheer victory the day before yesterday when I scheduled Mini for his first ABA Therapy appointment.  It took me about three months to get this appointment on the books- phone call after phone call to both the psychological firm and the insurance company to figure my way through the red tape.  And finally, it's done.  He starts therapy on June 4th.  VICTORIOUS!

What really makes me feel lighter- like ACTUALLY, physically lighter- is that I can finally say I have done everything I can think of for Mini.  I have researched, I have read, I have asked, I have called, I have dug, I have cried, I have begged, I have wondered, I have hoped, I have learned...  I have done all of the things I could possibly do and I came up with a plan and I did everything I could think of to put that plan into action.  And here we are.  IN ACTION.

It has taken me 7 months to get this plan together.  His first red flag evaluation was October 5th.  I scheduled his ABA Therapy appointment on May 20th.  He has been evaluated 7 times since the beginning:

• October 5th- Initial screening with Prince William County Child Find (they said no worries.  They were wrong)

• November 20th- Discussion and short evaluation with his Pediatrician (She said there is cause for concern and referred us to a developmental pediatrician

• February 7th- Evaluation with a Developmental Pediatrician at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore (diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Receptive & Expressive Language delays)

• February 20th- Initial evaluation and placement in Speech Therapy with Kristen The Great

• April 12th- Second screening with Prince William County Child Find

• May 3rd and 5th- Full evaluations with Prince William County Child Find

We now have our meeting with the school district on Friday to set up his Individual Education Plan, which will begin this fall.  The IEP is an amalgamation of services and therapies provided free of charge by the school district, to help get Mini to be where he needs to be developmentally by the time he hits Kindergarten.  I feel hopeful that the evaluation led them to understand that Mini needs their help.  After reading over their written summaries of the evaluation process, it seems that they do indeed understand that.

So after 7 months, he has four awesome things going for him:
An amazing preschool, a goddess speech therapist, a soon-to-be IEP with the school district, and a great start in ABA Therapy.

It feels pretty amazing to be able to say that I have done everything I can think of.  We still have so many hurdles ahead of us.  Probably a lifetime of them.  But, on the first round, I passed my test with flying colors. 

I have paid the price for this victory... In sweat, in tears, in sleepless nights.  I think I have aged a decade in 7 months.  Fine lines have appeared on my forehead.  In between my eyebrows.  My face is framed in tiny grey hairs which I cannot afford to color because I have children....  And a child with Special Needs to boot.  But today, I'm looking at the woman staring back at me in the mirror and I'm saying "YOU GO, MOMMA!"  I DID IT.

Today, on the way to school from speech therapy, he said "We're going to get a donut and then after to see Miss Sophia."  I remember a specific moment in an evaluation not so long ago, I said "There is no way he could ever tell me a sequence of events in his day."

Well.  Would you look at that.

Excuse me now, while I take a moment to brush my shoulder off.