Resolutions

Finally things are beginning to come together for us. Elise has had a fantastic week, despite being sick and missing two and a half days of school this week. It's just a cold and she's recovering well. She's been quite "on" lately. She's engaging easily with us and even with her brothers. She has been laughing with them now. The key word in that sentence is with. She had started laughing at them, but now it's become with them. This is a huge improvement and a significant development in my mind. She can test the waters of peer relationships with her brothers and hopefully then expand that to the wider set of other children she meets. She has also been expressing herself by attempting words much more frequently. She really has the idea of how to communicate, now she needs to work on the physical ability to do so.

The other resolution, hopefully, has been with my health. I had an ERCP performed Wednesday that removed a stone from my common bile duct. This was good timing as my liver function test was not good and the pain was becoming quite frequent and severe. I have had none of the same level of pain since the procedure. A stent was put into the duct and I'll have another ERCP to remove it in 3 months. I am still very fatigued and occassionally have a sharp quick pain that takes my breath away momentarily. I'll have a repeat liver function test next week and a doctor follow-up the following week. Hopefully this is the end of this chapter. The boys have been asking when I can race with them again. Right now my energy is sapped from walking to the car and back! However, having the extreme pain gone is a tremendous blessing.

The biggest resolution has been with Elise's IEP meeting. It's wonderful to have that weight off our shoulders. She will be starting in an aphasia classroom M-W-F from 8-12. She'll have transitional support of an aide for the first week. She'll also receive 40 hours of speech from a non-public agency for the next year. For occupational therapy, she'll have 1-2 hours per week (can't remember which one) that will occur at school in their gym. She'll also have an adult on the playground to facilitate her engaging with peers and for her safety. Not perfection of what we wanted, but budgets are tight and overall it's a decent deal. We're asking for a behavioral assessment to be performed in the new classroom setting. We're concerned about how she'll do with no dedicated aide and a 4 hour day of hard work. She may exhibit more problem behaviors in this setting.

Finally, we are fully into the process of looking for a home. We're waiting to obtain a pre-approval letter and then we will begin shopping. We met with our realtor today and have a bunch of listings to see. The prices look good right now and the interest rates are also good. It seems that we may have very good timing, even if we're only doing this because we'll possibly be homeless in a few weeks if we don't. We're excited to finally buy and have a home of our own. How refreshing it'll be to paint the walls a color of my choosing instead of the dreary dingy standard "white" of all our rentals. I'm not looking forward to having to be responsible for repairs, but the ownership side of things is appealing otherwise.

Anyway, while this is still a very stressful time, things are coming together nicely right now. It'll be nice to get some of our stressors temporarily resolved before the new stressors begin - hahaha.