Comprehensive Evaluation Part 2

The past: Sweetheart and I met with the psychologist, the speech therapist and the occupational therapist that did Little Handsome's evaluations. I don't want to gloss over or hurry through this moment. It was weird. You know those moments when you can't explain why you react the way you do, but know it can only be God? Strangely, my prayer that day wasn't for Little Handsome. In my heart, I already knew the results and He prepared me for that. God just wanted me to glorify Him during that meeting. To show Him to the one's giving us the results. Weird.
I left there feeling blessed and taken care of, scared and exhilarated. So boom. We've got a kiddo with autism.

First thing I did was call his school and set up a meeting with the director later that day because all of the kiddos were taken care of. GOD BLEW MY MIND DURING THAT MEETING. My purpose was to talk to the director about how they handle special needs kids (it's a private preschool) and to seek out what teacher might be a good fit for Little Handsome next year as registration was coming up one week later (God is so good).

You know what my Savior did? Before I even called that morning, the director spoke to Little Handsome's current teacher to see what teacher might be a good fit for him next year. Lets just let that sink in...I had never even spoken to the director before.

He walks before us. The Lord will give you meager bread and water during oppression, but your Teacher will not hide Himself any longer. Your eyes will see your Teacher, and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:20, 21 HCSB)

Thus began the next chapter, the newest adventure. I don't always feel secure ...there are so many decisions you have to make. You have to fight. Be your kid's advocate. Be tireless and relentless in finding therapy all while having no idea what you're doing. Sometimes I feel like I was born for this. Sometimes you'll find me crying in my minivan or at the kitchen table.
All I have in You is more than enough.

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What's in a Name?

Ahhhhh, Starbucks and Gilmore Girls. I have exactly one hour by myself today while the eldest crazies are at school and Schmoopy is napping.

Perhaps you were wondering why in the world I named this blog what I did. Maybe you are even kind of offended. When I first started thinking about a blog again, this is the first name that came into my head. That speaks volumes of my sense of humor - and maybe The Lord's. I tried it out on my mom and she was like, "oh yeah. Funny, like if you don't laugh sometimes you"ll cry." So noble that woman. That is certainly one way you can take it, but, nope. I mean sometimes its just funny. Sometimes what Little Handsome does is just classicly quirky and slightly unusual and makes me laugh out loud.

Back to the name of the blog. The day after we got our diagnosis, I took Little Handsome with me to grocery shop while Sweetheart had the other two. Afterwards we stopped at Dairy Queen (very developed palettes, have we). Little Handsome chose one of the tall bar tables to sit at. We're just hanging out and BOOM, Handsome just completely falls out of his chair and onto the floor. Now I know my mom instincts should not have been to bust out laughing as I oh-so-compassionately helped him up while the world watched (it was half price day), but that's what happened. I did manage to stop myself from yelling, "don't worry! He's autistic." And for that I am pretty proud.

Yes, he was fine, but I will forever remember that incident as a defining moment in changing the way I view some things that Little Handsome does. And also how I don't want to be the mom that shouts out "he's autistic!" every time he does something out of the ordinary.

Because, y'all, my kid is extraordinary.

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Comprehensive Evaluation

Little Handsome and his beloved White Car

The present: Schmoopy (5 months) is kicking our butts lately with his out of whack schedule. I am so tired of talking about it. Shout out to the best former pediatrician in THE WORLD (and now a dear friend) for trying to help us through it. My body was not made to function on this little sleep. I think its a combo of teething and being so distracted by our crazy lives right now that have me stalled in the schedule department. Its a constant mommy-guilt fest. And I have decided that I no longer care about the different uses of its and it's. Embrace it with me. There are more important things in this world.

A couple of weeks ago my sis and her fam came to visit and it was so good for Little Handsome to hang out with his cousins. He loved every single minute as did the rest of the kiddos. I wish my sister was always in town cause while loving on him, she pushed Little Handsome as much as we do!

We had a fantastic visit with my dad and stepmom last week. They sponsor Little Handsome's therapy and were super impressed at his amazing progress. My heart breaks for those who don't have the means to pay for therapy, we are so very blessed. It is so encouraging to hear from your family that they see a difference after starting therapy. When you are in the thick of things, you can see improvement, but you wonder if others do. Heck I want to jump up and down sometimes when Little Handsome looks me in the eyes. Can I just say that has to be one of the hardest aspects of our therapy? The eye contact issue beats me down and wears me out!

My Sweetheart and I got to see Temple Grandin speak on Saturday. So good. She is quirky, opinionated and knowledgeable. I highly recommend seeing her speak if you are a parent, therapist or an educator. She left me feeling encouraged and ready to implement her suggestions! Little Handsome just needs to get a little older...

The past: Its taken me awhile to want to sit and write this down because the emotions of it all are overwhelming and that time in our lives was difficult. I think about all of the schedule shuffling I had to do and ask for help with - if you can't tell, we're a little schedule obsessed at our house. I was this way before our diagnosis, but now I understand why it was always so important to Little Handsome. Having to ask for help all of the time adds another layer of guilt that I should not allow to creep into my life. Again, we are so thankful that we are close to my mom and Jason's parents. I would be curled up in a corner crying if it weren't for God's Great Providence - moving my mom here when I thought it was crazy, keeping my Sweetheart's new job close to home, etc.

To keep it shorter - I could write/talk all day about this day - I kept notes on my phone and I will share those brass tax thoughts. Before I do that, at MP, this is their eval program: 1) Me and Sweetheart met with one of their psychologists for 75 minutes.

2) The next week Little Handsome is evaluated by their Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist and the psychologist we met with - 3 hours. When you're deciding where to go for your kid's diagnosis, ask them if they do comprehensive evaluations. If they say no, ask if they know a place that does. I didn't just know this, our Speech Therapist told me exactly what to ask for. I was as lost as a goose - I didn't even (and still don't) know the "proper terms" for things. I feel like getting this comprehensive eval is essential in getting an accurate snapshot of your kiddo as well as saving your sanity by keeping everything at one location. After their separate evals, the ST, OT and psychologists all work together to come up with a diagnosis. Oh and one other point, ask for every piece of paper that they have on your kid that they can give you. You're gonna need those evals from the OT and ST later if you want to save time and money.

Finally, 3) The results meeting the week after that with My Sweetheart and me.

Here's what I wrote on my phone afterwards. The facts: diagnosis: autistic disorder with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder.  

Sidenote: under the new DSM-V criteria (may 2013), autistic disorder will be "melted" into Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. We won't lose our diagnosis, fortunately. There are other changes that are totally polarizing for peeps on the spectrum versus government funding. Not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole right now.

Emotions: emotional, excited, ready, privileged, blessed, overwhelmed.

When [Little Handsome] was born my mom got a word for The Lord (as she does with each grandchild). His is adventure. So here we go!

His verse on his wall: Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12 NIV emphasis mine)

It is not lost on me that Little Handsome's verse is so perfectly tailored to him. Shocking huh?