Thursday, April 02, 2009

Worthy of a fight

Whew! Been absent for awhile again! It’s been a stressful time for both Rissa and myself. But hopefully things have moved past the worst for both of us.

Many of you may not know but my third child has severe Cerebral Palsy. He is currently in our town’s special needs program. It’s a great program for kids with Down’s Syndrome, some degrees of Autism, even mild CP. But they do not have the facilities nor the staff trained for meeting a severely handicapped child’s needs. We have been fighting for years to have him moved to a specialized school. Because of his age, this September he was promoted to the area Junior High. They were even less equipped to help him than the elementary school but the powers that be insisted we keep him in their system. We did but also started working with an advocate. We couldn’t just sit back and watch as he wasted his time there.

We didn’t know if going to a school with better physical therapy facilities, adapted augmentative communication devices and posturing and mobility equipment would help. Or if he was taught by people trained in Cerebral Palsy therapies would help him learn to use them or make any difference to his development. But how could we let him continue to be denied the chance?

His IEP review was the beginning of March. So during January and February, we began our usual meetings with his speech, physical and occupational therapists, His doctors, his special needs teacher, child psychologists and social worker. Along with that, we spent time researching specialized schools and we talked to our special needs advocate. She helped us word our request to remove him from local school system in a way that would be received in a favorable light. Then we waited.

I am tired, drained from all the time and stress this has put us through. But I wouldn’t have stopped this fight no matter how insane and frustrated it made me. I’m his mother. And as his parents we are the only ones that can fight for him. All you can do is hope and pray each action you take is what’s best for him. Hoping he will get at least one break in his favor in this life. On March 17th, two weeks after all the reports and letters were filed and his IEP Review submitted, the luck of the Irish smiled on us and we received a call from his case worker… Timmy will be attending an out of District school specializing in Cerebral Palsy in September. So *caddyshack gopher dance* for us.

To continue the positive notes… We are getting ready to attend RT. I have a Kindle!!!! It was a B-day Present from daddy. Hubby took me to see the Chieftains in Concert!!! And the kidlets got me the Scarecrow from the Barbie Pink label Wizard of Oz collection, now I have the whole set… I pleasantly suffered through the “if I only had a brain” jokes. Did I ever mention I am and have raised sarcastic people? LOL
Oh and we have joined the ranks of Twitter, anyone out there on it come Follow us and we will follow you *g*

May all your battles be worth the fight and end in happy victories,
Mari

2 Comments:

Blogger Shelley Munro said...

That's great news, Marissa. I hope Timmy enjoys the new school in September. It will be here before you know it.

Happy birthday. It sounds like you had a good time. I've been lusting after a kindle or a Sony reader. We can't even buy them in NZ. Maybe one day. :)

4/03/2009 12:17 AM  
Blogger FeyRhi said...

Mari, as you know I feel your frustration. Often I equate IEP meetings, with banging my head against a wall.

I couldn't be happier for you that your little guy is going to get in a school that will be more beneficial for him. That is awesome!

How is your Kindle working out? I've been eyeballing one for a while, is it worth it?

4/04/2009 10:34 PM  

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