Tear Jerker

Things have been kind of emotional around here for the past several days. My Mom was involved in a head on collision, that has left her unable to walk due to both her ankles being broken. I have been running around, trying to take care of as much as possible, so we can get her to an acceptable rehabilitation facility. This has been somewhat of difficult task, due to insurance and all that kind of stuff. Needless to say, dinners around here have been unappetizing to say the least. Pair that with Mommy not being her usual chipper self, and the children start to take notice. Poor Mary is thrown all off, she knows she should feel bad for Grandma and go with it, but the disruption to her regular routine has made her a bit cranky. 

My two older children also know Mommy is off, and they too, don't know exactly how to deal with it. So, they do what they do best, get goofy. Goofy, giggling, talking about silly things they did when they were little. Singing old Barney and Wiggles songs. Mary doesn't know if she wants to be mad at them for making so much noise, or laugh along with them. So she sits quietly. When the other two run upstairs to continue their antics, Mary looks at me, with a frown on her face and tears welling up in her eyes. This is what she says to me. "Mommy, I want to go back to the future (past) and be little again. I want to take back the memories of being little. I want to be a little girl again. I look at pictures of me as a little girl and wish I could have fun like that again. I want the memories back." Now I'm tearing up, and explaining to her that even though she is a big girl now, (11?) she can still have fun. "Look at Daddy, he's a grown man who still plays with video games and Legos, now please get off my lap, as you are crushing my legs." This made her giggle, and she went on as if she didn't have a care in the world.

That's what I love most about Mary, she has her moments of sadness, then quickly gets over them. I know she keeps them inside, but does not dwell on them, only brings them out when she needs help in dealing with certain situations. This little episode, will be mentioned by Mary either a week, month, or years from now. It amazes me what she retains. After about 10 minutes, she looks at me, tells me she is going to go upstairs to see what the kids are doing. "I want to bring back the memories", she says. Listening to the chaos ensue, I now have a smile on my face again.

Ooops!

Boy don't I feel silly. Actually, horribly embarrassed is more like it. You know how I have been ranting and raving about getting Mary's IEP done, well I decided to give them until yesterday before I called and started complaining. Which I did. I asked when, where, and exactly how long it was going to take, because I can't do anything without it! I can't even look into middle schools without the school knowing what her educational needs are. I was so prepared, had all my ammo ready. Then the voice on the other line said, "you have an IEP". Huh? Apparently, the last meeting we had at the school, with all those teachers, school nurse, psychologist, etc.. Well, the nice stack of papers I signed and took home with me clearly say IEP at the top. Honestly, in my defense, my husband was with me and he didn't even know. Those freakin' meetings can be so confusing! Plus, they did say that they wanted her to be evaluated by the school psychologist and update her needs and all that. Which we took to believe was what we needed for a complete IEP. Guess not, because I went ahead and faxed what I had to the charter school at UCP so I can start somewhere with the process of finding her a middle school.

I like to think my call did however, put them into action, because I did get an email this morning from the school psychologist stating all was o.k. with the hearing test, and Dr.'s note, and she will begin testing Mary tomorrow. Hooray! If that wasn't enough to make my day, the call from the placement coordinator person at school did. They are going to try to get Mary qualified for an "Alternate Assessment", which means she would not have to take the FCAT. Whoopee! This Alternate Assessment has never been done at Kaley, and is apparently very difficult to get approved. Of course, Mary would be the one. I guess someone finally realized that we we were not making up the fact that she is "intellectually disabled", or "cognitively disabled", some fancy new terms I learned. So, I'm not really sure what my lesson was here, maybe not be so hostile in my inquiries, so I don't look so stupid? But then again, if I hadn't been such a pain, would they have still been dragging their feet? Who knows? Not sure I even care, as long as what needs to be done, gets done.