On the Road Again!

Last week Mike received his orders and he started the official part of clearing Ft. Lewis. He's been busy at meetings all week trying to get everything in order for us to leave as soon as possible. We found out today that the packers will be here to begin packing everything up on the 10th! If you're counting that's less than a week away! YIKES! They will be here to pack on the 10th and the 11th and then they are loading up the moving truck on the 12th and we're done, we'll be on the road again!

I am still in shock that things are happening so quickly. I realize that the Army is a huge beaurocracy but in our experience we've found that when things really need to happen, they can and do happen very quickly. I think that we've been very lucky and of course I've heard horror stories of things not working out. But from our perspective we've been very blessed. Olivia's condition was diagnosed relatively early, thanks in large part to an especially observant ENT surgeon. I found an experimental treatment option in North Carolina and within a few weeks our doctor had put in a referral and our insurance company paid for us to go to North Carolina to learn more about the treatment option. It took a little over 2 months for our insurance company to decide to approve the treatment but they are approving it. When it is all said and done it will have taken the Army just 2 and a half months to move our entire family cross country. On top of it all Mike isn't leaving at the end of the month for Afghanistan. We're counting our blessings around here and we've got a lot of them. Praise God!

That said we know that the road ahead will be rough. Olivia's treatment will not be easy. Peter will be going to live with my parents in Texas while Olivia is in the hospital. I am so excited for Peter that he will be able to share this time with my parents, I'm excited for my parents that they will get to spend this special time with Peter, I know that I'm blessed to have such supportive parents. At the same time I cannot even speak about being away from Peter for that time without crying. I love my little boy so much! My heart aches knowing that I won't be able to be with him. I think the only reason that I haven't completely lost it is because in HIS wisdom God has also given me the peace of mind to know that this is absolutely the right decision. I am at peace with our decision to have Peter live with my parents, I cry at the very mention of it but I'm at peace with it.

Enough rambling. The point is we're moving, and we've moving quickly! I hope you enjoy the new look of the blog! Our family pictures were taken by the same fantastic photographer who took Peter's pictures. If you're near us let me know and I'm happy to pass along her contact info!

IEP Update

Olivia's IEP is finalized. I am so glad that it's over with! In some ways I'm really sad that Olivia won't be starting school here in the fall. Our school district here is amazing and I loved all of the teachers and therapists that we got to meet. I know that they genuinely care about Olivia and this would have been a wonderful educational environment for her. I can only hope and pray that the school district that we eventually end up in will be as wonderful.

The IEP meeting itself went well. Peter was in childcare so I only had to focus on Olivia. She and I carefully packed her backpack with special toys so that she would have something to play with during the meeting. I think it's so funny to see what she chooses as her little treasures each day. Today in her backpack she brought a couple of nesting cups, 2 books, a pink truck, a stuffed blue bird beanie baby, and three flash cards (she also insisted on going to bed tonight with a bag full of puzzle pieces but whatever floats her boat). The meeting progressed, reviewing evaluation results, signing forms. We shared more with them about the treatment in North Carolina and our plans for the next 6 months or so. Then they asked about Peter, and I just lost it. I started crying, then they all started crying, we were all a mess but more on that later in the post about our moving update.

Going to the principal's office

Tomorrow we will finalize Olivia's IEP. I am so dreading our meeting tomorrow for so many reasons! I feel like I'm being called into the Principal's office. Honestly the only part of the entire experience that I'm looking forward to is it being over!

Olivia's evaluations did not go very well. On a positive note the entire evaluation process showed me that Olivia thrives on structure, concrete guidelines, and clear expectations. Unfortunately the evaluation process doesn't exactly highlight those strengths. When someone very politely asks Olivia if she can kick the ball and she just as politely says "no" and smiles and sits down it's not a good demonstration of her skills. I don't know if I should step in and just tell Olivia to kick the ball so that we can just move on or if they are just trying to get a feel for how well Olivia can comply with a stranger's request. So frustrating!!!!!

Olivia is also a very discriminating judge of people. She completely relies on first impressions, she either likes you or she doesn't right from the start. There's very little you can do to change her mind. It was so interesting for me to watch how differently Olivia responded to the different teachers and therapists. She liked the occupational therapist, couldn't have been less interested in anything the physical therapist had to say, hated the speech therapist, and thought that the actual preschool teacher was pretty cool.

Despite this long painful process I've learned a lot. I'm more confident in my abilities as a mom, I'm growing more every day into this role of being an advocate for my child. I do like the teachers and therapists in this school district and I'm sad that we are moving out of this school district. I only hope that we can find one we like as well in North Carolina. I have great impressions of the entire North Carolina education system based on my time in grad school in South Carolina so I'm optimistic!

Pictures, Pictures, Everywhere

A new friend of mine takes amazing pictures. She majored in photography and is just starting her own photography business (let me know if you want her contact info, I'm happy to put you in touch with her). I have paid hundreds of dollars for photographs of Olivia over the last three years and I don't like a single one of them half as much as any of the pictures that she's taken in the last couple of days. A few weeks ago she took pictures of Peter and yesterday she took some family pictures of all four of us. I can't wait to see the ones of all of us but in the mean time here are just a few of my favorites of Peter. Of course I think he's the most adorable little boy in the world!