Friday Wrap-Up

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I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome back. As you all know, it's been a rough road lately and although there are moments of extreme gratitude, the struggles seem never ending, overwhelming and hopeless much of the time. That said, the time spent away from the blog helped me to see that isolation probably isn't my best coping mechanism.

This weekend, I'm hoping to get back in the swing of reading and commenting on all of your blogs. I am certain that I missed all of you far more than you missed me! *grin*

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A brief update on Cam, school and his educational evaluation.

The neuropsych evaluation was completed last week. I'll be sitting down with the Dr. on Tuesday to discuss the results and where we go from here. It's looking like the Aperger's was likely a "bad" label - leaning more toward the PDD-NOS, ADHD and "gifted" labels (I hate the gifted label more than any other educational label as I truly believe ALL children - ALL people - are "gifted").

I remain frustrated with the fact that Cam currently has no high school placement, yet there are bunches of summer opportunities, with looming deadlines, that I cannot commit him to without placement.

Cam's band director has secured his use of an intermediate oboe assuming he'll track on to his "home" high school. Freshman football camp registration is due in the next few weeks at Cam's "home" high school. Band Camp (again, Cam's "home" high school) registration is due in just four weeks. And all that I can do is sit and wait and hope that we can get a placement for Cam in time, or at least get waivers if we miss critical deadlines.

It's difficult to do nothing even when there is nothing that can be done.

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I attended a special education advocacy seminar last weekend put on by the "premier" special education advocacy/law organization - Wright's Law.

The seminar was titled From Emotions to Advocacy and was filled with useful information and tools. It also brought to my attention that most of what I've been doing has been WRONG. Fortunately, I now have a better understanding of the system - how it works - and how I can work within it to have a better chance of getting the things Cam needs to be successful.

I feel more empowered and I definitely have a much clearer vision of the direction I need to go. Even better? The principles really apply to all parts of life, not just navigating special education, and have the potential to make me a better person all around.

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The one thing I did keep up with during my little blog hiatus was my Project 365 Dana Does Digital blog. Seems photography can be just as therapeutic as writing, and communicating emotions through photos seems a natural substitute when I can't get the words down on "paper."

Here are my favorite photos from this week:

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Enjoy your weekend!

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