Joey

It's been seven months since I posted last; most things are the same.  Ilse is still growing and developing.  Today she pooped and her OT covered her own nose and said, "Shew!"  Ilse imitated her perfectly, with her hand over her nose and said the same sound, too.  I wish I'd seen it, but I was resting.

I've had a heavy heart lately.  My husband got his long-desired teaching job this year and he has been working late a lot of nights.  I told him to do what he has to do; I'll keep the home fort and I'll let him know if it starts burning.  So far we're fine, but I do miss him.  I'll be very happy when he gets to be home more.

Mostly my heart has been heavy because of Joey.  He has been having so many painful struggles.  We had some neuropsychological testing done, and it turns out that he's severely depressed and anxious.  It was recommended to us that we pull him out of his mainstream class at school and not allow him back in for the rest of the year.  The school has been slow on scheduling an ARD and so we agreed to send Joey back to school if he was kept out of that classroom.  Today they put him back in for a short period of time without my permission, so now he will be home until the ARD.  The pediatrician (love her!) was not happy and sent a very strongly worded note to the school excusing Joey until the ARD is done.  A friend is going with me on Friday to the ARD.  I'm so thankful for her.  I'm not good at face to face confrontation (can do it online all day, lol) so I'm going to have to steel myself and make sure we get Joey what he needs to be successful.  Thankfully I have a lot of friends backing me up.

My Chris is the one with the front row seat to Joey's mental health issues.  He is so self controlled... I can't imagine what he's feeling.  He's not expressing any of it.

The Lord is merciful and we hold onto him during the hard times.  Some times are harder than others but the Lord is always there.