Paperwork Mountains

It’s that time of year again when I have to complete Gav’s Medicaid paperwork.  I got a huge manila envelope in the mail last week of forms that need to be completed (both by me, ChildServe, and our doctor) ALL WITHIN 14 DAYS or we could lose our funding.  Remember when this happened?   It’s one thing to have to fill it out in a short amount of time, but it’s another thing to rely on others to meet that deadline as well.  So far, our doctor is failing.  I LOVE her, but she’s not done her homework for me yet.  2 WEEKS, really?  That’s a ridiculously short amount of time.

On top of all that, we’re also applying for another aspect of Medicaid that will pay for more services. Yay for that, boo for more paperwork. This involves another huge manila envelope full of forms, hiring a broker, more doctors forms, school forms, and therapy forms.   Apparently this is a 2-3 month process.  They weren’t kidding. It’s taken me an entire month just to complete my forms. (And I love filling out forms.  I’m not being sarcastic.  I really do).

I also have registration paperwork for 2 boys (!) for the fall school year.  (We toured Liam’s pre-school last week and IT’S COOL.  He’s going to have a blast!)

But you know what?  It’s all worth it.  We have not paid a dime for services for Gav pretty much since the beginning.  He’ll be starting at Metro West Kids in May in their social group.  You know what the best part is?  His teacher there is Miss Candice.  His absolute favorite person when he attended Walnut Street School (2 years ago)!

Scaling these paperwork mountains can be very daunting, but God has always led us and He’s made things happen that we could never have planned or imagined.  We’ve been blessed beyond blessed by amazing teachers and therapists all along the way, and we’re super excited to have Candice back!

Corruption in the CDC?

Never! 

Oh wait.  This article was released last week:

Poul Thorsen, the principal coordinator of multiple studies funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used to deny a vaccine/autism link was indicted on April 13th on 13 counts of fraud and 9 counts of money-laundering. The charges relate to funding for work he conducted for the CDC, which claimed to disprove associations between the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and increased rates of autism.

You can read the full article here.  THIS is why I snicker when I hear things that come out of the CDC.   We have been sold SO many lies.

Clean Up

Remember the boy who does this?

The one who lines everything up, every chance he gets (and it’s not my autistic one).

This is how he cleans:

Fantastic, right?  Take a closer look:

And I almost broke my neck in the dark bathroom:

In his mind, cleaning means getting EVERYTHING off the floor in the playroom.  Since he couldn’t possibly fit anything else on the shelves, he drug it all down the hall to the bathroom.  Makes total sense.  I like to keep my robot in the bathroom too.

Maybe Wednesdays Are Better?

My last post about Tuesdays being better Mondays was typed and posted before I picked Gav up from school last week.  THEN I found out that his special ed teacher (our mostest favoritest teacher) won’t be coming back next year.  So yeah, my Tuesday took a turn for the worst.   I’m pretty bummed.  She assures us that we will love the teacher that is replacing her (she knows her personally), but let’s just say this is not helping my opinions of school right now. 
Side note: We’ve been having some behavior issues with Gav lately and most of it stems from the fact that his kindergarten teacher received all the behavior kids, so he’s been watching and mimicing a bunch of bad behaviors.  I know he’s just trying to figure out this social world we live in, but these are NOT the kids I want him following!  Summer break couldn’t get here fast enough.

ANYWAY, on a much brighter note,  Pump It Up was SO fun last Thursday.  We were the only ones there for the first half hour, and the boys had a blast with the place to themselves!

It’s going to be 76 degrees today so I pretty much plan on doing nothing but being outside.  That’s gotta make things better!

Tuesday is ALWAYS better than Monday

Yesterday was a rough day.  I attribute a LOT of it to the fact that it was 86 degrees on Sunday and then 40 degrees yesterday.  UGH.  Weather in Iowa is so weird.  I think it made everyone crabby.  Josh and I both have colds (yes, we are sick AGAIN.)   Gav ended up sleeping in our bed Sunday night which meant he slept well and I slept on about 6 inches of the bed.  I woke up sore with a splitting headache. Gav had a rough morning yesterday and told me about a million times that he DID NOT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL in a very yelling voice and clung to me outside his classroom.  The little girl we carpool with cried all the way to school.  It was a rough morning for everyone and it wasn’t even 9am.  I couldn’t get motivated to do ANYTHING no matter how much I looked at my to-do list.  It just made me depressed.  All I wanted to do was crawl back under the covers and sleep the day away.

BUT, the sun is shining today, it’s supposed to be a high of 67,  Gav woke up very chipper and happy to go to school, and the sickies are feeling better.  I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle my to-dos. Let’s focus on the positive!

We really had a FANTASTIC weekend (and I’m sure that’s what made it so hard for Gavin to go back to school).  We took the boys to Cirque du Soleil Dralion and LOVED it.  They were mesmerized.  I was a tad nervous that they’d get bored, but I had nothing to worry about.  AH-MAZ-ING! 

Some dear friends are passing on their play equipment this week.  The boys are really excited and I’m thrilled they’ll have more to do outside now that it’s nice.

My sweet mama got the girls in our family these (the puzzle piece is the autism symbol) :

I’m wearing mine proudly and our porch has been shining blue every night!

And probably the best thing is that there’s only about 8 weeks left of school.  While it’s been challenging for Gavin, he really has loved it and has made some good friends.  We have a LOT of work to do throughout the summer to keep him focused and up to speed with his classmates, but he’s grown and changed a lot this year. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!