Praising God, But Still Needing To Vent

This is the most recent picture of Luke that I have on my computer. He's such a sweet spirited child. He smiles and laughs and is generally low maintenance. How blessed I am to have a child like him! I pick him up and he puts his little head on my shoulder and touches my arms with him hands. He hugs me back sometimes and I drink in the moment. Having a child like him has made me really appreciate the small things. When my daughters tell me that they love me, I treasure the fact that my daughters and I have a great bond. When I sit with my step-son and he tells me all that he knows, I thank God that my step-son talks to me. I am a truly blessed woman for I have been given the opportunity to love selflessly. Being blessed does not dismiss me from going through trials, though.

The primary question that continues to run through my head is; "Why does everything (i.e., services, education, diagnosis, health issues, etc.) require a fight?" In other words, why in the world does caring for Luke require such a fight and so much energy? He has no diagnosis, so I am having to fight for him to receive one. Why does he need one? Well, with a diagnosis comes the privelege of receiving services and therapies that he is in great need of. Why does he need services and therapies? School is not enough.

I wrote the first two paragraphs of this blog over a month ago. I wish I had more time to write. I would love to be able to have the time to reflect on all that is happening. There are so many great lessons I am learning right now. I would like to list some of them so that I may come back and thoroughly cover the subjects one by one;

1. Never speak out an opinion of another person's parenting skills unless you know, without a doubt, there is some sort of abuse or neglect occurring. You are not in their home, therefor, you have NO IDEA about what is really going on.

2. No child is BAD. Every behavior has a function. There are adult who are bad, but there are no children who are bad.

3. I am not alone in my frustration.

4. Men do not understand the emotions of a woman.

5. You cannot expect those who do not have children with disabilities to really understand what you are going through.

6. Always have a pre-IEP meeting with your child's teacher before the IEP. You all want to be on the same page so the IEP meeting flows nicely and you are not totally blindsided by recommendations.

So, I have plenty to write about. I wonder how many months it will take me :)