Happy Saturday~What a week it's been~ I will try and give you at least a condensed version of it. Some of it has been great, some of it I don't want to re-live.
I last left you Tuesday evening after I brought Benjamin home from the hospital. As I mentioned, Krisin, who apparently was playing "Can I Top That??" for worst days ever, had an incident that day at the athletic club where she swims. Apparently she had viewed a Disney cartoon at some point of Pluto really doing a number on a Christmas tree, so when she walked thru the door of the gym that day and saw a beautifully decorated tree, she decided to reinact the story. There are many details to her time there that day...I ask myself "if Krissy woke up tomorrow and didn't have autism, what parts of this story would she feel ok with me sharing publically? And that becomes my grid for this blog. Even though she doesn't care too much right now about dignity I want to remember to respect that on her behalf. So, suffice it to say, I think they'll be ok if we don't come back for awhile. Poor Molly deserves a medal for getting Krissy home safely that day. Larry or I will be stopping by soon to see what we can do in terms of restitution.
Wednesday came and we decided that it would probably be ok with Larry off, for my mom and I to go ahead and use our train tickets that afternoon. Mindy took us to the train and we left Portland at 4:45pm. My night on the train, by comparison made my night in the hospital seem quite restful. I just could not get comfortable. We arrived in Whitefish (16 degrees) at 7am where my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Irvin were waiting for us in our new car. I thought it was their new car (they had just ordered the same car, same color to replace it) it was so nice. It was only when I saw the odometer with 22,000 miles that I realized "WOW, this must be IT". They treated us to a wonderful breakfast out and then we went to their home where we were also able to briefly see my cousin Janet. We then said our good byes and after a very brief stop by my Uncle Dick and Aunt Donna's home, we were soon on our way home. We had light snow, but clear roads and beautiful driving weather. I am normally very prone to getting sleepy while driving, and didn't have much confidence that the lack of sleep wouldn't catch up with me. But I think God just gave me grace for the trip....I had great company (Love you Mom!) and felt just fine, never drowsy thruout the 600+ mile trip home. We arrived in Gresham at 10:30pm, both ready to crawl into our own beds.
Due to the wonderful technology of cell phones, I heard on the way home about Kristin having another terrible day at school, complete with running and melt downs, etc. Since I didn't plan to be back until Friday evening from the trip, I really didn't have anything I had to do, so I decided to go spend some time in her classroom yesterday morning. She was having a really good day, but I was able to have a number of good conversations including a meeting with the principal, vice-principal, and her teacher as well as lengthy talks with Krissy's former teacher who is now the district's autism specialist. We came up with some ideas. The school is going to have a placement evaluation done, which is very appropriate. If her behavior remains as out of control as it has been, we can't help but agree that this is not the safest place for her to be, nor is it fair to everyone involved to deal with this degree of intensive behaviors. We're waiting to get in to the Dr. to get her started on medication...a very difficult decision, but an obvious one for where she is right now.
After a couple hours at school and checking in at home, I went to pick Anne up (Girls both had a 'matinee' show yesterday morning for school field trips) who was with friends. Then out again to pick out a new dishwasher...we had been without one for close to 2 weeks I think. Thankfully their installer was available today, so he should arrive soon.
Then it's off to the theater for the last 2 shows of Pocahontas (3pm and 7 pm). Larry worked last night and surprised me this morning with a dozen beautiful winter white roses. Another sweet moment happened too. I went in the living room and Krissy was curled up in a chair, reading out loud the Christmas story from Luke 2. She memorized this several years ago when she was with our wonderful friends, the Deffinbaugh's. Soon I spotted a bookmark in her Bible at Luke 2 (see photo) where she had written on a small scrap of paper "The Best Christmas Ever". Sniff sniff. I really hate to put her on medication :o((
Would love to hear from you..... julians2@juno.com
Love janelle
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