5

Sam is 5. Actually he has been 5 since April 26th but I haven't had time to write about it. I sent cupcakes to school and picked up an ice cream cake on my way home from work. I hoped that all the sugar might signal something in his brain and make him realize that it was a special day. He allowed me to put the paper crown his school sent home on his head for a photo at the dinner table. Then he willingly let his sister steal it because he hates hats. He seemed happy.

Medication update - we continue on this path for now. No miracles yet but we have noticed a slightly increase in his abilty to understand and follow directions. What I had really hoped for - a decrease in the CONSTANT stimming- has not happened. I am eagerly avaiting the results of Ohio State Medical's study on mecamylamine. I don't know why I have a gut feeling about that one; I am far from qualified.

Other stuff - we are considering adoption (from foster care). Family members: I know we haven't discussed this with you so please don't be upset with us if this is the first you hear of it. We just don't want to have to justify our decision right now. We are aware we have a lot on our plate and we are aware that this is not an easy road to travel. We have been speaking with families who have been through it and we are hearing about the good and the bad. We know we want a third child, we know we have always been interested in adoption, and we know a lot about getting services for special needs. We know that is we do this we will need help )like a sitter once a week so I can run errands) We feel we have a particular set of skills now that would make us good at parenting a child who is at high risk for various forms of special needs. We are in the exploration phase. I attended an initial orientation with another family I know. We registered our interest with Children's Aid and we are having an initial safety inspection this week when we will get more information about the state's requirements. We may learn that we cannot meet their reqirements. Or they may say we need really expensive work on our home that we can't do right now. We will see. Since , at the moment, we are only open to infant or toddler adoption, they may say that my needing to work full time as a teacher disqualifies us. We also may not be able to complete the required 27 hours of training this May (anyone want to watch my kids monday and wednesday nights????). SO there are many unknowns but we would like to figure out if this is a possibility for us.

If you would like to speak to me about this please do but leave out phrases like "taking on another problem" "asking for trouble". I will completely tune you out once I hear those things. As the parent of a special needs child and as a high school teacher, I can tell you that I have see just as many "problems" in families with biological children as with adopted.