Audra 4/13/08

Moved blogs again. I think the kids have the same one. It's been so long since I've updated that I've forgotten everything!

It's been a crazy year so far! I'm still working at school part-time, and just last week I came across an office for my private consulting work that was perfect for what I wanted, so I snatched it up. So, I have an official "office" space and a monthly lease to go with it. It's great, though. All my "junk" is out of the house (mostly), and I have room in the office to romp around with the kids much better. Current area in the house will be turned into a real guest room (eventually when we can afford some furniture).

Dave is enjoying his work. We enjoy his stories. We were to meet him for work last night, and he called right as we got to the restaurant and he said he'd just been called off, so to go ahead without him. Right at that moment, there was a cop car behind me with lights and sirens blazing, so I figured he was just playing with us. Kids thought it was great. I'm thinking, "What a dork!" and I slowed down and even tapped my breaks just to play with him. Well, come to find out, he really WAS called off and it WASN'T him behind us! Ack! Sorry Mr. Officer-sir. :P

Isaak is doing SO well this year. We figured out a nice combination of medication that really helps him, and he's just maturing. Things that would previously have really "gotten" him, he's just letting slide off his back. He's so much easier to reason with and is more cooperative than ever. It's great! The best thing is that he's getting his own little group of friends that WE are not arranging for him! With that, though, comes some real emotional conflicts. He, for the first time, experienced a real sense of disappointment from people (as opposed to a game or activity he couldn't do). Some friends were getting together to have a Pokemon battle, and one friend said he'd pick him up or something since Isaak didn't know where it was. Well, I didn't know anything about it until that day, almost at the minute he was supposed to come. And, he didn't come. So, Isaak sat and waited anxiously, only to be disappointed that it didn't happen. We didn't have the guy's phone number to figure out what the story was, so I couldn't help him. I just had to assure him that it was OK and probably just a miscommunication and it wouldn't be the last time. But, to see those real tears and that true emotional pain was quite something. It was so NORMAL.

Little Audra is a doll. She's had a good year. She's not a huge fan of school, but she's a hard worker and a sweet girl. I told her this summer I'd hire her to come and be a "helper" in the clinic. She can start learning the work I do, and I think she'll be great at it. She's really excited to do that. She also wants to paint a picture for the new office.

We did the local Autism Society (of Oregon) Autism Walk-a-Thon today. So many people! The last walk we did was probably 5-7 years ago in Seattle. There weren't nearly as many people. I think the word is out. There was a statistic written on the path that said that Oregon has a rate of 1 in 88 (national is 1 in 150). Don't know how they're tracking their data, but if that's accurate, whoa! Anyway, it was a nice day. I know there's a lot of talk about the cause of autism right now, lots of people debating this or that. I wish I knew (I always get asked), but I can't worry about that. My fight, my focus, has to be intervention. I'll let the other people do the research and figure it all out. Hopefully, with events like this and more prominent people coming out of the woodworks, someone will figure it out.

Until next time (hopefully not another 9 months)!

Audra