IEP's

For all those who have been praying specifically for our IEP negotiations, Thank you, and for those of you who have been praying generally for Max and our family Thank you!! Our prayers have been answered. 

We had an awesome meeting with a team of 10 school district evaluators, psychiatrists, therapists, etc.  At first a little overwhelming as we felt pretty outnumbered, but overall it turned out to be a really good meeting, the school district was soo generous in the IEP (individualized education plan) and was throwing services at us, we knew there was a few things we needed to specifically request and before we even had a chance they were offering the services.  I really appreciated the School District Director, before he met Max he said he really liked his strong name and said it sounded like a name that just might conquer the world someday and he wanted to be a part of that. They did lots of research and wrote extremely detailed reports to assist all the teams. They also built in  flexibility so we don't have to have lengthy IEP meetings or evaluations as Max's symptoms change.

Max was accepted into the school district's developmental preschool, which will have around 5 special needs kids and 5 normally developing kids.  They have also accepted Molly into the preschool as Max's buddy so they can keep an eye on both of them together, which will also help ease anxiety.   Depending on where Madison gets placed for kindegarten next year they may get to have to door to door bus service.  You can be praying that Madison gets placed in the same elementary school as Max and Molly.    We were able to rise to the top of the in-district transfer lottery since she will have 2 siblings attending the school, but the lottery is not held til mid May and they cannot promise a spot until 1-2 weeks before school actually starts....

Within two weeks of the final evaluation meeting we had a meeting with his new team for the next school year, we met his new preschool teacher, Miss Jessie, all her helpers and the OT, PT, and Speech team that will be keeping an eye on him as well as meeting with the District Nurse, who will write the medical plan for Max.  The kids loved getting to tour their classroom and school and cannot wait for school to start next year.

Thank You Birth to Three!

Max officially graduated from the School District's Birth to Three Therapy program this week. Josh and I didn't expect to be in such a sense of mourning following his graduation.  It really feels as if we will be losing several members of our family all at once.   They came to our house every week and joined our family life,  Max looked forward to their time together and would remind me and try to guess what would be in their bag of goodies.  He would eagerly greet them and be ready to get to work.  They taught us so much and helped Max progress so much in one year.  They will each forever be an integral part of Max's journey and completely irreplaceable.  We will all miss them!

Miss Michelle - Speech Therapy

Miss Liz - Occupational Therapy

Miss Meri - Physical Therapy

Madison's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday to Madison!  We have one excited girl who is very ready to go to Kindegarten.   She is healthy, active and so much fun! There is always a party when she is around, she has become so independent and grown up this month and such a huge help to mom. She loves riding her bike, being active, playing legos or dolls, enjoys reading and swimming and doing art and crafts. She had a special day devoted to her at preschool and got to bring all her special things to share with her class, she told the class that she wanted to be a Doctor, Teacher and Mommy when she grows up so that she could make Max and Grandma feel better.