Busy

It feels like all I'm hearing about lately is back-to-school stuff.  But I don't feel a bit like we are ready for back-to-school and that's fine since the girls won't start the Fall semester for at least another 4 weeks.  That leaves us time to:

• Get Emma's secondary health insurance (Medicaid) reinstated.  Apparently our state thinks she moved out of the state and kicked her off.  We didn't move and have no plans to leave the state now or in the future, so of course we filed an appeal along with paperwork proving we still live here.  Nothing has happened since I filed so that warrants more trips to the public assistance office, calls to advocacy groups and me growing more gray hairs.  Fingers crossed this is cleared up.....again.  Yes, again.  They did the same thing in April 2012 - 3 months ago - but they responded quickly to my appeal then.  Why do they keep thinking we are moving?  
• Finish up Emma's re-evaluation for her IEP.  I wanted her to stay in the developmental delay classroom since she really started to make progress on her goals and have a major focus on communicating with the ECO2 communication device (WHY oh WHY does her Medicaid have to pick now to kick her off?  Right when we are in the process of trying to give her a voice via the ECO2 with ECOpoint computer???!!!!!).  The team was in support of this.  I also want to supplement that with with a wonderful typical preschool program I found in our neighborhood a few days a week.  The school is a great fit except it seems like I can't garner support for a one-on-one aide for the typical preschool placement - and Emma needs a 1:1 in order to participate in the curriculum.  Apparently the school is by law required to only support one placement.  We are working this all out and will need to agree to a placement soon if Emma is to start school on time.  We also need to revise her IEP since it expires the first week in September.  I see even more gray hairs in my future!  Stay tuned....
• Take a vacation.  We didn't take one yet outside of a day trip here and a night away there.  We have something planned for August and are looking forward to a bit of time away.  Some sun, fun on the beach, a few drinks and maybe I can fend off all the gray hair trying to sprout from my head!
• Make a little money.  I'm thrilled that I'm now working part-time for a former co-worker at a really cool company!  The work should take a few months to complete so I'm not getting back into working full-time or even for an extended period of time.  This will be just enough to get my feet wet in corporate America again while still managing to keep the girls out of day care - something very important to both me and Chris since feel Emma is making the best progress under our care.  And I'll be honest and say that it will be helpful to have the extra money.  The nice thing is that if the company likes my work and I enjoy working for them there could be the opportunity to extend the project to other areas.  For now I'm taking it one thing at a time.....

These girls are worth all the advocacy, sleepless nights and gray hairs.  Don't you agree?!