New school year and more

We're going to be starting a new school year in a few weeks so have been busy getting things in order. As usual things always seem to fall apart when you're trying to get things together...sigh.

Jonathan of course has a raging ear infection complete with draining blood. The usual antibiotic ear drops didn't touch it, so we brought him to the doctor who ordered oral antibiotics and a recommendation to see his ENT doc. Off to the ENT only to find out Jonathan has a ruptured ear drum and the tubes are out of both ears, great! He's now on different ear drops and the oral antibiotic. We have to wait until the infection is gone before we can schedule the surgery to get the tubes put back in, that will be surgery #3 for the tubes, ugh. Follow up with the ENT on the 30th.

Anah will be getting her school physical that day as well and be starting school the next week. I had her intake appointment with the school this week. I'm sooo excited about her starting there! What an awesome place for kids with developmental disabilities. The environment is a total submerging in language/speech. Even when they aren't having speech therapy they are having speech. The entire room is geared to that, as are the teachers, teaching assistants and 1 on 1 aides. They all use sign as well as verbal speech and picture cards for everything. That may not seem so unusual in younger grades, but Anah is going to be 13 in Oct. and they still do it in her class. She's ungraded, all the classes are, so they are assigned by their age. There is one class for each two years of age, so she'll be in the 12-13 yo class. Each child gets work at their level, whether the child is nonverbal or can read almost at typical age level.

I got to meet her teacher, a really pleasant happy lady, I'm sure Anah will not feel threatened by her, at least after a couple days :o) . I also got to meet the TA and some of the 1 on 1 aides as well as some of the children that will be in her class. The children were in their summer session, not all go, but most do, I'm pretty sure Anah will go next year as well, at least for part of it. I was blessed to get to speak with the school nurse, the school social worker and several other staff members. No matter what age of student (5-adult) walked by any staff member, they all knew the student's name and addressed them individually, it was awesome!

I have a few school supplies for Anah, book bag, lunch pail and some clothes, I still have to get a couple more outfits and shoes. We are still trying to find out how we get paid for mileage reimbursement, since we plan on driving her to and from school daily, but our biggest issue is we don't have a car that runs well! UGH!!! We're down to one car and that one is having transmission trouble! So please, pray that God will provide a means for us to get a car so that we can drive Anah to and from school and to get back down to PA to finish up our "family crisis" that we have been dealing with since the spring.

Joseph has had a boring summer pretty much, except for a few weeks here and there, that was mostly because we were in PA for a most of it. The past five days Joseph has gotten to be with a friend of his who has moved out of town. Joey got to go stay with him, it's been a real blessing for him and his friend. Since we got to go back to our church as well (which I can't even tell you how much we have ALL missed it) he got to see some of his other friends too, so that was encouraging for him. When we go back to PA we are hoping to go to Knoebels Grove, an amusement park near our cottage. It is one of the few that I know of that the parking is free, to get in is free and you only pay for a wrist band if you want to ride the rides OR you can buy a book of tickets, which are good year after year if you don't use them. I love going there because I don't ride any rides and neither does Bob. The little ones only go on a few, but Joey will ride everything, so it works out to be a very economical fun day for us all.

I have to confess to being warn out. As tired as I am I still am not sleeping very well, I can't stand that! Bob is the most wonderful husband ever. He is so supportive and helpful with the kids, as a REAL man should be, he is such a blessing to me. He lets me nap whenever I'm tired and does all the housework that hurts my joints and back...yes, he's a dream come true! My back has been all out of whack, I got to the chiropractor once since we've been home, he told me I needed to go a couple more times to get my back into alignment again. I know it's real bad when my right arm is numb, the migraines won't quit and I can hardly move my left hip, which is where I am now. Hopefully I'll get back at least one more time before we head down to PA.

My parents had their 50th wedding anniversary party last week. What a blessing it was. To see two people still so in love after all that time. To see what a true marriage is, one that lasts through the good and the bad, that is an inspiration. My Mom's sister and her two daughters came down from Canada and my Mom's best friend from Scotland came to celebrate with us all. My parents got to spend the weekend with my aunt and cousins and got to spend four weeks with Mom's friend from Scotland. We all enjoyed being together to honor Mom and Dad's years of marriage.

I guess that's it for our updates, it's been a bit of a mixed up type of update, but then again, that's how my mind works I'm afraid. Blessings one and all.