Day 10

If you've been following along, you probably know that our daughter has severe autism and severe intellectual disability. When people hear autism, they think Raymond Babbit in Rain Man, or Max Braverman in Parenthood. But autism is a very broad spectrum. Our daughter is different from what most people think of, to the point where we don't always even use the term autism to describe her. She's eleven, and she doesn't talk or have any language skills. She can't dress herself or bathe herself. She's not toilet trained. She's also not completely helpless -- in fact sometimes she's a little to capable, letting herself out the front door and into the neighbor's house, or emptying all of the oversized containers in the spice cabinet to fill the sandbox.

In any case, after a long battle with the bureaucracies of Federal, state and county government agencies, as well as multiple private companies contracted by those governments, we achieved a victory. As of last fall, we're finally able to receive help in caring for our daughter.

One of the things we now receive is a certain number of hours of in-home care. This means that we have people coming into our house and out into the community with us on a daily basis. It's an adjustment to let strangers into your home every day. They see you at your best, at your worst, and everywhere in between. And not every person is a perfect fit for every family.

However, we are now blessed with a couple of truly awesome care providers. In this world, nothing lasts forever, but I hope we can hang onto them for as long as possible.

Today I wrote a note of praise and thanks to their supervisor. I think they know how much we appreciate them because we have plenty of chances to mention it, but I want to make sure it's recognized by their employer as well. We're so thankful for them, and it's made such a difference in our lives.