Finally!!

Finally some good progress!! We picked a preschool for Reilly this morning! He will be going to Duncan Christian Preschool. We got a chance to tour the classroom and felt it was a perfect fit for him, it's a plus he knows some kids that go there as well. The teacher has experience with children with autism already in her class so we feel comfortable with bringing him to someone who already has a heads up on how to handle Reilly. He will start in September and go 2 half days a week! I'm excited for him! He cried when he left the classroom. He wanted to stay!!

We also met with a Behaviourial Interventionists with a centre called Pivot Points. We had a meeting with her to discuss what she does and what she would do if we chose her and her team to work with Reilly. We seem pretty confident we will choose this place because they have an opening, wiling to start asap with Reilly and they work in-home! If we did choose these people, they would pick the therapy people to work with Reilly ( speech path, occup. therapy etc). They have strict screening for thier therapists. They want the best of the best for the children. She also seems as though she will relieve a bit of the stress off by micro managing some paperwork that we won't have to do, ie funding etc. Reilly would have 2 hrs of therapy a day/ 5 days a week for around the next 3 years. It's up to us the amount of therapy we want him to have. We can decrease that amount or increase it. So 10 hrs a week. They are flexible when/if we need to go on vacation or a trip or if Reilly is sick etc. I'm not sure if their are other programs etc we need to do with Reilly at the centre in Victoria or not. It's only in the beginning stages and we haven't said the official " yes" yet to them. We are waiting for our meeting with the Clements Centre on Monday so we have a clearer picture of Reilly's future. We want Pivot Points and the Clements Centre to be on the same page with our goals for Reilly. So, for less confusion, the Clements Centre has the same types of therapy as Pivot Points. Speech Pathology, Occupational therapists, physical therapists, infant development consultant etc. Clements Centre is free, Pivot Points is taken out of our funding we get each year. They work together but work on seperate goals so more things are achieved in Reilly's therapy. Most places have wait lists so we will have to be patience in this process. We also learned Respite Care is in the far future. Wait lists are long etc. So we might have to try to rely on the people we know to help us get some breaks.

The melatonin is just starting to work so were hopeful it will continue to work so we can get some much, much needed rest! This is an exhausting process that takes our full energy. Between appointments, therapy, phone calls, at home therapy we do, to making sure Ry's not a safety risk to himself each day and the list goes on. It consumes your life. This is a life long battle. I get irriated when people think therapy will cure him. It will help him, not cure him. Autism is not curable. We have to be realistic that therapy will work and he will respond well, but he will also struggle with certain things for his whole life. Right now were just "putting band-aids" on the issues were having with Ry until we can get some therapy start. Please pray we can still push through all this and we can have some energy to be the other roles in our lives, husband,wife,son,daughters and gracious to ourselves as people. We don't take much time to be with eachother or for ourselves. Our 2nd wedding anniversary is Monday and were hoping to find a babysitter for Ry so we can have a nice quiet meal!