DISCLAIMER: regarding last post

So, I realized that some of the people that might read this are not familiar with military life and thought I should add that dealing with the military and the assignments we get. . . we've learned to not believe anything until we see it. Official orders that is. So, trust us, we aren't getting too hyped up about moving just yet. But we'll be sure to let everyone know when it's safe to get excited about it :)

In Circles

UUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!
That is a very accurate description to how I am feeling pretty much all of the time these days.

I read over my last blog and gave myself a headache. I apologize to anyone else who was brave enough to finish reading that post. It was all over the place. Sadly, that's the nature of our life right now.

We are flying around daily and nightly trying to make sure we push for Ryan's services. New information coming in almost hourly and things are changing faster than we can keep up. Long story short, pretty much everything from our last post has changed. I won't bother with breaking down every tiny detail unless someone asks me to. In a nutshell, we could very possibly be moving, Ryan will get awesome services, our finances will be fine and we're leaving it up to God as best our human brains will let us. Constant struggle on that one.

I'm a pretty open book so there's not much I won't answer if asked. I don't even think anyone reads this other than the few people that get the updates automatically :) But it's sure therapeutic for me. :)

On another note, a welcome, happy one. . .Jalen started acting camp this week. They are doing Grease songs and he is having a BLAST! Can't wait to see their performance on Saturday. He is very excited too. Look for video footage soon :)

The two little ones are doing well. Justin is doing amazingly well. Laela is finally a healthy happy little girl. Her surgery in July was a big success and she has not had one runny nose episode since. This is the child that litterally kept a nasty nose for 6 months straight. No breaks. She can finally breath and SHE DOESN'T SNORE :) She is still a little delayed but she's getting services now and when she's three she's set to start preschool where she'll get even more. She's talking some and eager to learn which is great. She is HILARIOUS to be around and keeps us laughing all the time.

We will be going to meet teachers for the first time tomorrow so Jalen (and mommy) are very excited about that. Jalen will be going to gifted this year so he'll meet both his teachers tomorrow. Ryan will have the same teacher for the first few months until we figure out a definite plan to implement his services and find out if we're moving or not. We don't want him to be thrown around to too many different people since the possibility of moving exists.

Whew, I'm gonna leave this post at that. I don't want to cause anyone any more headaches from the chaos that is our life :) Like I said though, questions are welcome and trust me, there will be more to come when I feel like I need some blog therapy :)

Thank You Jesus!!

Most anyone who follows our blog knows that we just got Ryan's diagnosis. That said, we have been extremely overwhelmed and stressed out trying to prioritize finances and treatments in order to best serve his needs. Having an autistic child is not cheap. I should rephrase that. Healing an autistic child is not cheap. We have NO idea if treatments are going to work for Ryan but we can't give up until we try. He needs equipment as well to help keep him safe. The equipment he has needed for a while but we were waiting to see if insurance would cover it and they will but my goodness we have to wait a really long time to get through all the red tape and our child's safety is not something we want to wait for. He needs a harness to keep him from being lost or worse, hit by a car or something of that nature. He doesn't understand the need to stay close to us and it scares us to death. One time lost in the very safe very secure base BX was enough for us to freak all the way out and try to come up with a solution. I just can't imagine if that had happened in an off base mall or something. Uggh, it makes my stomach turn. We are planning to have lots of tests run to find out his biomedical needs so we can start that as soon as possible. These are the things that are going to cost us an arm and a leg but could be well worth it if it helps Ryan even a little bit. We are also planning to start the GFCF (gluten/casein free) diet which is no easy task in itself. All of this has been so overwhelming for us. I thank God that I have been researching Autism for the past three years because I can't imagine how overwhelmed I'd be if this was all new! Add to this stress, the worry that the military could send us back to the states due to lack of services here. Obviously we'd willingly go if it meant Ryan could get what he needed. But it would also mean a significant decrease in our pay and deployments for Eddie. Neither of these things would be good for Ryan or the rest of our family. We'd be less able to buy the treatments he needs and none of us would benefit from Eddie being gone for 6 months and home for six months, and so on. There is another issue that we were facing as well. With the current findings of Ryan's condition and permenancy of the situation, we have decided that it's best for our entire family if we separate fromt he military when our time is up in 4 years. Well, we have lots of debt to pay off first and lots of saving to do, in order to make that possible. We know it's best but it's going to be a lot of work. Being where we are it is possible. If we have to move back to the states, the paycut we'll take would make the separation close to impossible! Well, now for the reason for the title of my post. The two reasons we were possibly going to be sent back to the U.S. was because there was no pediatrician here to oversee Ryan's new medication. Also, there is a home based therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis that children with autism can benefit from greatly. That therapy is not offered here. Well, yesterday I received a call from the pediatrician that there is a child psychologist at a nearby base that will be available to oversee Ryan's meds and answer questions for us when needed. She also will be making periodic trips here to our base to see him. Then last night I was researching ABA therapy to find out what it involved in an attempt to see how much Ryan would/would not benefit from it. Well, in my research it seems he could benefit greatly. Okay, now for the good part. I found a very reputable source online that offers training programs for parents or care providers that are interested in conducting the therapy themselves. For instance, if you run a daycare and want your staff to be educated trained, you can buy the group training program. Or if you are just parents like us that can't access the therapy, you can buy the individual training program! The program was created because ABA typically is not covered by insurance and can obviously cost families an awful lot of money. For us, it's covered IF we had access to it. YAY YAY YAY!!! Happy news for the Baldomeros!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD, HE"S SO GOOD TO ME!!!

Autism it is

As most of you know, we have been at work for many years, trying to find out how to help our son Ryan with his many complex special needs. We have been getting lots of doors slammed in our face and not getting very far but thank GOD we haven't given up because it finally paid off. The military sent Ryan and I on a trip to Hawaii to visit with lots of specialists for 2 1/2 weeks to get to the bottom of it. It was concluded that he is autistic. He has Autistic Disorder. He also is in need of medication. We were able to get so many answers. Much more than we ever expected to. Saying that we feel blessed right now is an understatement. Some might find it odd that we have such a feeling of blessedness after just finding out our son has autism. We have been looking for answers for 3 years and this is something we are not surprised by. We are just beyond relieved to have the answers we need to get him the support and help he needs. I asked God a long time ago, why? And eventually I was given the answer of "why not". I am extremely humbled. Since receiving that answer the feeling that overwhelms me is that I do not in any way feel adequate or worthy of the blessing that is Ryan. But for some reason God thinks otherwise and for that I am grateful and humbled. Okay, with all that said, I have lots of great pics from Hawaii but they are on my laptop so I haven't been able to blog them yet. And can I just say, I have now found my favorite place on the planet. . . HAWAII!!!!!! I don't know what I would have done if all my kids and hubby would have been with us. I don't know how they would have gotten me to leave :) I told Eddie last night that I almost wish I hadn't been to Hawaii in a way because now I have an attitude about everywhere else we've been :) LOL! I'm all snooty about HUMID/RAINY Japan and swealtering Alabama and Georgia! And Alaska, do we really want to go there! LOL!! I suggested to Eddie that he send me there annually to keep me tolerable :) I'm only teasing of course but my goodness it's a wonderful place. Nutshell: Ryan is Autistic (duh!), Hawaii is amazing, and pics to come soon! :)