Welcome 2012

It's hard to believe that we are starting 2012.  My son JT will be 18 in just a few days.  It's so interesting when you have a child with special needs. When they are children you fight to get their services, yet if your income is to high you don't qualify for state or federal medical assistance.  So then you keep waiting for them to turn 18 so your income as a parent does not matter, because they are now considers an adult.  Yet then you worry about them being taken advantage of.  So you start consulting with the lawyers to draw up the power of attorney papers, the guardianship or conservatorship papers.

My husband and I have done the power of attorney papers and the medical power of attorney. I have completed his social security paperwork.  Now I have to call the Social Security office to set up his appointment to discuss his benefits.  I also need to call our lawyer to set up an appointment to draw up the conservatorship.  You see I don't want the state to end up with anything from his estate. Doesn't doing all this paperwork sound like so much fun.  I want to proctect my child, yet I want my child to have a life and reach for the stars that are obtainable to him.

Some days I wish I had the worries other parents had about what college is my son going too, but that is not to be with J.  I get to worry about what type of job is he going to have, will he take any college classes, who will be there to protect him when I am not around. I will get the college worries when A gets ready to go off the college in three short years.

I also need to remember A needs to have as much of a normal childhood teenage years as he can have.  Sometimes it is so hard to see the hurt in A when we have to do something that centers on J. As a parent that is the worst feeling in the world.  After we found out J had Autism our world turned upside down, yet we have alway made sure that know matter what A has a childhood, which includes doing sports that he loves.  We spent 11 years watching him play baseball during the summer. One of my favorite things to do was taking A out on a date night, just him and me for dinner as some place he wanted to go.

I hope my boys remember the special little times we spent together.  Sometimes it is just sitting on the sofa watching a movie or sporting event that they want to watch.