The Return of Hope

This year, we returned to homeopathy and I, for once, stayed on the correct path as I went through what I needed to do. It seemed easy this time, and I let up on the diet issues while stocking up on activated charcoal, and heavily focusing on both doing WHATEVER MY SCATTERED MIND NEEDED TO DO to organize their daily supplements and MOVE ON PAST MY MISTAKES while informing our practitioner when they happened. It turns out, more often than not, her response was,

“It’s OK. Just move on.”

Really? OK. No one’s ever said that to me, I think. So that’s what I did. I just fixed the mistake next time around and didn’t sweat it.

If you had ANY idea how much this is NOT like me, you’d freak out, lol!

It turns out, Amy was right: It was OK. The kids are completely thriving. How so? Well, it’s progress report time…

Sit down. I actually have GOOD NEWS.

Amelia, who started the year refusing to interact with others, has totally gotten back in to relating. There have been times where she doesn’t want to, true, and some days she’s needed naps (normal for early puberty though, I’d think, and growing pains) and days when she needed to withdraw after a time, but all good. She has proven she can do research for a presentation on colonial glassblowing – AND showed initiative by getting interested in tanning as well and taking on that topic, just for interest. She presented WONDERFULLY (I have the peer evaluations to prove it), better than last time when she was too shy to properly present. I’m so proud of her and I’m raising the bar for her this week. She earned a whopping 67 stickers yesterday at school so we’re going to try that at home.

Zoe is doing fantastic too. I (stupidly maybe) asked for an additional assignment for her, so we have 2 projects to complete this week. Homework is still really challenging but we’re going to do it. The exciting news is that she mastered 4 of her IEP goals and so now we get to “up” the bar for her too! It’s been great getting her to read almost every night and there has been so much more engagement, so much more following directions and doing what she’s told.

Today, I’m the proud preening mama, but I’m going to tell you that I honestly don’t believe it’s ONE thing.

Try everything!

DON’T STOP AT ONE THING. Change one thing at a time, yes, but make your goal to change it all: Change their diet, little by little. Choose a detox program (biomedical, homeopathy, supplementing) and go with it. Change their health care to be more natural. Do on alternative thing. Make a plan to switch to a DAN! or MAPS doctor. Go for speech, OT and physical therapy. Work for inclusion at school. Use iPad apps. Raise the bar. Integrate rewards. Discipline poor behavior that you are sure is a choice. (Don’t discipline reactions that they can’t control.) Research. Reset. Retry. Call meetings. Call the advocate. Ask the teacher for advice on what to do at home. Try cutting edge treatments. How are you going to do that all? Simple:

Organize to suit YOU.

You already know that I suck at organizing, so I’ve done what I needed. I’m very a much “List and Paper” person, so I printed out my homeopath’s daily recommendations on individual lines, plotted each day on my calendar (#1, #2, etc.), then created a list in pencil where I added the dosage daily, after checking my calendar…and crossing out the printed sheet to know where I stood. Testing needs to be done at a certain point so I plotted that too. WAY more organized than you can imagine for me!

If you think you don’t have time, sit down and give something up! I know I always advocate to take care of yourself – and you should, no scratch that – you MUST. But your kid is your gift from God and the care of another human is your most important legacy. Take your phone into the bathroom with you to read research. Join mama groups that can help. Ask a question here (ginabad {at} gmail) or go to TACA or Generation Rescue or your local ARC for help.

You’re in this for the long haul – and that’s a good thing! You are the BEST mom your child could have. God knew what He was doing when He planted this child or these kids into your life. You will doubt yourself but rest assured you’ll be ok.