One of the main reasons I want to start writing out some of the stuff that is going on is because I feel like big changes are coming. (1) Charley is starting Kindergarten next year. (2) I will be going back to work part-time in the fall. (3) We are in the process of getting Justus diagnosed with Asperger's.
Charley starts Kindergarten in the fall! It is a bittersweet feeling. She has been my little buddy while the boys have been at school the past couple years. It's a little harder sending her off to school than the boys...I think because she is a girl and the baby and because I have spent the most one-on-one time with her. She is so ready for school though, and I am excited for her to make new friends and learn new things. We registered her for school last week, and will find out who her teacher will be soon.
Charley starting school brings another big change with it. I will be returning to the workforce...eek! I know that I worked at Target part-time a couple of years ago, but this feels totally different. I feel so unprepared and a bit lacking to go back to work. We are still trying to figure out what kind of job will work best for us, but I am hoping to get a job in the school district or something that would allow me to be home in the summer with the kids. I filled out my first application on Sunday night. It was done through tears as I struggle with filling it out. I felt inadequate as I tried to update my resume and write a letter of interest. It was way more difficult than I thought it would be. I have been out of a professional setting for almost 7 1/2, and I do not feel ready to return to it.
Throughout the school year we have noticed some major struggles for Justus. We have had many discussions with Justus' teacher regarding his behavior at school. At the beginning of the school year we realized that he was really struggling with focus and transitioning from one activity to the next. After talking with his teacher we decided to get him evaluated for ADHD. It was an eye-opening experience as we had to fill out a survey and asked his teacher to do the same. We never realized how much Justus struggled with focus and attention until we had his teacher fill out her survey. It was kind of a shock to read her report. We hoped that once he was diagnosed with ADHD that all of Justus' struggles would magically go away. Well....they didn't. A lot of his struggles with focus and attention became better, only to reveal other struggles. We began to notice that he was struggling with social interactions and that he really struggled with changes in the normal routine at school. During this time we started watching the television program Parenthood. In the show one of the characters in diagnosed with Asperger's and we really saw a lot of similarities between this character and Justus, so we started doing a little research on Asperger's and decided to talk to Justus pediatrician. We then decided to take Justus to a counselor, since the pediatrician could not diagnose Justus with anything like autism/Asperger's. We saw a counselor for a few weeks and took the GADS survey, which is an initial test to see if Justus displayed enough symptoms of Asperger's to get him officially tested/diagnosed. (We are finding out that it is a long process, and expensive to get diagnosed.) The results from the survey put Justus in the "highly probable" range for having Asperger's. Today has been spent calling different organizations and schools to see what our next step should be. We found a school in St. Louis where we are going to get Justus officially tested for Asperger's, among other things. They will do an evaluation to determine what exactly is going on with Justus. Now we are just waiting, but I am glad that we are starting to figure some stuff out.
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