ANOTHER UPDATE

Well, that wasn’t helpful at all!  Just more empty promises that I know they can’t possibly promise at this point!  Pretty much just a replica of the first meeting.  FRUSTRATED!  I feel like they are listening and nodding their heads and not really hearing us.  On to the next thing… a meeting with all the parents to find out what everyone is feeling and thinking. 

Again, I walked away thinking, “Don’t tell me you care about my child when you don’t even know who he is!”  They knew nothing about Mitch nor have they spent any time with him.  I know they have a lot of students with disabilities in the district but is it too much to ask that the Director of Special Education and the Assistant Director get out there and personally meet all of these kids?  They would have a better understanding of their needs if they would. 

We honestly feel like we have found something so wonderful and so exciting that Mitch LOVES and now it is being ripped out from under our feet.  We feel so helpless in this situation.  It doesn’t help that my whole family has the flu right now… my mood might brighten up when we all feel better.  I’ll cross my fingers.

UPDATE

Well, we have an appointment next week with the Director of Special Education.  Wish us luck.  We will need it, I think.  They are very prepared for a fight from the parents.  I am thrilled, by the way, that parents are actually fighting this.  I am not surprised that they love Oakridge as much as we do but after the first meeting I thought they were just going to let this happen.  I didn’t have much hope that I could make any kind of a change by myself.  I think the parents were a little shocked at first, I know we were, but now everyone is MAD and gearing up for a battle.  We have all been working on letters, emails, petitions, and anything else we can think of.  I am very hopeful at this point.  I just want Mitch to be happy and I know that he is extremely happy at Oakridge.  He is thriving in an environment where he feels loved, respected and understood and I am not about to let anyone take that away from him.  I will update again after we meet with the Director. 

One exciting new thing I want to share about Mitch… He is standing up to EVERYTHING!  I walked by his bedroom and peeked in the other night, and he was STANDING up in his bed!  Just standing there playing!  He is not happy unless he is standing now.  For the first time ever, I can see that a walking goal might be achievable for him!  I am so excited for him!  He definitely has the desire.  Now we are going to have to get him another bed, it seems that he has outgrown his hospital bed with rails.  He has been able to get out of it for quite some time now but since he is starting to stand up in bed, I worry about him tumbling over the side of it and really hurting himself.  Silly boy.

Well that didn’t last long…

O.K.  I’m trying to have a positive attitude about this… all this talk about having so much hope for this year… ya, I may have spoken too soon.  We just found out today that the school Mitch goes to is dissolving.  They are making it a “transition place” for 18-22 year olds now.  Dr. Kay will be placed somewhere else, or so they say.  That is probably the thing I am most upset about.  We moved Mitch to this school because of Dr. Kay.  He loves these children and truly sees the best in them.  He fights for what they need.  In the meeting, I heard a lot of words like, “we hope so” and “the cost of that” and “we believe so”.  They are dispersing everyone to inclusive classrooms in elementary schools across the district.  Hello, we’ve already tried this with Mitch.  We didn’t like it, nor did Mitch, so we moved him to Oakridge.  Most of the parents there made the choice to be at Oakridge.  Why do you think that is?  He has made more improvements at Oakridge than he has anywhere else and he’s only been there for one full year.  Do the math.  That is AMAZING!  The thing that gets me is that the parents are the last ones to hear about it.  We don’t have a say or a choice.  The decision has already been made.  Today they TOLD us what was going to happen next fall, not “Hey, what do you think about this or what is your opinion?”  After all, we are only the parents of these kids, no one else is going to be their advocate.  Dr. Kay was a tremendous advocate for the kids and they are “getting rid of him.”  I am furious with this school district!   Mitch does have one definite advantage though, and that is Jolyn, his intervener.  Although, we have had problems in the past because Mitch gets sick all the time at a regular elementary school and has to miss a lot of days.  This has caused quite a few interveners to quit.  I know that Jolyn is not in it for the money so this gives me hope but I seriously can’t believe this is happening.  Mitch has been so happy at Oakridge.  Thank you, Dr. Kay, for loving our kids.  You will be missed.

Happy New Year!

With the New Year comes an incredible amount of hope for me.  I am so excited for new prospects and new goals and new commitments.  I have so much more hope for this new year than I ever have felt in the past.  Here are a few “new” things that have happened in our family so far…

New teeth

2 to be exact… he lost the second one a few days later.  You can see the new teeth already coming in!  He was so excited!

A new haircut!  It took some convincing… but now he says he never wants long hair again!  Uh oh…  what have I done.




Maj thought he got one too.  He’s showing it off…


Madd had his first lesson in Karate today.  Our neighbor signed him up for a free two week trial period but I think he is going to be attached.  He loved it!  I loved it too.  They taught him the 3 rules… Keep a clean room, always do what mom and dad say, and gosh I can’t remember the next one because those 2 impressed me so much!  ha-ha.  I forgot to take my camera so I don’t have a picture of that YET.


Our next big news….. Introducing the newest member of our family...

HURLEY

I have to laugh so hard at her ears though, they look like Shrek ears right now because we have to tape them so they stay up.  Hopefully we won’t have to do this long… Oh who am I kidding, she is so cute anyways!  This was at Maddock’s urging that we got her… I DID NOT want another dog but this child is so persistent.  He wanted her for Christmas and we put him off.  So he started talking about his birthday and getting the dog for his birthday so Will and I broke down.  You would have too if you had a child that only talked about this one subject for a month!  I have to say, she is the exact opposite of Max. (this is a good thing, a VERY good thing)  She does not bark, she smells good(hahaha), she is incredibly funny, great with the kids, great with Mitch in particular, and oh so sweet.  She is probably the sweetest dog I have ever been around.  When Mitch comes home from school she gives him the once over to make sure he is ok.  I can only think of one similarity between her and Max, and that is that she doesn't shed!  I know she looks like she would be a shedder but NOPE!  Bonus… she is already potty trained!  We are happy in the end that we broke down and caved into Maddock’s request.   Welcome home Hurley!

I know, I know, I know… we must be OUT OF OUR MINDS!!!!!!!!!


This next thing actually happened before Christmas but I will tell you about it anyway.  Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Shriners??????  Well I do.  They donated a wheelchair for Mitch.  And I am not talking about any old wheelchair, this thing is like the Cadillac of wheelchairs.  It is beautiful!  It is a positioning chair so he can use it all day long at school.  The way it tilts is amazing.  We used to worry about tilting him in his old yellow one because it could tip over but this one SWIVELS!  It is an amazing piece of machinery.  I am so incredibly grateful for Shriners and for the people that donate to Shriners.  They are amazing at what they do and donate their time and resources to children all over the country. 



New Year’s Eve

We had the best time ringing in the New Year with some dear friends.  It’s kind of a funny story.  One of our neighbors is the sister of a couple that we were in the NICU with when Mitch was born.  They had a little girl and we came to absolutely love their family.  I have talked to Julie a few times since but not very much.  It was so exciting to find out that her sister had moved into our neighborhood.  We have become good friends with Melanie and Shane and so it was fun to celebrate the New Year with old AND new friends!  ha-ha!  Does that make sense?!?

Julie and Melanie… I love these girls.  So much fun

We played games and as you can see it was INTENSE!  The men are seriously concentrating… you can almost see the steam.

We had a panty striker… Boston ran around with undies on his head!


Mitch didn’t last long…



Happy New Year!  May yours be filled with love, laughter and happiness! 

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was definitely one we will remember for the rest of our lives.  What a wonderful reason to celebrate!  The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ was truly the center of our thoughts this year.  Our dear neighbors who lost their baby boy on December 5 so elegantly reminded us of this.  Last year when we lost our nephew, Tyler, we had thought that Christmas would be the hardest time to lose someone you love.  The Cope family changed my thoughts on this.  Brother Cope stood at the funeral of his beautiful infant baby and expressed that he was grateful to be able to celebrate his sons life simultaneously with the birth of the Savior, for without the Savior he would not have the opportunity to be with his son again.  In the most trying trial of their lives, they were grateful.  Our ward was fasting together on the day that sweet little Daniel passed away.  Everyone was praying for a miracle.  Brother Cope was concerned that some would be upset about this or think that they didn’t get their miracle, but he wanted us to know that they did get their miracle.  Their miracle was that they had the time to give Daniel a name and blessing and they got to hold him until his little spirit returned home.  I am so grateful for the example the Cope family has been to me.  They strengthened my testimony immensely and I can only pray that I can bear my trials with as much grace. 

Our whole month was filled with events that truly made this a SEASON OF CHRIST that we will never forget…

This was left on our door step a few days before Christmas.  Our neighbors wanted to do something special for Mitch this year.  They went above and beyond! I can’t explain how much this meant to our family.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to the Keisels, the Paxtons, and the Kellers.  We love you. 

This is what was in it…

It’s a SWING!  Mitch absolutely LOVES this swing!  “Kids Who Count” is where Mitch goes for “Friday’s Kids” and they have a swing exactly like this one.  Mitch doesn’t get out of it the entire time he is there.  My dear neighbors are so very thoughtful.  They wanted to give him something that he would love and they heard about this swing.  Completely selfless act of kindness.  Do I not have the best neighbors EVER! 

When Will brought it back to his room, HE FOLLOWED HIM!  (or rather the swing)

He got in it himself! 

LOVES IT!  Will hung it in his room and I haven’t taken pictures of it yet.  Mitch spends most of his time in his room now:)

I have to thank my whole neighborhood for their generous acts of kindness toward my family.  A lot of them were anonymous so we don’t know exactly who to thank so we will just say thank you to everyone and we love you all. 
Amazingly, not a single penny came from our pocket this year for Christmas.  A lot of these gifts came from people that don’t even know us very well.  One gift came from someone that Will has been doing work for a very short time that I have never even met.  This amazed me.  I do know that prayers are answered.  We got news this month that our mortgage payment went up, imagine that!  When everyone else’s is going down, ours went up.  That sent me over the edge with stress.  So when Will had someone approach him and ask if he could help, again I was amazed that it came from someone I have met once that Will has, from time to time, done some work for.  We were both astonished to find that he had completely caught our mortgage up so now we are up to date.  I love that prayers are truly answered.  As tears are streaming down my face I also have a smile there because I know my Savior lives.  I love that through each other we are strengthened in Him.  We are all connected.  I have so much joy in my life because of Him and I hope you do too!

Wow, this is going to be a very long post… so on to CHRISTmas  eve!  Santa came by for a visit to make sure the boys went to bed before he started his work.
Major got very nervous… hence the hands in the pocket.

Madd on the other hand, went straight up to Santa and told him exactly what he was thinking.  He is the sweetest boy… my parents came to Utah for Christmas this year and he was worried that Santa wouldn’t be able to find them.  So, he wrote some things down that he thought they might like and gave it to Santa along with a picture he drew for him.  ha-ha

Darn it, little Mitch already fell asleep!


CHRISTMAS MORNING!




HUH?!?


This face would normally describe how Will feels about Christmas but this year was different for Will too!  We were pleasantly surprised to find Willy, well, PLEASANT!  I don’t know why he looks so ornery in this picture, oh I remember… he was teasing me!  

My brother and his family came down to see us.  They were in Willard with Natalie’s family this year.  It was so nice to see them.  We don’t get to see them very often any more since we don’t go to Arizona but once a year these days.  Their kids have gotten so big I can’t believe it.

Merry Christmas from the Morton's!