Take transcription test for Allegis insurance today (step 5 of the application). Trying to add another backup contract as my favorite backup contract lost their whole department last week and we all lost our contracts. Don’t want to have less than three eggs in the basket . . .
Do just 40 minutes of audio by Thursday – yay, that is SO like a week off!
Spend a great day with Chris tomorrow – want to make him a great dinner! Hope to have Rog visit too – he should be home VERY soon!!
Play with Ryan at the park today where I’m dropping off Colleen for her “Otaku Picnic” – it’s not one we go to a lot so Ryan should love it!
Clean office this weekend and finish going through files (haven’t gone through them since 2008).
Monday and Tuesday CLEAN MY BEDROOM THOROUGHLY. It has been a long time since I did this – I won’t say how long (not even sure!)
Wed. Ryan goes to Cleveland for dentist – special needs clinic.
Thurs. Drs. appt with Chris
Things are going fairly well – enjoying the spring weather – hope it’s not immediately 90 degrees as I’m really enjoying 60s and 70s. On my break from school this week too. Should have my grade from Spring semesters (which was my first back) by next week — Enjoyed presenting on music and religion yesterday in class. Did powerpoint and word document.
summer – first algebra class and computer class, both online.
Since with new wonders of Facebook, my blog now appears in my profile when I update, I just wanted to thank you all for being on my friends list. Many of you have joined recently and I haven’t been able to personally write you, but I thank you for being in my circle of friends and family.
I do have some prayer requests at this time.
Roger continues to heal from his gall bladder surgery, but has hit some difficulty here and there along the way. He had to have a more complicated surgery than normal due to a cyst he had, and I believe that is why it’s taken longer to heal. The doctors have also been watching another cyst he had in another area of his pancreas, but it was not prudent to work on that at the same time as the surgery so they were waiting and watching. He still had it as of last week at his CT scan, so they will be watching it another 6 weeks. If it is not gone they most likely will have to do another surgery to drain it. This also may explain why Roger has had a slower recup time and extra nausea and pain. Lately, however, he has had more good days than bad so we are grateful to God for that.
We are in prayer that he can resume work slowly and get back to normal. Whether he has to have a second surgery will determine how fast that will happen. We would also like him to get home SOON (he’s at his mom and dad’s house) but with Ryan being rough in his affection for his daddy we were afraid to have him stay at home yet all the time. Ryan talks to him every day on the phone and gets so excited when he gets to see him sometimes!
My paperwork load has been very heavy but I’m trying to get through one project at a time. It has been harder to keep up on my paid transcription work with the hundreds of pages I’ve recently had to scan and fax and mail and drop off to various agencies lately with different updates the agencies had to do on our kids, etc. They all came up at once, and multiplied with just trying to keep up on calls in regard to hospital bills and just keeping up the checkbook and filing and all the items one has to do, it has been a little overwhelming!! I am now trying to get ahead of my transcription a little this week, and am hopeful the largest part of the paperwork elephant is now behind me. There are still some things left to do though, and I’m trying to keep track of them.
Christopher’s placement. We had a meeting at Christopher’s school Friday about how to help him progress more and learn more and learn to self-regulate with some aggressive behaviors and his not sleeping still, often. We all agreed that we need to contact the autism school I mentioned in my last post, in Florida, and I will be doing that this weekend. I pray the Lord’s will will be done in that area, and that we know the best thing to do for Christopher.
Thank you for prayers. We are all just trying to get through all this the best we can, and still enjoy the spring with the blossoms, and enjoy the family when we can all get together and communicate as much as we can. Rog and I had our first Facebook chat last night! That was fun 🙂 And I’m going over there and visiting a few times a week – Friday after my school has become a tradition.
I only have 3 classes left of my first class in 23 years. I still have 4 papers to write to catch up on my homework, but I will do it. It’s a good thing I love to write. Then I have a final paper to do along with a power point that I plan to do on music and religion (it’s a religion class). Next semester I am taking two online classes, first summer session computer introduction, and second summer session my first remedial algebra class. So I shall continue to be busy.
Watching our children grow up in the world of autism and deafness, it has become harder for me to really be active in the community of autism, as it takes all our energy to just keep our children safe and well in the world. It is hard to see outside our own lives. I am grateful, however, that many people in the world, even people who don’t have children or family members with autism, are working so hard to promote awareness and that today instead of being a rare condition it is becoming one of the most discussed and researched conditions.
I am hoping through my life to also work to be an advocate and learned person in the world of autism and deafness, which is the condition that most affects us personally. That is an area of deficit today – there is little information or services on individuals with autism and deafness.
(2020 – had to delete 3 other dead links. will try and find more good links. Now need to also add links about bipolar and pans/pandas (which can look the same)….
I am encouraged that there are way more than when I started these blogs in 2006. I actually printed the Gallaudet University article (60 pages) and have read through about 30 pages of it. We also are applying for Chris to go here:
It will be hard to send him all the way to Florida, but it really sounds like they could meet his needs there.
(2020 – we pursued this HARD! I see the link is dead but left up anyway. Stopped when we got the I/O waiver in 2011. Later found out – years later – that there were some big problems with the place, but that does happen, and it doesn’t always mean the whole place is bad, or was always bad, or anything like that. There are crappy people EVERYWHERE, and GOOD people everywhere. But it was sad, the things I read about this place later when it was held in such high esteem by his for years…)
(2020, of course now those specific degree links are not working – but it is still Kent so I will leave up.I believe it was the pre-speech therapy degree (which I later changed to special ed) and the autism certification.
I also hope to get fluent in ASL either now at Lakeland (where I am currently attending) or at Kent. I hope in the end I can be of more help to my boys as well as other individuals.
Thank you to everyone in the world working to make a better life for those touched by autism, as well as autism and deafness
It’s a fitting day to thank the Lord publicly for His grace for us. As most of you know, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day every year thanking Him for a miracle we had in 1994, when we had a mortgage and additional payment for a trailer, a baby on the way, and fear in our hearts that our trailer wouldn’t sell. Right on that day suddenly a person bought our trailer, with cash, and I’ll never forget crying in thankfulness looking at that money on the table.
This weekend, 2010, right before St. Patrick’s Day we had a financial deliverance once again that was sorely needed, and was a surprise. Things are still difficult but I am so grateful!
Recent events:
Caused by unsuspected gall bladder trouble, Roger has been in the hospital since February 11, save 5 days he was home and had to be readmitted. We are hoping his surgery is SOON. He had complications from the gall bladder trouble of pancreatitis, heart trouble, and pneumonia. His dr. appointment is tomorrow; we believe these should be resolved enough for surgery hopefully! Roger is aching to get back to work after being off for over a month!
I went back to school in January, just part time. Taking a comparative religion class — starting off getting my Associate of Arts degree which I need to complete in order to go on. Planning to get my Master’s in Speech Language Pathology along with an autism certificate from Kent State.
Chris is at his grandparents, and still struggling with his sleeping. We are still planning to most likely try and have him admitted to National Deaf Academy in Mt. Doro, Florida.
More soon — have massive transcription to do today —-
Testing out Windows Live Writer. Working at the moment, and have had a ton of stuff happen in our fam since Christmas, and will try and update soon. Really would like to get all three of my blogs seriously underway and active on searches soon. Prayers for my family’s health issues appreciated at this time.
The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.
Another year of challenge and change, and we know that God was with us through it all and continues to be. It was a strange year of ups and downs, but God brought us through and still continues to. We do praise Him and continue to pray for wisdom.
As I wrote last year, Christopher went into a group home in September of 2008. Though he had a rocky start, things seemed to even out later in the later fall and winter, and we thought everything would be fine. However, as he seemed to scream out more and not sleep, talk of his being asked to leave the group home began to become more active, and by August or September we had a solid decision by the group home management company that Christopher would have to leave.
We looked at some group homes in the area in September or October, but none seemed more able to meet his needs than the wonderful-seeming one that he was leaving. Most of the staff was very caring, and it was with heavy hearts that we said goodbye on November 1st. We weren’t really sure what to do, but our early plan has been to share care with Christopher’s grandparents, Roger’s parents. He has been in our custody since November 1st and mostly he has been staying with Roger’s parents, where we have him some of the weekends and take him on outings and appointments.
A glimmer of hope is that he does actually seem happier and also seems to be sleeping a LITTLE better, though he still often stays up all night — 2-3 times a week, usually. He also just now (last week) obtained his old aide back who had him in 04, Vicky, whom he loved to be with. He also is still attending the school system he started last year, that works with autism and seems to have a good plan for Christopher. My mom has also watched him some in our home, after school.
We also are still considering a school for the deaf/autistic disorder that is in Florida and still may be looking into that. But for the moment we are trying to still reach a sense of routine and normalcy and figure out how to best meet his needs as an extended family. He is a senior and will still most likely attend the school he is at until he’s 22. We will also be seeking what adult workshops, etc. he will be attending, and that is an exciting time of exploration.
Colleen with Uncle Al’s dog
As a sophomore Colleen is now observing classes at the vocational center, and she hopes to attend in the graphics program. Hard to believe she’ll be a junior next year. She has been wishfully speaking of driver’s ed but with her birthday all the way in May we feel this will be a junior, not sophomore, activity! She is ready, but we’re not!! Of course she is still creating her artwork and videos, working to keep grades up, and is hoping to get her first summer job this summer. She also attended another anime convention this past spring.
Colleen is planning another holiday party this year with pizza and friends over, as she had a blast last year with one of those at Christmas and another at her birthday (where she and her friends slept out in a tent out back). Colleen has also been taking care of a fishtank full of goldfish, and just recently obtained 3 tadpoles in another tank. Along with all this we also adopted her a cat recently; we had had a cat earlier in the year but sadly Stella died of cancer suddenly (she was a stray and we didn’t realize how sick she was until her 2nd visit to the vet for vaccinations). Sophie so far is very healthy and will have her first maintenance visit at the vet in January.
Sophie, our cat
Ryan’s speech is really growing by leaps and bounds this year. He has not been successfully wearing his current hearing aids, but we will be soon ordering new ones. I hope we can get a different style that he’ll be comfortable wearing, and I’m sure his speech will be getting even better. Right now he is in love with the Cars movie and is watching it many times a day. Our county awarded him a new computer in the fall, and he is greatly enjoying it. He loves www.Starfall.com and also loves to watch Youtube videos about the alphabet, Leappad, and, of course, Cars.
He got to see a few movies in the theater this year, Madadascar II and also Veggie Tales, the search for Noah’s Umbrella. He loved it! We hope to take him again soon and can’t wait for Cars II to come out but hear that’s in 2011 so we have a little wait!
Ryan swinging at the Potato Festival last fall.
This was the year where Roger and Dorene first attempted to take business trips together, as Roger’s out of-town county duties grew and it was sensible to share the work between two people. We went on these trips in February, April, July, and end of September, and are about to go again the 2nd week of January. This is one of the mountain views we saw in July and September, where we took a side drive away from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (one of our courthouses) and discovered the beautiful world of Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
In a very large coincidence, we discovered after a friend wrote to us after seeing our blog pictures that she and her husband LIVE there, and thus we were able to meet them for dinner in that town in September. We hope to do this now every year or two incorporated into our business trip.
We have both been thinking again of returning to school, where I was thinking of returning in the spring semester and Roger perhaps in the fall. I actually signed up for a class towards my Associates of Arts degree and will be starting on Fridays starting 1/22 at Lakeland with my first class in 22 years. I have approximately eight classes to take to get my Assoc. of Arts, and this class I start with, that fits into my schedule, is Comparative Religions. So it shall be interesting!
I have decided to study Speech and Language Pathology with an eventually transfer to Cleveland State towards a master, as I would like to be a speech therapist in the schools. Roger and I would both like to work with the deaf/autistic population, including our own sons, and Roger is still deciding what major he would like to have (possibly deafness captioning).
In the meantime, we are continuing with our present careers of transcription and court research which we do enjoy very much. My main client at this point is a firm that assigns me cases about Immigration deportees; it is very interesting and plentiful work!
I had the enjoyment this year of being contacted to fill in as a sub at my first law firm where I worked in ’88-94 and ’02-03, while the head attorney’s secretary goes on vacation or is out on any extended break. That has been nice extra money and also a chance to see old friends and have a change of scenery. I worked for a few days in January, February, April (I think?) and quite a bit in July/August, then again in early December. I’m supposed to work in March again, for about a week.
We just continue to work and pray and live in the hope and goal of helping our family as much as we can while still enjoying each other and doing our best with whatever we are doing. We did get to go away on some outings this year, and I will close with some pictures from these. A blessed holiday season to you and yours.
Our beach outing, last summer. Paula came with us and we also brought Colleen and Brenda who were swimming.
Fourth of July parade, Fairport.
Fourth of July picnic with Rick and Nancy and kids at the park
That was Chris’s 1 sleepover during this 14-month stay at the group home – he slept all night for us —
Our first look at mountainous Maryland in July.
Humphries reunion – Gayle & Craig’s dog loved Colleen!
Colleen at her summer camp that she attended with Ashleigh.
Eric’s graduation party – we were so happy Chris had a good time there.
Ryan loved the rope swing there!
Outing with Ryan the day we saw Veggietales, went to the beach, and had pizza out in Madison.
Fish we obtained in May —
Kitty in September. This is Stella but she did pass away in October.
Beautiful neighborhood flowers
Grandma with us at the fair
Fall leaf-burning festivities! (I’m in the leaves, yes)
Thanksgiving dinner and Chris, Papa, and Grandma’s birthday party.
At Christmas World, and afterwards we had Spaghetti dinners.
Our Christmas party, with Chris, Gayle, Chuck, and Rick & Nancy, Ashleigh & Nick
EMAIL: transcribing.mom@gmail.com
EMAIL: typealign@att.net
EMAIL (Rog) thedodger1@att.net
BLOG:NEWEST – http://criscollrjblog.blogspot.com/I decided to move my blog from WordPress.com to blogger.com as my other new blogs are at Blogger. So far as of 12/22/09 I have moved one year of the six years contained; the rest are on the blog following.
(2020 – above blog has no content)
BLOG: 2009, most of the year – http://criscollrjblog.wordpress.com/ – intermediate blog that I copied everything into when my WordPress.org blog was closed (www.criscollrj.com/blog, now closed) when I didn’t renew my domain at that time. Will probably just leave up as a backup.
(2020 – this above blog has content to about 2009)
LEGAL TRANSCRIPTION BLOG, 2009 – http://type-align.blogspot.com/ All about how I got into legal transcription and tips I think of as I go.
(2020 – this blog still exists — it has been imported into our newer domain (back again, had before) www.line-bright.com and all updates will be on the line-bright one.
AUTISM LESSONS BLOG, 2009 – http://autismlessons.blogspot.com/ New blog where I am writing about the things we’re learned through the years about autism and deafness.
2020 – this was referred to in a prior post and I couldn’t find the blog. Knew I had moved all the posts into criscollrj.com Neat to see the blog now, though — pretty background!
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com – search for Dorene Enea Humphries and contact to be added.
BUSINESS BLOG/INFO: http://line-brightservices.web.officelive.com/default.aspx. This (replacing line-bright.com, where I also did not continue to renew the domain) is the area where we will be explaining more about both of our businesses, summarizing my legal transcription (which will be more in detail on my legal trans blog, above) and discussing Roger’s court research position.
Decided to switch my word press com blog over to blogger so my blogs can be in the same area. Christmas newsletter to come. Testing to see if the date appears on this post — I redated the last ones to mirror the dates they were actually written on WordPress. Christmas newsletter will be coming next.
2020 – AND that blogger site is here! https://www-criscollrj.blogspot.com/ no content though — I must have pulled it all out when I went back to main blog site. Pretty background!
I started crocheting again a few weeks ago — I’m making a table scarf for my computer table and plan to make another for the other table. I used to knit and crochet a lot when I was a young teen up until maybe 15 years ago. It’s really soothing to do it again.
Planned to watch the new episode of 90210 on the computer, but ended up watching
My So Called Life instead (the final episode) instead, on Hulu, as last night’s 90210 is not on yet. I really loved My So Called Life, and can’t put into words how I sometimes can identify with Clare Danes’ character in that show – – -as well as Brian.
So, back to work tomorrow after busy day today running around town trying to reestablish Chris’s items such as bank accounts, SSI, etc. It’s amazing how long all that takes and how tiring it is. Now I have another large packet of papers again as his SSI recert for his medical need is due.
Still waiting for test results on Colleen – – posted on Facebook but not here that she’s been tested for anemia and mono for how tired and exhausted and weak she’s been on and off lately. Hopefully we’ll find out by tomorrow —
When you reach the difficult decision to place your son or daughter with a disability in a group home, it is good to know what services will actually be lost when they go in. Now, there is no problem most likely if the home provides good services while he or she is there, and keeps them there. But if there’s services you are used to getting at home and they don’t provide them at the group home, there is no way to get them aside from you paying for them, and if they are discharged from the group home, other services he or she used to get as a minor, in your home, may be lost, not to come back just because they are discharged.
Here is what has happened to us, so far.
Chris had wonderful health services in his group home. We were totally satisfied with that.
While he was in his group home, he lost his connection with “FRS,” our county’s financial assistance for things such as camps, activities that need to be paid for, and equipment. The group home covered his food, shelter, and things like that but did not cover hundreds of dollars for things such as Saturday camp that he had had paid for by FRS for many years. Last year, while he was in the group home, we (actually his grandma) had to pay for it.
We fully expected him to be back in FRS when he was discharged by the group home (via their choice, he was not appropriate for the home, they said). So we requested FRS to pay for his Saturday camp this year, and they said no, that he was OFF the service even though he is now out of the group home. By him being placed in the group home, he lost all rights to ever be on that list without starting at the bottom of the list again. NO ONE TOLD US THIS.
He has a year and a half wait for services, but only is eligible anyway until he is 22 years old (I think at the end of his 21st year, so after November 20, 2012 he’ll have to no services anyway). He will be 19 in a few weeks but has at least an 18 month wait for services.
Our understanding was that after he was discharged from the group home, without an appropriate new home to go into (where services are provided for autism and deafness and there are special procedures in place to deal with his screaming and insomnia) that he would be placed at the top of the list for an I/O Waiver to provide services for him in his own home. This was also the group home’s understanding, and they even advised us to go ahead and tell the county that he was being discharged as that should be an impetus for the I/O Waiver for care to be received very quickly.
After he was discharged we found out that that is not true, that his being discharged has no bearing on the list, and it could be 20 years before his place on the list is called. This means a very long wait for transportation assistance, assistance with adult employment, additional care in the home, etc.
I now am fearing he may have lost his place in the adult services list. I don’t know — I have done an email to check. But I haven’t received a newsletter from them in several months, and if he lost his place on there with going into the group home, he will have no workshop services when he gets out of school at 22.
I’m just posting this so that others ask all the questions they need, before placing their loved one in a group home. I’m not saying not to place them – Chris’s health has improved greatly after his year in the group home and he has been on a good routine — they helped him a lot. I just did not know he would lose his place on the lists with his placement, and am not totally sure I would have done it that way if I would have known.
Just another challenge in the walk we walk, as parents of children with challenges.
2010 note – Chris got into the FRS again quickly, as well as the adult residency list. Also, FRS serves throughout their life, not just 22. We are, however, still waiting on the I/O waiver. Just wanted to be accurate (12/29/2010).
2020 note! Glad I posted the above 2010 note, as in the ten years passing I had forgotten exactly what happened with that!! Chris DID get I/O Waiver, 2011. then Ryan got one in 2018. So thank God! Also, a few posts ago I posted my new addition to Youtube, this video I made for my communication class in 2014 about Waivers. Watch it – though it may be out of date, still crucial information. AND, I’m thinner now… ha! https://youtu.be/Ab947nZWlLE
Upon a time of turmoil this Amy Grant song lifted me up through tears of grief yet tears of cleansing, and it is doing it again.
Words by Brown Bannister, Chris Christian, Amy Grant
From the album Never Alone
I had laid some mighty plans
Thought I held them in my hands
Then my world began to crumble all away
I tried to build it back again
I couldn’t bear to see it end
How I hurt to know You wanted it that way
[Chorus:]
And I’m so glad, glad to find the reason
That I’m happy-sad that You’ve torn it all away
And I’m so glad, though it hurts to know I’m leaving
Everything I ever thought that I would be
Once I held it in my hand
It was a kingdom made of sand
But now you’ve blown it all away
I can’t believe that I can say that I’m glad
Long before my plans were made
I know a master plan was laid
With a power that superceded my control
And if that truth could pierce my heart
I wouldn’t wander from the start
Trying desperately to make it on my own
What a timely song! I just heard it by chance on Pandora Radio (I have it set to play Amy Grant & similar artists) and I was just like, wow, that was MY song in the winter/spring of 81 when I went through some really really hard stuff —
Anyway, we’re about to go through some changes with Chris that aren’t exactly unexpected, but still hard to go through when you want to go AROUND, UNDER, BYPASS TOTALLY. I don’t know what the future brings, and things surely aren’t going as we’d planned.
Chris’s official discharge date was Oct. 1, but they gave more time after that. We saw some homes last week, which was kind of later than I think everyone planned as we had our out of town trip, and I was also ill either before or after that (can’t recall now). Then there’s been other things going on with work and others’ illness and just stuff going on that only gave us a few days to really think of what to do after we saw the homes.
We kind of liked one a lot, but probably not enough to take a chance on it. We are so burned by what happened — him being asked to leave, as merited as it may be — that it’s hard to “take a chance” on a new place.
So we made the decision that he will stay at his grandma’s & grandpa’s (paternal) most of the time at this point, with us helping a lot as well as Rog’s sister too some. We do have a pretty nice local home that doesn’t have any openings now that we may be considering as well. There is something we are awaiting that will help a lot, and it’s called I/O Waiver. That will give us way more options for watching him at home/family’s. We can even get property for him then and hire caregivers so he could have his own home but we would still be in charge. Our county, however, in 2002 quoted that this could be somewhere around a 20 year wait.
What is heartbreaking is that he was on the “waiver list” for this waiver, and they lost his place, in 1996. We didn’t discover until 2002 that his place on the list had been lost, and I had no proof of his placement ON the list — could find no paperwork. Actually I want to tear my file cabinets apart AGAIN and see if I can find anything. 6 years on the list lost – maybe that would be the difference where he could have the help SOON. I had 2 huge notebooks I compiled on his autism topics back in 1997 – I can’t remember if I searched through those back in 2002 when we found this out but I will search now.
We just want him to be healthy, happy, and well taken care of. His health is SO good now — I’m a little nervous with losing all the hands-on supervision he has now and the strict routine, that especially right now when we don’t have the help lined up, and CAN’T really until he gets home — he can’t even be evaluated for Medicaid home health care until he’s home, and will have to wait a while while it’s lined up — that he will be getting into more food he shouldn’t have and not have the routine he needs. However, Gayle is VERY good at routines, and I just have to trust she’ll be able to do it for a while with our help until we see what we’re going to do next. Right now without the I/O waiver we hopefully should get Medicaid home aides for 14 hours a week, and then after that he should be able to get Health Chek (up to 56 hours a week) once that is approved. Then that lasts until he’s 21 (only 2+ years away). Then to get that much help still he’s going to need the I/O Waiver. There is another waiver too called the Home Care Waiver, and it was explained to me that you get some home health with that but not as much, but you get more home remod funds and stuff like that.
This home care site was just given to me today and I’m going to go now and read more about what will help Chris that we can get for him.
Since with new wonders of Facebook, my blog now appears in my profile when I update, I just wanted to thank you all for being on my friends list. Many of you have joined recently and I haven’t been able to personally write you, but I thank you for being in my circle of friends and family.
