Construction Ahead!

As we get ready to go see the autism specialists out of Denver I am realizing just how much work we have ahead of us. It's not going to be easy but, I do think it is necessary. We owe this chance to Jonathon in order to give him the best chance at a fullfilling life.

One of the overall goals we have, as a family, for Jonathon is for him to increase his independence. We are not a household that is strictly structured. We do our activities of daily living everyday, but we do not have them written down to occur at a specific time. Which I don't want to be so locked into a schedule that we can't make changes without a melt down. I think there is a balance to be found there.

As we've been preparing for our visit to the specialists I've asked myself "do we need a tighter structured day?" My answer is... "Yes." My response to that is "God please help me to take it one step at a time and not feel overwhelmed by the tasks ahead!" Why do I think we need more structure? Because currently Jonathon is not able to move through his day without constant requests and reminders about what he should be doing and when. It is US moving him through his day. I don't want to have to keep doing that. I want him to take on some of the responsibility for his daily life activities. Not only to ease the load on me but to give him self confidence and independence. Plus, he gets very tired of hearing me or Tim say "Jonathon, come here. Do this, do that." Who can blame him! I'd get sick of hearing someone constantly saying "come here, come here, come here!" His response of, "Oh, all right Vickie. What do you want now?!" attitude says it all!

I really do want us to be successful in this venture, so instead of looking at the entire job ahead, I'm going to take it a bit at a time. I'd rather move slowly and be successful than move too fast and fail.

I'm sure you will hear about our progress as we go!! Wish us luck!