Reveling in my own AWESOMENESS!!!!

Yep, that's right...It is a day to celebrate.  Another IEP finished...check that b*tch off the list!!

I hate IEPs.  They make me ill.  They make me stressed (more than I already am on most days).

They are horrible...I actually had to say in this one "let's just focus here for a minute...our goal as an IEP team is not to educate my daughter to be an independent functioning adult...She is never going to be independent.  She is always going to be somewhere around a 5 year old level when it comes to safety awareness and independence."...Yep, had to say it...and that is HORRIBLE! 

I hate focusing on the negative and pushing all of her positives to the side...but I do, we all do...year after year...because if there weren't the negatives, she wouldn't get services...she wouldn't NEED them!

So negative...negative...negative...with a few little positives thrown in in order to "cushion" the blow.

Thanks but I can handle it, I PROMISE!

So today, they literally had a TEAM...oh yeah, I said TEAM...of speech therapists, AAC specialists and techs and sign language specialists in the room along with her regular teacher and program manager...they were all there to make a decision that after 9 years of working on her verbal language, they were going to STOP...

STOP??  Really after she was just diagnosed with a moderate hearing loss and received hearing aides 3 months ago?  So after 9 years of not hearing, you want to stop teaching her how to speak when she just began to hear us????

That's awesome...good thinking team...

And so I debated them...brought the research and presented the requests for Independent Education Evaluations for everything...speech therapy, AAC, sign language, ABA therapy...you name it, I had it in my arsenal of request letters.

And I won.  I even took a break for dramatic effect (sort of, I kind of was almost going to cry so it seemed like a good time for a break).

And I won. So she is going to continue a more intensive speech therapy in a clinical setting, continue her AAC services at school, be assessed for ABA therapy, sign language...she is going to have data collection and more sensory choices...You name it, she got it.

A long time ago, a "friend" of mine said she hated when I said "I win" in situations like these...she is long since gone...exit stage left so...I am going to say it!!!

I WIN!!!  So today, I am reveling in my own AWESOMENESS...The kind that you don't have very often when you are the parent of a special needs kiddo...the kind that comes only once in awhile.  Yahoo for ME!  Yahoo for HAILEY!!! (don't worry tomorrow I'll go back to doubting my awesomeness...this only lasts a day around here!!!)