Where am I?

This is my third attempt at posting in the last several days. Honestly, I haven't been able to form a solid, concrete thought about anything in weeks. Its not as if we've been busier than normal, but rather the things we have been busy with have all carried significant weight, thus requiring more energy than normal.

My mother-in-law had fairly serious surgery, which was successful in a way, but it brought with it a series of other issues that have been difficult for her to endure. We, her family, have been doing our best to surround her with encouragement and help where we can. Its hard to watch her suffer.

Things have improved to a certain degree with our son's school situation. They seem to believe that the behavior plan is working. I'm not so sure. I would be more inclined to believe that we're just on the upswing of whatever cycle we're dealing with here. Truthfully, I think some of his behavior has stayed the same, but the way they are charting it makes it appear that it has gotten better. He's still bopping his classmates on the head, he just doesn't get a card for it. Instead its one sad face for each incident. I don't know. We're still working on it.

We had his annual IEP review this past Monday, which went reasonably well. I expected more cluelessness from the one gal with whom we've had some trouble, but she was decidedly less flippant about his behavior this time around. The goals she had created for him were pretty reasonable and I was relieved to find that she didn't expect him to achieve them all in some ridiculous timeline. His teacher remains our true ally -- I love her! What a gift! After the others had left, she made a point to keep us around afterwards to share with us the ways in which he was succeeding and growing and giving to the class. That meant so much. One of my biggest fears is that she would file him away as her problem student. Instead, it was clear that, apart from some obvious issues, he really is doing well in her class. (Can we say advanced reading group?? Yay for him!)

One negative on the school front: his bus has been late -- I mean, after-school-has-already-started late all week! Apparently there have been different substitute drivers each day. We've had to drive him every day, which would normally not be a huge deal, but it really throws things off -- especially for him. For a child dependent on routine, its big.

And then there's the election. I won't even go into the national stuff. However, I must comment on our local races, specifically the one involving my father-in-law. I am saddened to report that he did not win. The hardest part about the loss is seeing it in the wake of all the hard work he put into the race. This man put body and spirit into his campaign, literally. He doorbelled for miles and insists he walked enough stairs to equal a tower of the (former)World Trade Center three times. (I believe it.) And he did it all on donations from family and friends. No party sponsorship here, folks! Tuesday night found us at a small gathering of family, friends and volunteers from his campaign. It was agonizing to watch the votes being counted so very slowly and seeing the race tip in his opponent's favor, but he maintained such a kind spirit through it all. We are very, VERY, proud of him and all for which he stands. The 47th District doesn't know what they're missing.

In other news, we finally received our camera back from wherever it was we had to send it to have it fixed. This is actually significant to report because it will single-handedly enable me to participate in Wordless Wednesdays again. And, yes, my posts will have pictures again. That way you won't have to just take my word for it when I report that, indeed, my children did look adorable in their (un)Halloween costumes. Sigh.

In the meantime, absolutely nothing is happening in our particular adoption circumstance. We do know, however, that it is entirely possible (though not that common) for a family to go from Number 8 to Number 1 in a matter of weeks, so it is a bit of a giddy time. To that end, I recently purchased 25 baby bottles from the dollar store. Not for the baby directly, mind you, so don't go all anti-BPA crazy on me. Rather, we hope to start a change drive very soon. Like, as soon as we can get the bottles labeled. We will also be sending out a letter later this month detailing other ways we plan to raise funds. Really. We will. I just need to tell my husband.

In the meantime, look for more pretty posts ahead. Hopefully in a shorter amount of time.