Blogging

I am finally ready to begin, I think.
We are a two mom family, in our early 40's. We have four children, ages 8-21. We took Ashleigh in when she was 18, and still a Sr. in HS. She was in special needs school because of severe anxiety and depression, intellectually she is a genius. She has a full time job and her own apartment. Lee has never lived with us full time. He was a 15 year old teenager living in a group home, when he started coming home with us for holidays. That turned into weekends, various nights of the week etc. He now is ready to transition out of independent living, and will probably end up here since he can't afford an apartment on his own.
That brings us to the 11 and 8 year olds. Matt and Ellie are biological brother and sister. Before my partner, Mickey and I met, I was fostering Ellie and she had Matt. Ellie was 2 years old at the time, and I didn't want her to forget her brother. The worker did not arrange visits and did not give us any other information about the other child. We met in court, and exchanged information. The first sibling visit was a disaster for Matt. He had been very parentified, and expected Ellie to still be a baby who would sit and watch him play. Ellie was a curious toddler, who did not seem to remember Matt, and barely looked at him. A week later he threatened to kill Mickey in her sleep, and had his first Psych Hospitalization.
We waited 6 more months before scheduling another visit, and began sibling therapy. A few months after that, Mickey bought the house across the street from me. Eventually we got together, and I sold my house and moved across the street. I tell you more about us later.
Ellie and Matt were both diagnosed with ADHD and Mood d/o NOS. It wasn't until Ellie's first hospitalization at age 4 that we got the RAD diagnosis. Finally everything began to make sense!
**Cue large light bulb going off**
She loved the Hospital, and didn't want to have anything to do with us. She loved new staff coming in every 8 hours, activities all day, and being the 'pet' of the unit. Thankfully the P-doc, was able to identify RAD, and thus began the dance of two steps forward and one step back, that is RAD. Matt was diagnosed later that year.
Both kids attend non-public school for ED issues. Matt is on grade level, but Ellie is two years behind. If you put them side by side we have the poster children for RAD, El being 'disinhibited' and Matt fitting the characteristics of 'inhibited'. It is great fun!!
Our family also consists of two dogs and two cats. Our one dog has diabetes and gets insulin injections twice a day.
Before kids, I was an occupational therapist in the school system, now I am a stay at home Mom. Mickey teaches special needs teenagers construction. We thought we were prepared to parent special needs kids. Ha ha, roll on the floor laughing. We are best friends, and depend on each other to keep us sane. We actually have a deal that only one of us can lose it at a time. So far that has worked. We learned early on the techniques to not be 'split' or triangulated, and work to always be on the same page.
We just started with a new therapist, who specializes in RAD. We really like him and are hoping he will help us, especially with Ellie.
This is probably enough for my introduction. I'm glad I am going to have at least two followers. Thanks Dia and Grateful for encouraging me to begin!