Tag: eloping

autism, God, life

About running –

criscollrj

As the spring arrives, I have been thinking about running in various ways.

  • I have used it as a thing to worry about – as spring comes every year, the boys would get more boisterous about escaping the house and running off (or in Chris’s case, usually walking very fast).  As far as I’ve heard, Chris has not started yet this year with this; and here Ryan has not either.  But last year, it was very difficult with both boys, with both households having installations of backwards locks where we need keys on the inside to let anyone out!  This has not happened at all yet this year, but we wonder when it’s going to occur.  We are hoping and praying by this time the boys will be able to communicate by words or icons that they wish to go somewhere consistently and not feel they have to “escape”!
  • In Ryan’s case, I am praying when we go to the park this spring (whenever it dries out enough!) that he will not run away from us in the parking lots like he did last year, not that we didn’t hold his hand, but he did it in a different way, just suddenly taking off from the middle of the playground where he had been swinging or climbing, as a game where he would want us to chase him suddenly, but in a dangerous way, usually ending up in the street or parking lot.
  • In a different vein, with all the challenges we have been having, sometimes my (and all of our) thoughts can lead to wanting to just run away, run fast, run far, to a place where there aren’t quite this many challenges, where people think clearly and act rationally all the time, and there is no more pain and sickness, and sleep is sound and not interrupted, and – wow, sounds a lot like the heaven we’re waiting for, doesn’t it?  Yes.
  • Then of course running reminds me of exercise, and how little of it I’m getting at this point – lol!  Time to get the Wii fit going now that I’m done with school in a week, and only going online for summer.  Time for the whole family to start getting fit –not necessarily running, but walking, indoor cycling, calisthenics, et cetera!
  • And finally – 1 Corinthians 9:24 – “24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Lots to ponder as spring gets into full swing, my winter/spring semester is almost over, the kids’ school is winding down, Roger is healing in his body and preparing for when he will return to work, and I look forward to a break and time to get my house (and mind!) organized, and start a new semester.  May I not be so close-,minded with school and duty that I forget including time for us to enjoy the summer weather, playing outside in safe areas, and also making sure I take time to have devotionals, prayer time, and, yes, exercise.

 

Happy spring!  (this is last year, but they’re already budding now!)

 

Photo260

 

autism, chris, colleen, college, residency, Ryan, transcription

Seems fitting to attend a great barbecue the week before school!

criscollrj

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Sometimes it’s challenging to get through the summer easily trying to keep two rambunctious boys happy and safe in the heat.  But all in all I think we all accomplished this this summer.  We have worked as a team – Chris stays at his paternal grandparents’ still (while we await, seek, and research the appropriate placement) and Roger stays over there a lot to watch him.  Chris is very astute and is trying his best to learn the ways of unlocking doors so he can get some freedom outside.  However, their safety (Ryan will escape and run off as well) is our highest concern so we do have some fancy key locks on the doors at both houses.  So it is up to us to get them out as much as we can for their activities and exercise.

 

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So all and all we were pleased with their summer programs – next year I would like to get Ryan to Chris’s camp even more days – we got a grant this year for him to go 6 days but if we can get three grants then next summer he can go 18.  Chris went all summer from June 22 or so until this coming Friday the 20th.  This is where they met for camp – we started taking Ryan there a bit a few days this summer:

 

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It was very nice and also had a wood path.  The boys would walk with their class in the morning on the wood path.  Then by afternoon they’d usually visited another place and ended up swimming in a big pool across the county.  Really nice program.

 

Colleen stayed busy with different friends, often attending anime events and swimming. 

colleen and friends

Rog and I worked, and went out of town for business in June.  We’re going again the first week after school starts.  I also made it through computer class and Algebra 850 – intro to algebra.  I just finished that about 2 week ago and was happy to have passed (it was hard!).  On a break now, working on some transcription but not tons and going to be trying to get the house in shape before work and school again (school starts week of August 30 for me – biology and intermediate Algebra).  0809101226 Speech therapy and certification in autism and deafness is still the goal, Kent State.

 

Working with Congress at this point with several liaisons to try to find away to get Chris into the program at NDA.  We sure hope and pray it works. 

(2020, as I said before, program was closed in 2014 for abuse.  Sad.)  Watch the video about NDA’s autism/deafness program.  (2020 no site)  I just feel so excited that this could be the right program for Chris.  (nope)

autism

autistic toddler running into traffic

criscollrj

I am sure you may have already heard about it but it’s the mom who’s 3 year old ran into traffic. Just one of hundreds of stories http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=5891420. I’ve read 1-2 of her kids are possibly autistic, that she is pregnant, that she’s suffering from depression, that she is on her 6th child (pregnancy), and that there was poop in her house. She is being slammed, and her myspace:
(2020 – empty space at this point as is the story, above) not always a good testimony for her (let’s say it’s really not at all a good testimony) but I just feel this woman needs some prayers.

Thanks — dori

(2020 – God knows who she is and still hears our prayers!!!  Her kids are probably grown now, and Lord knows in what situation – with family?  Group home?  Grown to be more independent somehow and living on their own?  God knows!  Indeed.  And prayers to them and all of us.)

autism, children, health

The perfect post

criscollrj

All week I’ve been wanting to post in here, and I never have the time.  I keep composing posts in my head when I’m away from the computer, but once I sit down I never get to it.  Hopefully one day the two will synchronize…

My dream is for this to be a profound journal about our thoughts and experiences with autism and deafness, and also my life journal, and an interesting photo blog, and a sharing and teaching area where we can both learn from others and have them learn from us.  I know this is not a goal that one can loftily achieve immediately – especially when one is typing with a 4 1/2 year old child on their back climbing on them in the chair —

yee haw..

Ahh he settled back down.

no – he’s not.

A few minutes later – we’ve looked at some Flickr pics again we took and now I’m going to try and write more.

Continue reading “The perfect post” →

autism, chris, relocation

thoughts…

criscollrj

hi – house thoughts —

We are almost done with our 4 day wait to see what the school says about Chris. To summarize – our offer and financing are approved. We are waiting for the school district in the new area to state to us whether Chris can stay in his present school that is meeting his needs. We do not know what they will say – have no idea – though common sense says they would have his best needs at heart.

I had said from the beginning that if they say Chris has to leave his school we would not buy the house. I have a friend (one of my best friends) that is trying to convince me to think this a little less black and white. She is stating that perhaps the new school WOULD have a viable option for Chris even if they do not approve his going to his present school. She is also saying to think of Colleen’s and Ryan’s needs. They are attending the City schools, which Chris is not attending. Colleen has just entered the middle school and for the next 6 years will be dealing with attending an inner city school. Ryan will just begin Kindergarten in 2 years but then of course by middle school will also be dealing with the same as Colleen (though of course by then Chris will be grown and probably living somewhere else so we could probably move by then.)

She is just saying to keep an open mind and keep the whole family in mind, not just Chris. That is very hard for me!! But she is right.

I also don’t know how long Chris will be with us in our home. My good friend Kathy is just now finding placement for her autistic/ADHD son. Her son is out of control, running down the street, banging on windows, and has to have the police called on him regularly. He is almost 16. I hope Chris doesn’t get to this place, but he IS ALSO leaving without permission and going down the street. I know we’ll have a fence at either place, but her son is at the point where he just hops fences to get over them. So I’m starting to wonder if I’m being too narrow minded basing this decision TOTALLY on Chris. I’m adjusting my thinking, though I don’t know what I’ll do yet if they will say no tomorrow about him attending his present school….

What is good for Chris at this new house is we’ll finally have a place to set up a work area for Chris that will mirror his work area at school. He will have a rocker for music time, an exercise bike, and a reading area and a icon/object schedule. We were going to start this past summer on this but didn’t know where to put the exercise bike and chart! Now we’ll have a place, whether we decide it should be in the basement family room, or in his bedroom.

Thanks for listening…..

dori

 

eloping, hamsters, health, life

A little runaway

criscollrj

2020 – March of 2005 – Ryan was just over 3.  I hadn’t remembered when this happened but remember often that it DID happen.  Ryan had elopement as a severe symptom of Autism/ADHD, or whatever caused it, for many years.  He did not outgrow it until about Age 11.  Thank God he did outgrow it.  It was very very scary.

Good morning! I hope you all had a good Easter if you celebrate. We had a wonderful dinner, then had some interesting moments in the evening! I’ll describe them in a minute.

We made a delicious glazed ham with pineapple and brown sugar, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, biscuits, and peach pie. Devilled eggs too. We also drank a whole bottle of sprite. And we ate plenty of candy!

We also had 3 fun easter egg hunts. Ryan even found an egg!

So we stayed home all day. About 6 I had Colleen go outside and play with Ryan for a while. He did have a cough still all day but seemed to be feeling all right. They were playing ball and stuff.

Next thing I knew, almost simultaneously, Rog said, look at that little kid running down the sidewalk – wait, it’s Ryan! And I heard Colleen shouting RYAN! So I went running out and down the street and as soon as he saw me he laughed and started running into the street! Luckily there were no cars coming and I got the little stinker. I went home and saw that the gate was open. Colleen swore she tied it after she put her bike away like 5 hours earlier. I also think it was locked because Chris had been outside walking around and I kept checking from the window. So my hypothesis is that she didn’t tie it tight enough, and he just pushed on it enough to loosen the rope and get out. But I’ll never know…. Thank God he wasn’t hit by a car – gives me chills.

Then I just held him and after a while he felt like he was running a fever again. He fell asleep on my lap at 7:30 and I put him to bed (tried to give him Motrin but he wouldn’t take it — his temp was 101.5 so not horrible). This morning at 5:15 he got up and seemed warm still – I didn’t take the temp but just gave him the Motrin and we got up and went in the living room 45 minutes later and the temp was about 101 or so. So obviously it was higher before but I don’t know how much. He’s still coughing a lot. I called the dr. and he’s going in at 10:20 today. No one else is sick at this point.

So the next interesting thing to happen is when we were playing with spice and I was attaching her old wheel back in the new cage (it’s bigger and more suited to a Syrian hamster) I noticed a loose wire from the cage at the bottom. So Colleen and I taped it and put toilet paper all along the tape on the inside, but I think we may have to replace it again or maybe if possible solder the wire back in place? I was so glad she didn’t escape last night – I think she was too excited about having her old big blue wheel back!