Imagine

Imagine all the people coming together as one
All to discuss a child that needs them
To collaborate and plan
What's best for that child for the next months
And make sure it gets done
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one!

Imagine no medical insurance
No authorization needed
To get the treatment for a child
No money changing hands
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one!


Yes today we (Annabelle and I) went to a meeting, all in the same room together at the same time, all the people who will be working with Annabelle for the next 6 months.
Physical therapist
Occupational therapist
Speech and language therapist
Pediatrician
Key worker
Portage
Head teacher of her new school
Me and Annabelle
I couldn't believe it! And each took turns in speaking about what they are going to be doing for Annabelle over the next 6 months, and how they can work together to achieve this, and what equipment Annabelle needs. It was wonderful and the pediatrician was right there too, so if any medical tests or referrals were needed she was right to hand. Not like in California it would take months before a report was sent to the pediatrician before we could get him to sign off on things then months for it to be sent back. There was no insurance authorization to wait for. And I didn't have to pay a single penny to any of them not even a co-pay for the doctor!

Simple as this Annabelle needs help with feeding she first needs a supportive feeding chair - OT is organizing chairs, OT and SLT will then observe Annabelle in new chairs (note 1 for school and 1 for home) and then devise best plan for helping Annabelle with feeding.

Then I had a chance to ask any of them any questions or bring up anything that I thought Annabelle needed. Such as Annabelle is in a crib/ cotbed at the moment and the other night she wriggled her foot between the bars and couldn't get herself free she started crying in the middle of the night I had to help her get free and help her get back to sleep. Also now that she can pull herself up to kneeling we are afraid she will tip out of the crib, anyway the OT is coming out on a home visit next week to help us find a solution. Wow I wish things were like this in California!

So the school that we had the meeting at is the pre-school we hope Annabelle will go to in September. She is eligible for 15 hours a weeks preschool at the moment but unfortunately all the spaces are full up until September. Until then we are going to their Smart Start group which is a parent accompanied class, which I am happy about because we both get a chance to settle in and get to know the school and hope the separation anxiety won't be too bad in September for both of us.

Back from the dark ages

Three weeks without internet, it's not an experience I want to go through very soon again. We moved into our house but didn't realize how long it would take to get connected up to the internet - 3 weeks! We must live out in the country now or something? The hum of the modem was replaced with the beautiful songs of red breasted robins while I hung out the washing on the line outside, daffodils have sprung into bloom everywhere and spring is in the air. Trees full with pink white and yellow blossoms. I've had time to notice all these things instead of my eyes and ears being stuck to a computer screen.

I did try to get hooked up once, I found out that there was free wi-fi down at the local library so I took the Ipad and went down there with Annabelle took her inside in her stroller, got the user name and password from the librarian and went to the childrens section were they have great selection of board books and bean bags for children to sit on. So I get her out of her stroller and put her on a bean bag with some books around and I proceeded to log on to the internet getting ready to update myself on all the blogging I had missed out on for weeks and may be even muster up a post.

I got stuck into reading one of my favorite blogs, I don't notice that Annabelle has crawled off the bean bag and is on her way to the book shelf and is reaching out to pull the books off the shelf, next I know, she is screaming her head off, the books fell on top of her head. Being in the library and having to be quiet because people are reading and a screaming child is not what they want in there, so what do I do? I grab Annabelle and leg it out of there.

Needless to say we haven't been back to the library since!

Well now we have internet and I have so many updates on what has been happening over the last couple months but we now have satellite TV and House is on tonight and I have been deprived for 2 months so you guys have to wait till later. Sorry!

What's behind the green door?

So you know we have been doing a bit of work to our house while we waited for our stuff to arrive from California, right? When I say a bit its an under statement here is a list of what we have accomplished in 5 and a half weeks - as our plumber says one of the quickest refurbishments he has ever seen.

• We ripped off wall paper of the walls and even off the ceiling.
• We then found mould in the en suite bathroom which we ripped out and had to replace stud walls and floors and ceilings in the room.
• We had the family bathroom window enlarged and a brand new window placed in the en-suite bathroom.
• We had the window in the dining room changed to french doors.
• We had new replacement windows fitted throughout the whole house.
• We had the main bathroom ripped out.
• We had the house painted throughout.
• We replaced the 2 bathrooms with new suites.
• We had a new back door fitted.
• We had a new front door fitted.

• We had demolished the front and back steps and made it into ramps so that the house is wheelchair accessible.

Now we have a new blue front door and a ramp that we can push Annabelle in her wheelchair up into the house.

Tonight the carpet fitters are busy in our house laying new carpets, tomorrow we are going to the house to finish any last minute jobs like putting up curtains poles and cleaning. And then our shipment is going to be delivered on Thursday morning and finally we will move into our house! After 3 long months of living out of suitcases we can finally unpack and settle down.