Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas celebrations and the nursing home

Last weekend we had the first ever Mounce family Christmas cookie decorating party. It was lots of fun with friends, children running crazy around the house, music and a big breakfast. I was suprised at how well everything turned out considering I cooked the sugar cookies the night before and was at the store the next morning by six. Andrew didn't decorate any cookies this time but he did enjoy having everyone over and loved listening to the Christmas music. He would never have been able to tolerate this last year. Looking back he cried all throughout Christmas as he was going through the regression stage. I am very thankful for where he is at and so glad that he can enjoy all of the company because we love parties.

Tommorrow we are heading to Copperas Cove, TX to Windcrest Nursing home where Andrew will stay for 24 hours. This is for a program called Rider 28 here in Texas that was created to keep children with disabilities out of institutions. Andrew has been on a waiting list for the MDCP (medically dependent child program) program which provides respite care and other services to children with disabilities. This waitlist is several years long and in order to bypass the waitlist we are going ahead with Rider 28. We will not be leaving him there as we both plan to sleep in the room with him and set up camp- DVD, books, music and sleeping bags. Once we leave the nursing home and pay our $150 Andrew can start receiving MDCP benefits. His babystitter which we have 2 days a week will actually be paid by the program and we can also look at getting another sitter as he was approved for 54 hours of care. I don't want that much time but it would be nice to get to work a couple more hours a week and maybe have a dinner with my husband alone every once in a while. I really enjoy working only 2 days a week and spending time with him when he gets out of school. I was always working full time until this summer and I regret the time that we loss when things were so good for him. I am thankful for the Rider 28 option but I start to think about all the kiddos that we just jumped ahead of on the waitlist- and it makes me feel bad or dirty doing this. When Felt and I talked about it last night I reminded him that we always said we would do just about anything for our Drew-Drew.

18 comments:

Karlie Grace said...

Andrew's new picture is so sweet! The Rider 28 sounds wonderful and i don't blame you one bit for taking the opportunity to get your little guy more services. He does deserve them afterall so please don't feel bad about it. I sure wish we had an option like that. Our waiting list is seven years (at least) long and i don't know of any loopholes. I hope it's a pleasant 24 hours!

Kelly said...

The Christmas picture is ADORABLE -what a CUTIE!! Don't ever beat yourself up over a decision to help out your son. As parents we do what we have to for our kiddos -I hope the stay goes well for you!

Kelly said...

The Christmas picture is ADORABLE -what a CUTIE!! Don't ever beat yourself up over a decision to help out your son. As parents we do what we have to for our kiddos -I hope the stay goes well for you!

Anonymous said...

Hi Brandi,
I worked with Andrew a few times as a behavior therapist (though I'm an SLP by training) and have thought about you and Andrew often since moving from San Antonio. You suggested I check the blog and I'm so happy to see it updated with such beautiful pictures of Andrew- he's getting so big, so quickly! I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and good things to come in the new year.

The Mounce family said...

Thank you Janine! Definitely keep in touch!

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