Tuned In and Tapped Out

Hi all,

I'll start by saying this post is being written out of a bit of frustration but not too much ;-) To begin, I'm grateful that anyone at all reads our blog and we hope to reach more people. The fact that anyone cares what we have to say amazes me. My reasons for writing this blog have never changed and I know I've talked about them in previous posts, so I won't write all of that again. So,I don't regret any outcomes or repercussions of it because I know when we decided to share our story/blog, people have the right to form opinions (of course!) and make judgements. That happens I know, and it may momentarily frustrate us at times, but it's OK! Everyone has a right to their opinions just as we do and we are blogging for only good reasons.

It was shared with me that administrators of one of the programs we are seeking services from for Nick read our blog, which is great! I want to clarify however, that we didn't say ( I didn't write) that any organization was going to "buy us a van" or pay for all of our expenses or anything else. We just wrote about the fact we need a wheelchair lift van for Nick for Nick to be able to go to college and use his power chair ANYWHERE, not just at college, and we wrote about the quote we got from one vendor. I said that the Bridges To Transition Program is helping us because we were told that, which doesn't mean they will pay for everything. That is not our expectation. I want to be able to write about what is happening with Nick and a large part of that is the services he receives and all of the steps we have to take to get what he needs. Over the last 17 1/2 years, we've spent A LOT of time, effort, and our own money to make sure Nick has what he needs.

After a family like ours gets to the stage we are at, where Nick is going to be 18 this year, at least for us (I'll speak for us!), we are TAPPED OUT and we need help. We have no more resources and as I've had to be off work often to be available for Nick, we don't always have two incomes in our family. (I've worked off and on sporadically as our family situation permits it and depending on Nick's needs!) We've been told we should just take care of things on our own at times. We HAVE done that MANY times. We've used all of our resources, money, and lots of our time to purchase things insurance does not cover, go to therapies, take time off work for therapy, surgery, and we've gotten lots of equipment. So, we ARE going to seek whatever help Nick qualifies for to pay for his college, van with a lift, whatever else he needs. We aren't asking for anything he doesn't qualify for. Greg and I pay our taxes like everyone else and we've done things pretty much on our own for 17 1/2 years. ( We haven't had a lot of help other than family resources from our local board of dd. That's it!) We don't feel guilty for asking for help and it doesn't mean we don't care for Nick well and it doesn't mean we haven't spent years doing things on our own. We have. We are tapped out! We're still great parents. We'll always be a part of Nick's life, involved, here when he needs us, and we'll always do what we can for him and Isabella.

So, if I could say one thing right now to readers of our blog, I'd say, you may have a right to judge us and say things about us but we don't appreciate it. If anyone has any concerns, questions, opinions, we'd be happy to sit down with you and discuss things face to face. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you continue to do so! You may find out we're good people and a great family.

Blessings :-)
Amy