Faith is closing in on her SIXTH birthday, in just a few weeks. I can't believe it! She was just a newborn baby, wasn't she? Six long years that, although they have gone by fast, many moments seem to be agonizingly slow! Surgeries, recoveries, development....etc, etc, etc. Today, Faith had a phsyc. eval for DDSN. In SC, when a child, like Faith, reaches age six, they have to leave the Early Intervention program and apply for entry into Service Coordination (lifetime eligibility). Changes are coming. No longer, will we have an E.I. come to our house to play with her, no more Christmas get togethers with other children in the EI program, no more close relationships with our service provider. When she gets accepted she will be assigned a service coordinator who will be in charge of her case but will only make contact once or twice a yr (or when we need something that they provide). Basically, we fall into the adult program. Even though she is only six! I think it's silly...they should provide services to these children for longer and/or a closer interaction with the service providers. I have seen, as she gets older, a falling through the cracks mentality with the system. At first, we were inundated with providers and therapies and the like but now at five, we never know what's going on in "the system", are almost totally isolated from other families like ours and we never hear about programs that we may qualify for unless it's by accident! But I digress....Faith is leaving the age of little children and babies and quickly becoming a school-age child (regardless that she isn't developmentally there, yet). Many changes, in the next year, are coming our way. I don't know if I am ready.....When did all this happen?
Faith and Gandalf, LAST Christmas....
