Thank you

[tenoraddict]

I'm not sure who it was who posted information that has changed and will continue to change my family, so I'm just putting a general thank-you out there.

 

I started homeschooling a year ago, partly because my children have issues and school was a struggle. Even though they did well academically, it came at too high a cost for our family. For a little over a year, I've been researching their issues (3 DS's, currently aged 12, 10, and 7). They have ADHD type behavior, some Oppositional Defiance, blah, blah, blah. From this forum, I learned about Dr. Daniel Amen, whose book convinced my husband that my children's issues (and my DH's own issues) were truly a problem. From this forum, I learned about Dianne Craft. Listening to her Biology of Behavior CD and taking her advice on supplements were the first big steps my family took towards sanity. From this forum, I learned about the book, The Out of Sync Child, which convinced me that the ADHD diagnoses and the road to meds were not the correct way for my children.

 

Today, my DH and I spent 2 hours getting the results of our DS10's and DS7's OT assessments. Who would’ve thought it would be music to my ears to hear that my kids have issues? My fears of “we can’t help you,†and “this is all your fault†were not realized, thank God. The owner of the practice described our children and their struggles to us as if she knew the boys intimately (she’s never met them; someone else did the assessment). She told us the whats and whys of their behaviors and thought processes, the sensory/nervous systemic reasons behind them, and most importantly: how they can help us. She said that she gives the boys lots of credit for doing as well as they are in school and life, that the “acting out†behaviors show that they are trying to compensate and engage rather than shut down and block everything out.

 

She expects that therapy will take about a year. We know that it will be very expensive (there goes the new carpet, once again!) and time consuming, but well worth every penny and precious second. I am so thankful that God did not give me peace until I found this answer. It’s going to be an interesting year (I don’t know how much curriculum we’ll accomplish apart from math and reading); we’re already in a better place than we were last year at this time, and I have hope (for the first time in a long time) that a year from now we’ll be even better.

 

So thanks for encouragement over the last year as I sought answers to our issues. You didn't even know that you were encouraging me, but just know that I believe God used this forum and some of your struggles with your own children to minister to me. For my family, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think it’s the sunshine and not a train. J