Exciting News!

We are starting a new direction with Grant in regards to intervention and therapy. It's through the National Academy for Child Development. They are based in Utah and have 12 chapter locations in the US. We are fortunate that the closest one to us is only 1 1/2 hours away - Waxahachie! He is still continuing special ed preschool Monday through Friday mornings and private speech therapy once a week. A few months ago we stopped private physical and occupational therapy due several reasons, mostly because we were knew we were going to try something different with Grant. It's not that private therapy hasn't helped him, it has, but from what we have learned about this new program, the intervention is much more intense, and we are very hopeful that this will be what Grant needs in recovering from Dyspraxia and the developmental delays that he suffers from.

To get into the program, we had to first purchase and listen to a 6 hr audio seminar (interesting but a whip!) - both parents have to listen to it fully, then we had to fill out a pretty thorough application, and then finally send that in with half of the intitial fee, a little overwhelming to say the least. Oh, not to mention that we have been saving money just to get started over the past 6-9 months!

When we first heard about this program, we were told to 1st pray about it and 2nd that God will bring in the money. I thought to myself, "Ooo-kay." So we did pray about it and continued to pray. I have to say, God is good and He is really showing his faithfulness and perfect timing through all of this. It is such a huge in-my-face testimony that I am humbled and brought to tears. Our goal was to have more money than the initial fee set aside, knowing that there will possibly be extra expenses in implementing the program at home. First, God brought the starter seed from our escrow refund - unexpected check in the mail is always nice and Joel said to me "NACD" with a smile, then I had a $90 bow order (wow!), then the guy who hit me and sped off - Labor Day weekend one year ago - has been ordered to pay $ in restitution and we have gotten $250 from that, over $100 in bread money since starting to sell homemade bread a few months ago, and $ left over from Grant's PT and OT fund that trickled down the pipe from when my Grandpa died. It's just amazing to see how this money just started coming in. If you are reading this then you know that this is huge for us. We drive old cars, our kids wear 2nd hand clothes (for the most part), and we eat in almost every night! So to have this much $$ come in - totally God. And he is using people around us as well as unforseen circumstances to say loud and clear, "I got it."

So once we listened to the audio seminar and got the application and fees sent in, it was not even 2 weeks later that we got the call from them confirming they received everything. They called the following week to schedule the eval, which was scheduled for Jan. 9. As excited as I was to finally have it on the calendar, I was a little bummed out, as I was hoping we could get him in before Christmas break so that we could get a jump start on the program during that time. Well, what do you know, God says, "Hello?" again.

Friday morning, two days ago, I'm talking to my friend telling her all about NACD and she very gently reminded me that God's timing is perfect and mine isn't. So I was like, "Ok. Jan. 9 is the day." I was okay with it. Guess what. Late Friday afternoon NACD calls and says they have an opening DEC. 9 and can we come? Joel and I were thinking "Um... YES!!" but at the same time realizing that Tuesday is probably the worst day in Dec. for the eval to be! I have 8 piano students on Tuesdays this year and this Tuesday is the last lesson before my student's piano recital on Sunday. You can't cancel the lesson before the recital! Not to mention, who is going to watch Kate somewhat rather last minute - all day? So I call my mom and guess what...she is not working that day and assures me my parents will understand rescheduling. She was right and I was able to reschedule students without too much trouble. Thank you, Lord!

So our exciting news is that Grant will be evaluated this Tuesday, Dec. 9 from 12:30-2:30pm! Please, please pray that everything goes well. Joel will be with us and my mom will be watching Kate all day. I'm excited but someone anxious. We have a lot of hope that this will help Grant but the unknown is, well, the unknown. I don't want to get my hopes up high and then be dissapointed. So while I'm trying to guard myself from that I am still super excited. If you have a few minutes and want to know more about NACD I encourage you to visit their website here. I will let you know how it goes on Tuesday! Within a few days of his evaluation, we will get an intense program via email as a video file of how and what we will do with Grant. Two weeks later we are supposed to send a video of what we are doing at home so they know we are on the right track or not. Every three months he will be re-evaluated and the plan will be altered accordingly. I've been told by veteran moms of NACD to do these two things before you get your program: 1. clean your house, and 2. stock your freezer with meals because once you start the program you won't have time for either one! I've also been told that it's nearly impossible to do 100% of the program because they give you so much so we will see! So you can pray for us over the next several weeks as we enter into an adjusting time with figuring out how we will fit everything in! I'll keep you posted! And........thanks for taking the time to read this long post!