[HappyMomAnna]

Thanks for the posts that I somehow missed... It has been a year already!?

Makala was released from residential last April... and it has been a long hard year. We home schooled her until this past November when we were finally able to get an IEP at school.

It took 4 long years of begging someone to recognize that she has real problems. Finally they did the evaluations and testing and I was right. Her overall IQ came out to be 80. But, that is a misleading number. She did very well in most areas except "Working Memory" and "Processing" where she was nearly 0.......

These results have fully confirmed the speculation that Our little girl was exposed to alcohol before her birth. All of her testing confirms that she is suffering from a Medical/Health issue rather than simply behavioral or emotional problems. Yes she has emotional and behavioral problems and that I expected who wouldn't? But it has been the very fact that expecting her to overcome her emotional issues is not going to fix the world she finds herself struggling in!

At this point, in our state we have run out of most options for services we have received the highest levels of interventions and if things don't resolve or we can't protect Jeremiah in order to have any more help we would have to sign over parental rights.

Part of the reason I have been so absent on the forums and blogging here has been the fact we have been doing everything we can to keep our family together and protect Jeremiah.

We are attempting to find out if it's really legal for the state to ask us to give up parental rights just because our little girl needs more help than a family can offer. In my efforts I have discovered that there are MANY families in the same situation.

On the good side it does appear that we have found the right medications to help Makala deal with her biggest issues. The summer was difficult with violence especially toward me and without a safety net I finally found myself backed into a corner with no choice except to stand up. In August Makala and I had what I call the WWF Staircase Showdown... It was going to be me or her and after nearly an hour of a pure female Smack-Down I won!

She has not smacked me, pushed or been violent toward me since I stood up. Not that I would ever want to do this again but, the fact remains when a 120 pound 5 foot tall Child tries to beat mommy up all the rules go out the window... Thankfully I was able to keep myself from hurting her but--I didn't and will never tolerate abuse toward me.

Makala will be 10 years old in a few days and either her medication, maturity or my no longer tolerating her abuse seems to be making a difference... Of course, once I feel things are going well is usually the time some New Big problem shows up!

Tomorrow the kids go back to school and I am very much looking forward to returning to my writing and at least a few hours of normal in the day!