ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah

La la how the life goes on.  It's that song from "The Wonder Years."  Yeah.  I know it's a Beatles' song.  But this is how I remember it.

Hard to believe it's been one week.  One week ago I was doing school with the kids and was checking email.  Got one from Super Hero with the subject "bad news".  He's sent me emails before with that subject and it's usually something about 'don't spend any more money until next paycheck', or 'I don't get to play golf like I wanted.'  But this one actually was bad.  He got laid off from his job.  No warning.  No two week's notice.  In thirty days we lose our insurance.  In thirty days we have no coverage for the massive bill we're going to get for Holland's medical care at the residential facility.

He came home with about 10 huge boxes of his stuff, several large framed pictures and lots of stuff the kids had made and pictures of us as well.  It was so sad.  When he left his other job, he just moved all his 19 years worth of belongings to the new office. 

Two days after he was let go, we drove down to see Holland.  We had another family therapy session and an annual review IEP meeting.  Talk about a full weekend.  Then the next day was the kids' meeting with our ES for school.  It is just so crazy around here.  Plus I helped Super Hero rewrite his resume; write several cover letters; fill out job applications and look at job openings online.  He's under so much stress that people on his FB wall are telling him (and he's actively thinking about it) that I need to go find a teaching job.  They're telling him that he can stay home and teach the kids, while I go work.  Not only does it frustrate me that he wants me to go back to work, he couldn't even do my job if he wanted to.  Get Holland to school; go to IEP meetings; cook all the meals (including gluten free ones); teach all the subjects I do; doctor's appointments (not to mention he couldn't even communicate with the doctors without an interpreter).  Sometimes I don't understand why all this is happening.  I try not to ask "why me?"  But seriously.  Why is ALL this happening?  Don't we have enough of our portion of learning God's grace going on?

Last week during church, my pastor was telling a story of how his daughter got sick on a Disneyland trip (it related to his sermon, believe me!).  Afterwards, he spoke to me for just a minute saying how sorry he was that Super Hero lost his job.  And that he was praying for us.  "What an adventure you're having!"   I said, "I'd rather be having it in Adventureland!" 

So I'm still taking one day at a time.  I'm trying not to think about all we have to do.  Which is hard to do when your husband tells you if he doesn't find a job in two weeks, you will have to find a job or we will lose our house.  When was the last time he looked at the salary of a teacher?

Safe Center

Holland has been at the Safe Center for about a month now.  We go every weekend to visit him and to have counseling sessions with the therapist there.  He is doing very well.  Which can be good and bad.  We WANT him to get better, but the insurance will look at his behavior and say, 'why are we paying for this if he doesn't really need services?'  He doesn't have the same triggers at the Safe Center that he does at home.  So it's like they have to create situations for him to practice calming himself and not getting angry. 

We've spent the night twice, which he loved.  And was actually easier for us because the drive is so long.  And this past weekend, we were finally able to bring Romania and Egypt for a visit.  I can't tell you how excited Romania was.  All week long saying, "I get to see my brother in 5 days!"  It was so nice to hear how excited he was! 

Here are several pictures from the past few visits.