Joys and frustrations

Well it has been an interesting week, to say the least. I am going to deal with the frustrations first, so I can work them out of my system.

Some of you know that we have applied for medicaid for Laura. Medicaid, of course, is a government run health care program for low income families. To qualify you cannot make more than a certain amount of money depending on how big your house hold is. We did not qualify. We did not expect to. That is fine. Let those who need this program take advantage of it.

A similar program, that is supposed to provide assistance for those who can not work is run through Social Security. For those of us who work, yes the same government institution that feels the need to take a portion of everyone of our pay checks. The program is called SSI Disability. You may have seen lawyers talking about it on television. The goal of this program, is to provide health care to those who cannot work due to some disability. To qualify for it, you have to first qualify for Social Security Supplemental Income. Now, how do you know if you qualify for the supplemental income you ask? Simple, they use the exact same guidelines as Medicaid.

Can you say "from the Department of Redundancy Department"? Two separate programs that are supposed to be aimed at two very different groups, yet they use the exact same guide lines. So if you are in a lower income tax bracket, or are an illegal immigrant, you can help yourself to as much government funding as you need. For those who want to curtail and rein in wasteful programs, here are two different yet the same programs for you to start with. Here is the bottom line, if either Tara or I quit our jobs, or we have more kids, Laura will qualify for these programs. Someone explain to me how this makes any kind of sense please.

Ok, that is the frustration side of things. Now for the fun stuff.

Laura had her regular therapy session this week. Leigh, Laura's therapist, continues to be impressed with how Laura is doing. Laura's muscle tone continues to look good. Low muscle tone is a common problem in children with Down Syndrome. Low muscle tone can lead to problems like slow development of speech patterns, delays in crawling and walking, and other further reaching issues. Laura however, works out rigorously several times a day, and so does not appear to have low muscle tone issues.

She currently is capable of holding herself on her side. That means we can place her on her side and she will stay there on her own, with no assistance from us. She has rolled on to her side several times in the last few weeks, and earlier this week she rolled from her side to her stomach all by herself. We are very excited.

Speaking of speech patterns, Laura is a little chatter box. If you are close to her and have captured her attention (the child is fascinated with light sources, it is the weirdest thing) she will coo, and grunt and moan at you for as long as you will pay attention to her. Her smile is a constant source of joy around our family. All of this is continued proof that physical therapy does work.

This week we went and toured the Arbor School here in Houston. The Arbor School is a private school that accepts and works with all kinds of children with all kinds of challenges. We were impressed with their setup and their future plans. Over all a very nice program. That being said, if we are given a choice between The Arbor School and The Rise School we would likely choose The Ris School. Mainly because the Rise School caters to Children with Down Syndrome. However, both are great programs.

The final bit is an update on the Down Syndrome Association of Houston Buddy Walk for 2009. Laura's team is set up. It is called Laura's Lions. It is Captained by Judy Johnson, Laura's Grammy. To date we have 30 walkers signed up and have raised almost $1,000.00 dollars. There is still plenty of time to sign up.

PLEASE go to www.dsah.org web site and select the Buddy Walk link on the left side of your screen. From there, to get to Laura’s page click on the Buddy Walk Link now in the middle of your screen. Then, on the find a team option please type Laura’s Lions under team name. From Laura's page you can click on the Home button to read more about the Buddy Walk program and details of the days events. From here you can either sign up to walk (a $10.00 per person fee) with us on November 14th, you can choose to donate or you can do both.

We hope you decide to participate in this year's Houston Buddy Walk by either registering as a walker for our Team, "Laura's Lions", or by donating to our cause. We are looking forward to adding more lions to Laura's pride!!