Alayna coming home!

Today, the new parenting plan officially giving Joe custody was signed by a judge! We have to wait about a week to get a certified copy from the court house. We are all VERY excited, especially Alayna. Don't get me wrong, she loves her mom, and her mom loves her; but Alayna's life at our house is very different than the one she lives at her mom's.

At her mom's house, she's an only child. She doesn't get a lot of interaction with kids outside of school, and they (from what we know) lead a very adult focused life. At our house, we have 3 other kids. There is ALWAYS something child friendly going on. We live a very child focused life. Very few of the activities we plan are for Joe and I; a good 98% of them are for the kids.

We've already spoken to the local school about Alayna and her special needs. She will be getting a full IEP evaluation (PT, OT, speech, social skills, academics, etc) EVERYTHING will be evaluated. We're expecting that she'll qualify for PT for gross motor skills, possible OT for sensory, speech/social for social skills development, and academic support. Alayna is very bright, but we don't know that she's ever really been pushed to reach her full potential.

The plan is to get her as much support through the local public school as possible and then decide if she needs more outside support. We'd also like to get her into counseling to help her work through all of the huge changes going on in her life right now. We think it would help her to have someone not involved (Joe, me, or her mom) to talk to about her concerns and feelings without having to worry about the feelings of the person she's talking to.

We are all very excited to have her home full time; however during the summer she'll be home every other week so that she can also spend time with her mom. Once school starts in September she'll be visiting her mom every other weekend.

And next week, Alayna turns 12 years old! I'll have a nice big post about that. I can't believe how big she's gotten and how fast time has gone. My little princess that could barely walk and talk when I first met her is almost all grown up!