Maria's 1st week of school

9/14--Maria took the bus to Head Start. She did a great job. I met her at the school. I spent the day with her. The kids were so helpful. One of the girls made it known that Maria had to be tapped on the back before talking to her. She also held her hand and helped her on the playground.

We also went to the audiologist at 3pm. The audiologist did sound field testing with Maria's hearing aids on. Again, she did not hear anything. We were supposed to give the hearing aids back or pay $4000 for them, but she is allowing us to keep them until we have our appointment in NYC with the cochlear implant team.

This has been a very frustrating week concerning Maria. Head Start would only allow Maria to go to school with me or a substitute teacher called in just for her. The problem being that I would not know until the morning whether I would have to stay with her or not. Another frustrating aspect is that I was supposed to start work this week. Thankfully my new boss is so understanding and patient. She is giving me the time I need to figure things out for Maria.

As the week went on, I realized that the county most likely not be giving Maria a 1:1 aid. This means that sending her to Head Start and going myself was really a waste of time if the school/county is going to say "no" to an aid on the 28th. The therapists feel that Maria has grown and learned at Head Start, but the school and county feel that it is not the best placement for her. They want to see her at home with a more intense therapy schedule or at a 2 year old preschool.

I spent the week making phone calls to try and find somewhere for Maria to go. I also tried to figure out how I was going to start work without having a plan for Maria.

The main concern with Maria is that she puts everything in her mouth, making Head Start feel that she would be a safety risk.

In my mind, I'm thinking that I spent hours upon hours at the end of August to place her in Head Start and now that decision has failed. Only the Lord knows where she will end up and since I have no control over it, I've decided to start work next week and see what happens.