Happy Father’s Day: We are all happy today. Much has come together for our daughter in the last week. At her father’s birthday party, many friends celebrated the finalizing of the apartment in Ridgefield. Several either live near by her future cozy home, or work nearby. Throughout the gentle summer evening, bits and pieces of her conversation reached my ears: “my future apartment mate has two guinea pigs, Girlfriend and Bacon (not likely to live with them). Guess who is the bigger one?” Or how she will work for her mom’s friend Cindy in her Angelfish O.T. program or resume riding with Pegasus. The pride and pleasure in being able to report to others the coming together of the patches of her future life was delicious to hear.

Dad Blows Out The Candle And His Daughter Rocks The House: When the big cake came with the skinny little candle on it (forgot to buy a box), we all gathered around. Forty folk singing “Happy Birthday” to this great guy and then his wife started to make a semi-serious/somewhat tongue-in-cheek speech. At the point that I said “We all know that Michael is a…” our daughter finished the sentence with an unquotable but perfectly timed hysterical description. Everyone broke up. Our son has the photos to prove it. What comedic timing! Folks thought that it was staged. No way. It is all Ms. J.

The Week Coming Up: She has her long-awaited Pegasus Therapeutic Riding Program evaluation (she has not ridden in five years) tomorrow. Tuesday members of the Ability Beyond Disability team will meet in our home to go over the individualized day and group day plans. And even our three-legged dog (yes, don’t laugh, we really have one) will be having yet another P.T. evaluation.

CRS (Continuous Residential Supports): The category of our daughter’s residential setting is new to the Connecticut DDS (Department of Developmental Services). It is described as: “a DDS funded residential program with an enhanced staffing pattern to meet the specific needs of individuals who require 24 hour supports…The CRS model provides the opportunity for individuals to combine their resources to create a staffing pattern to their unique needs.” I believe the critical piece is “combining resources” i.e. drawing on their entitlements in such a way that the whole is bigger than the parts. A CRS differs from a CLA because it is not licensed and the property is not owned by the provider. The individual rents the property from the landlord (or in our case, we, the guardians/parents rent the apartment for our daughters.) For more information, see the link above.

The Other Mom And I: In the coming weeks, the girls and their moms bring their “unique needs” on the hunt for sensible, affordable, attractive living and dining room sets, kitchen supplies, and much else. The young ladies will be flipping a coin to determine who gets the bigger bedroom with the abundant closet space. My hunch, neither will care.

To Our Community of Friends, Thanks For Celebrating With Us: You are an awesome group. And to our out-of-the-box Case Manager, you rock too.

©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2011