Coming Down To The Wire: Today I am off to my daughter’s school. Four hours up, four hours down. She is having a bit of  a rough patch and no wonder: this is the end of the year pressure that many students feel, special needs and typical, and on top of that, she is saying goodbye to her boarding school after five years.

Aging Out and Coming Home: On the precipice of the biggest next chapter of her life, and still a bunch of unknowns, our daughter has to be reeling. But I know that she will rally and we will have a great time today, lunching and going to a meeting with the community college staff for her end of program evaluation. This is where she has done her vocational training for the last two years.

Exhausted and Excited: Transitions are always particularly unnerving for children and adults with special needs. And for all of us. Every year at this time, our daughter, and sons and daughters all over the country, face finals, graduations, and unknowns. I can hear the acceleration of anxiety in her voice, and in her questions and finally in the sobs on the phone last night. I hope that my presence today will make a difference.

Taking Our Break: Before the big plunge, with our daughter home and the final phase of adult special needs planning going full tilt, my husband and I are taking a six day break to be together and inhale perhaps the last breath of a kind of freedom from “care” that we have known for the last five years.

Am I Stressed? Yes.

Please Stay Tuned: Next post on Parenting Adult Special Needs: One Day At A Time: 5/20/11.

©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2011