Okay, Who Are You and What Have You Done With My Daughter?!

We found out where Beth is thriving! At work!

In Washington State, when your child turns 18 and has completed all the requirements of their IEP they get to graduate, but they don't leave the school system. They leave the high school and move to a transitional program that taught them how to fill out a job application, there were cooking classes, they helped families with guardianship, finding vocational services... it really was a great program. They introduced us to so many government services I didn't realize we would need. Then when they reach 21, they officially leave the school system and everything transfers over to the state.

One of the services we use is Washington Vocational Services. (It's paid for with funding from the state.) They meet with each family and figure out what your child (now young adult!) likes to do and researches job opportunities. They provide each client with a job coach and the two of them go job hunting. It removes the responsibility from mom and dad and I know for Beth, she was more willing to work with someone other than us. :) The job coach goes to work with them, and makes sure they're doing the job correctly. They do this until the client can do the job on their own, then the job coach just occasionally checks in with them. (If the manager has a question or a situation arises with the client, they call the job coach, not mom or dad.) I think it's a wonderful system!

Yesterday we had our annual meeting with her job coach and oh. my. word. I walked out of there SO encouraged!!

Beth started working at Little Caesars Pizza about 5 months ago and her job coach 'K' told me that they adore her there! The employees are protective of her and will get angry at the DART drivers if they happen to come late... they are always asking Beth if she's okay, if she needs anything... and she just eats it up!!

She works 2 nights a week, 3 hours a night and her job is folding boxes. They come flattened in a package of 50. She carries them over to the counter, unwraps the plastic wrapping, puts labels on each box, then folds them. When she first started there, the goal was 2 stacks a night. They told me yesterday that the goal now is 6 stacks!! She unwraps, labels, folds and stacks more than 250 boxes in just 3 hours! That's amazing! When I was telling Chuck and Diana last night, Diana said, "Wow! She really hustles at work! So she's just been fooling us at home, huh?" :)

She Hugged A Pastor!

Chuck, Diana and I had a Children's Ministry meeting last night. While that was going on, Beth had a Hospitality party. Everyone in the church who is an usher, greeter, parking lot attendant, etc. got together and hung out. They're so busy on Sunday mornings that they don't really get to spend time with one another so the Pastor who heads up the Hospitality team - Pastor K - had a party.

I was a little nervous about Beth going because I knew she would only go for the food. She's too shy to talk to anyone and all she would do is eat. I talked to her about it a few days ahead of time and explained who would be there and what would happen.  I encouraged her to talk to people, to ask them how they're week was, ask them what they'll be doing this weekend. I really tried to do as much prep work as I could.

Our meeting started before hers so Chuck was willing to leave our meeting early, he went home and got her (we live about 4 minutes from church) and came back to our meeting. I admit I was a little nervous about how she would do.

Well, when we went to pick her up she jumped up from her seat to show us her 'gift'. Everyone got to choose between a candle and some chocolate. She chose a cute glass container with a few pieces of chocolate in it. Then she said, "They have a chocolate fountain!"

As we got ready to leave, she turned around to everyone, waved and said (loudly for everyone to hear!) "Goodbye!"

I was shocked.

I suggested she go over to the host and thank her personally and M said she loved having Beth come. Beth smiled, looked at her and said thanks. Then they talked about the chocolate fountain, M said Beth had asked her for help... again, I was shocked.

As we turn to go, she giggled, waved and said, "Bye Pastor K!"

Wha...??  Beth?? Talking to a pastor without any prompting?!?

He was talking to someone else and didn't hear her so I told her she might want to say it again. When she did, he came over and gave her a big hug. "Thanks for coming, Beth!" She hugged him and smiled so big!

As we left she was smiling, her head was up; she was a different girl walking out of that church. It was awesome!

Really??

At our all night prayer meeting last Friday, we'd pray for an hour, then break for 30 minutes, then pray for an hour. Each pastor took one hour and would focus on a certain topic like families, government or our community. Microphones were set up so we could pray out loud if we wanted to and everyone could hear and agree with us in prayer.

Around the 3:00 hour one lady got up to pray and she was articulate and the inflection in her voice was amazing. I could have listened to L pray all night! During the break I got bold and went up to her and introduced myself. Something I rarely do.

I asked her if she had any kids and she said yes. She has a son with cerebral palsy.

Really??

L asked if I volunteered anywhere at church and I told her I taught a class for kids with special needs.

Really??

L told me that she's a single mom. She told me about when her son was diagnosed.

She asked if I had any kids and I told her my oldest has Down Syndrome.

Really??

Then her eyes got wide, "You understand!! You u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d!!"

We were definitely bonded by now. Then I told her about my second daughter Sharaya. L said she knew Sharaya.

Really??

L is good friends with Ryan's mom and they spent July 4th with L and her family.



Really?? (Sharaya showed us their July 4 pictures.)

Then L's eyes got wide again. "Beth is Sharaya's sister!!! Sharaya has talked about special needs and written about it on her blog but I never made the connection!"



I hope I've been able to portray the moment. It was just one of those meetings. Those 'chance' meetings that change your life. At the end of the prayer meeting, they served us breakfast and we sat with L and her mom. I've been thinking about L a lot. We're now friends on facebook and are talking about when we can get together again. She's such an amazing lady and I can't wait to get to know her better.

A Tough Choice

We had a meeting last week with Beth's job coaches. We meet once a year to talk about her jobs, what's working and what's not working. For the first time in 3 years Beth is unemployed so we made a list of places she would like to work.

Walmart
Target
The Mall Food Court
Bed, Bath and Beyond
Fred Meyer

We listed her strengths and weaknesses, what environments she works best in and places that wouldn't be a good fit. It was a really good meeting and I'm happy with the enthusiasm her coaches have in finding her a new job. They are meeting Beth this Thursday at Fred Meyer to walk through the different departments, meet the workers and see if there is one area that might be a good fit for her.

She is learning a hard lesson though because we went to Fred Meyer before the meeting and she wanted to buy a CD player. Unfortunately, she isn't working right now and has no real spending money. She went to the music department while Sharaya and I went to the toy section. A few minutes later Beth showed up with a Fred Meyer bag in her hand. I told her she wouldn't be able to go bowling this week. She also likes to buy a muffin and juice on Sunday mornings before church. She wouldn't be able to buy that either. She stood in the middle of Freddies and thought about it for a while. She finally decided to return the CD player. It wasn't easy! Her job coaches praised her on making such a tough choice. I'm also using this to teach her how important it is to do your job well. We might not like it when our bosses tell us what to do, but if you don't have a job, you don't have money to buy things. I'm hoping this will be a lesson she remembers for a long time.