Happy Monday, friends! I'm happy to report we've purchased the tickets for our next trip back to the states, and will be home for an entire four weeks this September. Of course four weeks seems like a lot of time, until you factor in traveling back and forth to multiple locations for a jam-packed schedule of doctor appointments. On top of that, we need to buy a house (or at least get the process rolling). We'll be busy, busy. It's all very exciting and very, very scary. I'm not a person who handles change very well; I know that must sound incredibly strange coming from a person who packed up her entire life (and toddler) and moved to the Middle East, but it's the truth. I am, however, mostly excited to start this next chapter in our lives. And if I'm a little scared while we do it, well, that's fine too.
So here's the plan: Liam and I will be moving back in April of next year and DeMarko will follow us the following April. As much as we all want to come home together, it just doesn't make financial sense to do so. We refuse to have sacrificed so much over the past five years, only to be living paycheck to paycheck six months after we move home. Not to mention the prospect of buying our first home AND changing jobs only a few months later is rather terrifying.
So Liam and I will move home in order to take care of the couple of surgeries he'll need around this time next year (orthopaedic and urological), and then we'll get him enrolled in preschool. We kept thinking he would be starting kindergarten next fall, until I realized his November birthday actually means he'll start the following year. I can't tell you how perfect this is for him. That will give him an entire year of preschool to learn how to get around on his own (whether it be with a walker or a wheelchair), and will also allow us time to figure out the "bathroom situation," and a few other things. I've been working really hard at getting him where he needs to be in regards to writing and reading and counting; that way he can spend his entire year of preschool focusing on socializing, becoming more independent, and getting around on his own. And apparently a new special needs preschool was just built in O'Fallon, so we're thinking that may be the way to go, at least for preschool. Then once he's ready for kindergarten (and beyond), we plan on having him in mainstream classes.
In other exciting news, we bought Liam's first wheelchair. We found a great deal online (what did anyone ever do before ebay?!), and it will be waiting for him when we arrive in Chicago this fall. He'll get fitted for his "fancy" wheelchair during our visit home, but apparently it takes FOREVER for the insurance paperwork to be approved (i.e. eight months), so he won't actually get that one until we move home next year. But I'm sure it will be nice to have a spare, and at least we got a great deal on it.
My baby is growing up way too fast, but hooray for independence!
P.s. If you've been keeping up with Kate and Gavin's story, you're going to want to read this.
Yay! That's awesome news. :)
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