The summer bliss....

Joseph was home. I spent the few weeks that I had before I went back to AZ scrambling to get the house together and Joseph set up with a summer program. I enrolled Joseph in a summer YMCA program that had a ton of fun activities. I was truly hopeful Joseph was going to be able to enjoy all of them. I returned to AZ and spoke with Joseph and Paul daily. Everything was going well for Joey. I thought maybe we finally had this thing under control. Paul and I were less than impressed with his out patient psychiatrist but that was something I was going to work on when I moved out to Ohio. I came back out to Ohio for a visit in August and got Joseph prepared for the start of school. We did some clothes shopping and I met with the Tipp City school district to determine what placement would best accommodate Josephs needs. We decided on a partial self contained classroom very similar to what Joseph was in when we were in AZ. He would be in the self contained class for his core subjects but mainstreamed with "typical" kids for his extra courses, lunch and recess. We felt it was good that Joseph only had one other kid in his class. We also enrolled Joseph in tackle football. Something he could not wait to be a part of! He had played flag for years and was very good at it until he got sick. See the medication he was on had caused Joseph to gain a lot of weight and he was slower and tired more easily. Joseph's size however gave him great advantage to play defense in tackle. Joseph started out doing really well in school and in football. I was anxious to join my family and be there for Joey. Here is where I must make a side note about Christian Josephs younger brother. When we decided to move to Ohio we made the choice for Christian to stay in AZ with my mom and stepdad. Not an easy choice by any means but here is our rationalization. Christian had been with mom and Don for a long time because of Josephs instability and violent behavior it was best to keep their contact with one another minimal. We wanted to give Joseph the time to transition and not have Christian get unintentionally neglected because Joseph is very time consuming. Its not easy and everyday I am not sure if I have made the right choice. I miss christian so much. Our family is not complete and my heart hurts that I am missing so much of his life. Hopefully we can have him with us or at least closer to us soon. Anyway back to Joseph. Things were going well until about October....