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I woke up exhausted. My husband was up at 0530 to leave for the Czech Republic for two weeks. My body ached and my throat felt scratchy. Yuck. I had a to-do list a half a mile long. And then there was the special needs picnic today. I needed to get moving and think of something to make, a dish to share. I pulled myself away from laying in bed with the baby. I showered, I dressed, having no clue what to make. The thought of chasing around after the two boys further exhausted me. But the guilt of not going.... I dressed the baby, feeling miserable. She was tired and needed a nap. I would have to put her in the car seat, something she hated and haul her around a park, not allowing her to get a "good" nap in. All of the sudden, a quite feel over the house. I heard a familiar pitter patter. RAIN! It was raining! I thought about all the times I had had outdoor plans, only to be disappointed by the rain. Not now. This was the best excuse. I didn't have to feel guilty. I could relax, for just a moment and listen to that hypnotizingly beautiful sound. The baby fell immediately to sleep, just lying there. I walked down stairs. I watched the rain and then turned to my oldest and said, "How about a cuppa tea and a grilled cheese sandwich?" His eyes lit up and he answered, "Sure! Can we have some chocolate bunny, too?" So, we had a nice relaxed lunch. And then there appeared this funny face in my soup. I guess Someone put it there to remind me not to take things so seriously.

Autism Resoures and the Military

So, once again, I am trying to find some information on the best places to be stationed with a child on the Autism spectrum.  It is unbelievable to me that there are so few resources and so few opinions about where to live!  So, I am going to start posting what I find so that maybe, it will help someone else.  When searching the web for best states, you can find varying answers, with WI, MA, NC, CA, NJ, PA usually somewhere on the list.  Now, military installations are not always present in these states, namely WI.  Apparently, Tricare is paying for services at Kennedy Krieger if you are station in the Baltimore/Washington area and services are pretty good.  North Carolina consistently pops up in a search with both "Autsim" and "Military" with a website listing a resource guide.  TriWest lists services in Colorado Springs through their ECHO program.   A quick search for Autism services  and Ft Hood (one of the biggest military bases) only lists EFMP in the first couple of pages.  These lack of knowledge is so unfortunate for these children that are constantly uprooted and have to fall back on waiting lists with every move.
   Having personal knowledge of WA state, I can say that services there were pretty good, as long as you knew where to look.  If you have a diagnosis and plan your housing accordingly, you can receive good services.  However, things can be pretty spread out and if you don't live close to the services, you will be putting many miles on your car and spend a lot of money at the gas pump.  We lived outside of Yelm and our services were in Olympia (36 miles, one way) and Tacoma (47 miles, one way).
   We moved to Germany where the services are closer, but not as good.  For example, instead of getting a full hour OT appointment as he did in WA, he gets a 30 minute appointment.  Most of the speech therapists are local Germans, not native speakers.  ABA is available, but is taught to the parents with a specialist visiting your house, at most, once a week.  It is not the same as a therapist spending one on one time with your child, as it is in most stateside programs.  Also, along with the co-pay, you pay a 50 Euro "travel fee" to the specialist  for every day your child is seen (either at your house or at the school).  While this is actually much better than what many people pay for therapy, with the exchange rate, it can be expensive, especially if you are lower ranking. (Side note, I really like my Behavioral Specialist; he is a wealth of information and a great resource.  I also was lucky enough to get a speech therapist on base, although space is very limited. She is HIGHLY knowledgeable.  And my German OT is fantastic.  I couldn't ask for three therapists to care more for my child, than they do.)  I did not care for the way the EFMP handled our move here.  The school system was not informed that they would be receiving an Autistic child into their special education preschool program, they were not properly prepared.  The first year (we moved here in Oct, but my son was not able to start until Jan), there were (I believe), over 10 special education students in the preschool classroom with one special education teacher and one aide.  For the following school year, another teacher was hired, as well as another aide specifically for two Autistic children.  So, class sizes and teacher to student ratio is much better.
   So, where will we be off to next?  Is there a better way to control the monkeys that throw darts at a map for orders?  We are looking into a special needs consideration through EFMP.  We will see how that works out.  With a limited number of places we can be stationed and a huge lack of information pertaining to those locations, it is frustrating.