A Long Month

It seems odd to realize that it's only been 31 days since this all started - it seems like a lot longer.

The best part is that my wife and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on the day this all started. We went to a wonderful dinner about an hour away from our home, and as we were paying the bill, we got a phone call that our oldest had been accused of starting a fire in an empty lot across the street. We hurried home and questioned him, and every indication we knew to look for indicated that he was not responsible. The next day, another fire was started in a neighbor's back yard. We again questioned our oldest, and every indication was that he was not involved, not to mention that he would have only had about a 10 minute window in which to do it about half an hour before the fire was reported. The next day there were no fires, but the day after, there was a fire in one of our flowerbeds and in another neighbor's bush. There now began to be indications that our oldest was lying to us, at least about the last two fires.

In an attempt to remain somewhat brief, I'll just mention that there was lots of discussion with various neighbors in which information came out that our oldest had been seen outside of our backyard when we thought he'd been in the back yard the whole time. In addition, the following morning, I double checked the safe where we kept the only fire-starting implements we had in the house to find that one of our lighters was missing.

While all of this was going on, my father in law was staying with us in preparation for a major neck surgery he was having. We hardly slept the night before I found the lighter missing due to worrying about father in law and son. While my wife was getting her father into surgery, I again questioned my son about the fires, and armed with the information that he had been seen outside of the backyard and that a lighter was missing, he confessed to starting all four fires. After many calls to the Fire Chief, my son's counselor, and many others, it was determined that the best thing for the time being was to have him admitted to an inpatient program at a neuro-psychiatric hospital. Some wonderful neighbors took our younger children so that I could spend the next 8 hours or so getting my son admitted while my wife was with her father at his surgery in a nearby hospital.

Again, in an attempt to be more brief, my oldest son was in the inpatient program for 5 days, while my father in law was in the hospital for 3.5 days. My father in law came back to our house to recover, and my son was moved from the inpatient program to a day program where I would drop him off by 8:30 every morning and pick him up by 4:00 every afternoon. My father in law remained with us for another week, and my son has been in the out patient program the past 3 weeks.

For those who haven't heard, my son had been previously diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. After his time at the hospital, his diagnosis has been updated to Asperger Syndrome primarily with a secondary diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome. The OCD seems to just be anxiety in connection with the Aspergers. He's been put on new medications and we've all been given counseling on understanding the way his mind works and how we can work with him. While we still have our struggles, things have been improving a lot as we move forward with the new meds and information.

This has put a lot of load on our family, and we are glad that things are starting to come to a close as far as the daily driving to the hospitals and counseling sessions. We hope that the extra effort we are having to put forth to best help our son, as well as the rest of our children, won't drive us crazy!

Through all of this, we have truly felt the hand of the Lord sustaining us through family, friends, neighbors, and employer that have all worked with us to allow us to accomplish the things that have needed to be done. We are grateful for that help and support, without which we could not have made it this far.

Lastly, I want to tell my wife how much I love and appreciate her. Even with a long month like this, I would rather go through it with her than an easy month without her. She is my best friend and greatest blessing, and that just grows more true each day.