Ten minutes

That's all I'm giving myself to write about today.

Today was a big day, and normally I would spend an hour and a half on a post like this. I want it to have accompanying videos and images and be worded just perfectly. But I don't have time. And I know if I wait until tomorrow it will never get done. So whatever I can come up with in ten minutes will just have to do!

My Franny has been receiving therapy since September 2006. We're going on four years! It's called EIBI (Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention) or ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis). It has changed our lives and hers for the better. When we were first told that she would need 25 hours of therapy a week at 2 1/2 years old, I could hardly believe it. The day she turned three years old she started going to school from 8 AM to 3 PM and had 1:1 therapy all day. ALL DAY. We noticed a huge difference right away. We have had amazing therapists, para's, consultants, doctors, and administrators helping us along the way. People that now feel like part of our family.

I could go on and on about this, but I have a deadline.

I got a call today from one of Franny's consultants. You see, Franny has had a whole team of people who evaluate her needs and her progress on a monthly basis. She said that Franny is ready to "graduate" from the EIBI program. Which basically means she has caught up to her peers. She'll still receive a few services like speech therapy and she'll work with a writing specialist, but nothing compared to what she had before. No team, no monthly meetings, no EIBI minutes.

I can't believe it. It's been such an emotional day. I remember taking this video footage the first day of therapy. She screamed and screamed because she didn't want to play "my turn" with Melinda. (Melinda would pass the ball to Franny and then say "my turn" and Franny was to give it back.) It's a video of a very sad Franny. I remember that as I was recording her melt down, I was hoping that someday I would come back to watch this video and say, "Wow, look at how far she's come!" Today's news is exactly what I hoped and prayed for when we first learned about Franny's diagnosis. I prayed so hard for this. And now that we're here... it feels great. It also feels scary. We won't have the same support we're used to having. And I will miss seeing these people regularly. It's so exciting! There should be a big party with all the people who helped her get to this point! Melinda, Mary, Tiffany, Chrissy, Karen, Stephanie, Jen, Mary Ellen, Liz... and OH SO many more. Bobby and I are both so grateful for the help she has received and so proud of our Franny, the hardest-working kid we know.

It was a good day. Wow, look at how far she's come!