Your Chance to Do a Work of Mercy!

Dear Friends and Family,

Bryan and I want to give you an update on our fundraiser for Joshua for his camp.  Right now, we have been blessed with a total of $1875 in donations, including checks that have been sent in, 89% of our goal.  We only need $225 more to raise by Thursday, July 14th.  I need to pay Friday, July 15th, before camp starts on the 18th.  Here is the link for our blog which has the site for which you can get the latest on the ChipIn numbers:  www.raisingautisticchildren.com. 

Joshua will benefit so much from this DIR/Floortime camp as it will help him be more socially connected and aware.  I was playing “Steamroller” with him the other night, utilizing Floortime principals and he really responds well to this type of natural interaction.  It is a lot of fun and I get a bit of a workout at the same time!  This is important as I need to be in tip top shape with this guy.  If you care to learn more about DIR/Floortime, here are some youtube videos with Dr. Stanley Greenspan one of the developers:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXGh9bT0Sw.

If you have followed us in our blog, Journey with Joshua, (www.raisingautisticchildren.com), you will read about Joshua escaping from our fenced yard on Friday, June 17th.  One of our neighbors, who was just driving home, caught him when I was alerted by a kind lady who ran into our driveway.  Apparently he was found across the busy street, down by the skate park near our house, walking home.  We were all so relieved he was safe.  I didn’t know how he escaped as I was in the kitchen, facing the driveway, making dinner, and he had been in the back yard.  I had alerted all the neighbors that Josh was autistic and if he ever escaped to grab him, which is what happened.  Well, apparently, one of the neighbors called me into CPS as I got a notice from them this past week.  The good news is that CPS determined that the information in the report was considered low risk, so they didn’t contact me.  Instead, they had a Public Health Nurse contact me, through Early Family Support Services.  I spoke with the nurse and in order to have a rebuttal in “my new CPS file” she had to come out and complete an assessment for our family.  The determination is, basically, to fix the gate and fence, where he may have gotten out and the landlord took care of that this past weekend, thankfully, at no cost to us!

We appreciate you all, so much, for walking alongside us on this journey.  It isn’t easy and some days are more challenging than others, but we do see progress and are hopeful he will continue to improve.  This camp is one of the building blocks to achieving that goal and we are so grateful for everyone’s support, not only the prayers and donations, but the  encouragement and resources that are shared.  There is so much to learn on this path.  No one really knows the cause of autism, and there are many treatments that help.  We are hopeful that we can get him as healthy as possible and help him discover his gifts to contribute to this world of ours, for God’s glory and our good.

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Blessings,
Sheila Hughes
www.raisingautisticchildren.com