Marathon posting

I emailed the president of my mothers group on Thursday about resigning my position as membership VP. It's alot of work to do the job right (30-60 minutes a day) and I just can't keep up with it and I don't want our club to suffer for it. She called me on Friday and seemed to be trying to convince me to stay, saying we would work out something. I left it at that and have tried to get back on top of my duties. I got an email today adressed to the rest of the board saying I was resigning. It was a little bit of a shock, especially since she seemed so keen to keep me involved, but a relief. John is very happy - he's been wanting me to do this for at least the past month. Here's the message I sent out in response:

Where I’ve been for the past month or so...

I’ve been very MIA for the past month or so and wanted to offer apologies to all for not keeping up with things as well as I should. Some of you may know that I had Michael evaluated by Child Link (Early Intervention) back in November for a language delay. They tested him as having a 40% delay in communication, a 30% delay in fine motor skills, and problems with auditory processing (sensory integration). He qualified for services with them and is currently getting Special Instruction once a week and Occupational Therapy every other week. Along with the therapies, they also recommended that he be evaluated for Autism. We had this evaluation the middle of January and the developmental pediatrician diagnosed him as having Autism Spectrum Disorder along with his developmental delays.

As much as I thought I was prepared for this, it still hit us like a ton of bricks. We are currently working with Child Link to have a more intensive evaluation done so we can see how they can best serve us. We are also adding formal speech therapy into the mix which will be happening weekly. In addition to this, my husband and I are using a therapy approach called “floor time” with him for 10-15 hours each week (working up to 20) and exploring other therapy options outside of those offered by Child Link.

Learning about his delays has been a great help for me in changing my attitudes. I’ve been able to lower my expectations for his behavior to what is appropriate for him and we have both benefited greatly from this. Looking at Michael, autism would be the furthest thing from your mind. He’s a very active, happy kid. In the past few months he’s made great strides. His vocabulary is around 20 words now and he’s using them spontaneously and in context. He’s also started to engage with other children, something he’s never done before. He would usually just ignore them or stare at them with a questioning look or smile, not sure what was expected of him. Even though he’s such a personable kid and has made great strides, he does exhibit enough autistic behaviors to merit the diagnosis, mild though they are. John and I are both looking forward to his evaluation with Child Link so that we can get a better picture of where he is on the spectrum and what we can do to help him.

That said, I am resigning my position as Membership VP because I just can’t give it the attention that is needed. I’ve gotten great enjoyment from watching our club grow and flourish and a lot of personal satisfaction from my position on the board. It was a hard decision to make, but one that I feel is in the best interest of our club and my family. Now that he’s well (knock on wood) and we are getting some stability in his schedule, I hope to be able to attend more events and see all of you and your little ones. Thank you for your support.

It's very scary for me to "out" Michael like this, but I think I'll feel better knowing that I don't have to continually explain why he's doing certain things or what's going on. I'm also hoping that the wording will discourage some from questioning his diagnosis. I know that they have all the best of intentions, but my skin is really thin when it comes to this and I'd like to avoid defending my position over and over again.