Wednesday, October 26, 2011

So..... a few updates for those interested...

The son caught on security camera is not going to have legal charges against him because between he and his buddy they only took a total of $2.46 to buy pop.

The son who said he might kill himself was joking and does not appear to be suicidal.

Salinda turned in one application and is filling out others. If she can manage to get a job before John looses his, I will be able to say for the first time in my life that all my adult children are employed (because I count Mike's self-employment as a tattoo artist because he charges $40 an hour and makes enough to pay someone rent). That would be really nice.

Ricardo's meeting went quite well and I feel like we came up with a compromise that both helped the adults in the room feel like we were requiring something of him and making him feel like he was heard. He has to buck up and do what he is supposed to do to finish the quarter and then we will taking him out of the work program. He is promising to work hard and try to catch up so he can consider college. I have no doubt that he is smart enough but his expressive language issues, his English learning issues, and his reading disability hinder him, as well as his incredibly stubborn personality. BUT, there is hope here, I think we have him back on track and his life is going to improve substantially.

Jimmy is proud as can be -- He got "Employee of the Week" his first week on the job. He is working through an adults with DDs program, and so he complains that everyone else is SO slow. He's doing dishes at one of the University's residence hall kitchens and says, "Mom, there's a LOT of dishes!" But he is going out of his way to be a good employee, is very excited to pick up his first check Friday (even though it's only for 3 days work) and seems to be charming everyone there into loving him. This is such a cool thing for him because the supervisor at this program says that MSU works very well with employing adults like him and that many people have kept jobs there for 10+ years.

I looked up the place John started working today -- it's a facility that has a capacity to milk 4500 cows a day. That's a LOT of cows.

Bart had the opportunity to preach yesterday at his Spiritual Formation Academy and did wonderfully. They LOVED him, as they should. He's a very gifted communicator. And I'm the only person in the universe who gets to be married to him. I am so incredibly blessed and unworthy on so many levels.

Speaking of Bart, he is speaking (with my company) at the Adoption Support Group in Mankato. I'll write a separate entry about that.

And, just so you know what it is like to be me, as soon as I typed the paragraph about Ricardo, I got a text from his friend advocating for him to switch to the alternative school. UGH.

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