Thursday, October 3, 2013

Home Therapy Happiness

For the last year and a half, we've had a speech therapist in our home twice a week.  She comes prepared with what Ryan needs to work on, goals set with homework done and ready to roll.  She's always prepared to deal with whatever.  

Sounds clean and neat, right?  Easily said, neatly delivered.  Took a few seconds to type, likely quicker to say.  And it was honestly pretty easy to obtain, if you don't count any paperwork or insurance runaround.  All I had to do was be home. 

So easy right?  And so simple.  

The thing a lot more people than I realized don't think about is that these people get paid for working with your kid.  As in, they don't get paid if they don't work with your kid.  And they're leaving their kids to drive to your kid.  

Add this to folks who decide to use them as free babysitting, refuse to listen to them, or act like they're there to serve you and have no feelings, nothing else to worry about, or like their time isn't at all precious, and you have a lot of why we have a hard time getting therapy out here in the country.  Okay, soap box time over.

Our precious speech therapist had her last day today.  We celebrated her with a little brownie sundae and sent her with a little treat to share with her family, hardly a drop in the bucket to the time she's spent  preparing, driving, and leaving her family behind to work with my child.  

Guess why she left the therapy agency?  Not because she didn't like the people she worked with.  The agency people were nice and cared for her as best they could.  Not because she didn't like the parents or the kids, either.  She was patient and caring and loved Ryan and us even though he called her "ms. Kari-NO!" for a few weeks.  

She left because she wanted to see her kids.  Can't fault her there at all.  And after doing all the things she's done, driving all the hours she's driven just for our family, not even considering all the prep time and travel for other families, in the end, she left with our last celebration... adding each other on Facebook so she could keep up with Ryan, and Richie and Maelynn too.  Because, as it turns out, when a wonderfully caring lady comes in your house for that much time, twice a week, for a year and a half your kids grow attached.  

She walked into our house through all kinds of crazy times... including the time we got our wires crossed and weren't home when she got here.  Knowing we aren't the kind to just not be here, she even called around to check on us.  She loved on Ryan, Richie, and Maelynn, and listened and advised me when I was at my wit's end.  

Speech.  Yeah, that's what she was here for, but she cared for all of us in different ways.  And she's always got a friend and a place to hang out on our corner. 

Thanks, Ms. K... again... we'll miss you tons.  And remember to hug your family and thank them for us too!

Thanks be to God for ladies and gentlemen like Ms. K, who love kids like Ryan and families like ours enough to finish tons of school and testing to spend time making our lives better. 

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