Tuesday morning, a cloudy day with light drizzling but not cold.
William woke up early today around 8:00 AM (usually I have to wake him up around 8:15 AM) so I dressed him up and took him to school a little bit early. The Mitchell school is under construction so now we have to walk a bit from the car to the classroom. Mrs. Hana said the construction will be done in the Fall.
Per our service co-ordinator Kim Than, I called the GSG Support Services (on Friday) and scheduled a call with them today Tuesday at 10:30 AM. They said the call would last for 45 minutes. Not sure what’s the call is about, we’ll see!
Update: Basically they asked questions about how William acts, behaves, what he likes/dislike so things that a babysitter should know to make their job easier. At the end of the call, David asked if I want to schedule for a babysitter anytime soon, because we should spend all the allowed hours before it expires so that RCOC will continue to approve for RESPITE. Otherwise RCOC would think we don’t need it, they might reduce the hours.
For William we’re allowed to have 8 hours a month of RESPITE service so David suggested that we split that into 2 sessions because the minimum number of hours for a session is 3 hours. So I went ahead and schedule for this Saturday for 4 hours but there’s a waiting list so I’d have to wait for their call to know if they can find available staff. David said latest by Fri we’d have the answer.
Sunday at Noon.
We threw a little party for William’s aunt Eliza Huyen at our house, invited some close family members. William loved to sit next to cousin Danny to watch Danny’s playing game. When aunt Julie brought out the cake, William got so attached to it. I’m not sure if he likes the candles or the cake but he patiently sat there waiting. Finally we got everybody out to sing Happy Birthday song and had aunt Eliza to blow the candles, he attempted to blow too so we lighted the candles again for him to try.
I felt so in love with his innocent smile!
Saturday morning.
It’s 16th Annual International Festival at Soka University’s (soka.edu) which located in Aliso Viejo, 30 minutes driving from our house. The University is so beautiful with a big pond and water fountain. William loves to play with the water.
I bought a Takoyaki combo which has 6 balls of 2 different flavors for $8.00, and a Thai Ice Tea drink ($5.00) at a near by vendor. I was surprised that William tried the Takoyaki and ate 3 balls; but he refused to try the Thai Iee Tea though.
Yesterday i was feeling so down because I could not find any ABA Services providers that meet William’s schedule. After class at Mitchell school and his nap at the daycare, he’s only available for 2 hours after 3:30 PM.
A week ago I called Morning Star ABA services, talked to a lady named Amanda and sent her our insurance info. She said she would call back but did not received any thing from her so I emailed her asking for status. She said with William’s schedule it’s hard to find available staffs. Then yesterday I called several providers from the list that HealthNet rep sent me: Bloom Behavorial Health Inc said they have a 3 months waiting list, some providers didn’t answers (Behavior Support Svc, Creative Solution for Hope) . Finally I reached down to the bottom of the list: AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training. A nice lady named To Nhu Le answered, and it turned out she’s Vietnamese. So later in the day she sent me more info about her agency and requested that I sent her our insurance and the report from RCOC.
Today I sent what To Nhu Le from AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training requested, and soon she replied that she already verified William qualification with HealthNet and that we don’t have to pay co-pay or deductibles; and that she sent in the authorization request and waiting for the answer from HealthNet.
In the mean time, I also emailed Mrs. Annette Glass from Healthnet (who sent me the providers list in the first place) and telling her that the provider AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training has staffs available for William’s schedule and that they were waiting for authorization approval.
Few minutes later, got an email from Mrs. Annette, she said she talked to To Nhu Le and authorized 8 hour assessment effective today! I’m so happy that things turn out pretty good. I’d never expect that Mrs. Annette would act so fast!
Not just that, around noon our service co-odinator Kim Than called, saying that we got approved for Day Care. Even though the amount is not much but it’s better than nothing. She also encouraged me to call the RESPITE agency to schedule for at least 1 time; which will help in the process of requesting Medical for William. Once William get approved for Medical then RCOC will cover all the RESPITE fees so we don’t have to pay anything.
This really relieves the financial burden that I’ve been feeling ever since William was diagnosed with Autism. If we have Medical we’d not have to worry about the lack of money to pay for Insurance co-pay and deductibles for doctor visits (and my boy is sick so often!).
Around 2 AM, William woke up and cried out loud. Usually he’d just whine to let us know that he’s hungry; and it’s time for another bottle of milk. This time we were just not sure why he cried; he cried like he was hurt. I tried to hold him but he refused; tried to carry him out of bed but he wanted to put back to bed. Finally we gave him a bottle of milk; at first he pushed it away so I put it on the headboard, then he stood up and got to it. So I guess he was hungry. It’s just weird that he rarely cries like that when he’s hungry. Last dinner he didn’t eat much so might be that was the reason.