It’s Been A While

It’s been a while since my last post. It’s been a while since my daughter last stepped foot in a supported program. It’s been 17 months actually. The Covid-19 pandemic has left its mark on all the transition planning we had painstakingly planned.

My daughter officially aged out of the public school system in May of 2020. We had spent the year before planning for her transition into adult services. Transition is hard for most of us. For my daughter it’s a nightmare. We had anticipated the obstacles she would face and carefully planned how she could overcome them. Never could we have planned, however, that a global pandemic would cause all of our well laid out plans to be taken away.

Here we are 17 months later and my daughter remains in her room glued to her IPad. Adjusted to her new life and way of doing things she is happy to seldom leave the comfort and safety of her own house.

It’s been a while since we were in a world free from pandemics, masks, washing hands, grim news reports and closures. It’s been a while since we were free to go about our day not worrying about the world around us. It’s been a while since my daughter traveled the path she became to know so well.

A lot has happened to all of us these past 17 months. Spending a year and half at home has left it’s mark on all of us. Our lives have been disrupted and just as our daughter has changed, so too have we. The “perfect path” we thought we were traveling on is no longer taking us in the right direction. COVID-19 has left a huge detour along our journey. It’s not the first detour we’ve run into and it won’t be the last. We’ll eventually make our way around it.

My daughter has been at a standstill for a while now. It’s time to start moving again. Just as so many other families like us are finding out however, the adult programs for our children have been crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as everything was forced to shut down so too were they. Opening back up amidst guidelines, safety protocols, shortage of staff and long waiting lists has clearly not been an easy thing to do.

Seventeen months later and we wait. In the meantime we’ve taken things into our own hands and done something very special. COVID-19 has given us the time and determination to take a huge change of direction and make our own new path. Stay tuned for the next blog!