We Have Finally Gone Postal!

So today I am going to do a little "back-blogging", which I am not sure is even a real term. I meant to write about this immediately after it happened, but you know how that goes. Two weeks ago I got a message from God. Okay, well not really God himself, but a message from heaven. Well, maybe not the actual up in the sky, eternal life heaven, but from a heaven -like place. Basically I got a call from PARC (Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens) telling me that they had found a respite worker for us and that she would start the following week! Can I get a Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah,Hallelujah, Halleeeeelujahhhhhh!!!!
Finally after all these years of trying to hunt down this elusive respite I kept hearing about I found it. Actually I found it way back in June after we moved back to Pinellas County, however as you can imagine there is quite a waiting list. As a matter of fact, at the time of my initial inquiry the case worker had 175 people ahead of me before she could even take one bit of information about our needs. But after waiting as long as we already had, just knowing we were even on any kind of waiting list was enough to ease my respite restlessness and so I kept my phone close at all times, waiting to get the call.
Some of you may be wondering what in the heck I am talking about, so let me explain. Respite refers to childcare for families with special needs children. It is a program paid for by the state and basically what it does is provide families like ours a babysitter for up to twenty hours a month at no cost. The "workers" are screened, trained indiviuals who are required to know CPR and first aid as well as have some sort of knowledge about the special needs they may be caring for. And like any service that provides relief to those in need there is always a wait. The woman in charge of the program told me that they were in desperate need of workers and to tell anybody I could think of if they were looking for work she had some. Of course, this is not a job for just anybody. You have to love kids because it's not a job you do for the meager salary it pays. And you also must be extremely patient and caring, because some of these children have some serious issues that require the heart of a saint. When I got a call back in October saying they were now ready to take our information I was thrilled and started planning how we were going to fill those glorious twenty hours each month! The supervisor came out to our house, asked me every intimate detail about Camryn's life you can imagine and then told me that because Camryn can be aggressive, she would require a level two worker and those were harder to come by. Of course! But she saw the look of desperation in my eyes and promised she would get us some respite as soon as she could.
Well, fast forward to two weeks ago. I got the call that she had found someone and to expect a call from them within the next couple of days to set up a schedule. I felt like I had won the lottery! I was dancing and singing and on cloud nine! For twenty hours, TWENTY HOURS a month we would have childcare for Camryn for free!!! I immediately called Brad to share the news. He was thrilled as well and we started planning how we would make use of the time. The thing with the repsite workers though is that they have more than one family they provide care for. And our worker already had two families in her schedule so we would have to take the days and times she had open, which turned out to be Tuesdays and Thursdays. But when you're beggin' you can't be choosin' so we gladly set up a schedule for those days and anxiously awaited out first respite session.
So last Monday, one day before the big night, I happened to catch a glimpse of the weather forecast and noticed a monstrous storm system looming out in the Gulf of Mexico. The weatherman put the radar in motion and pointed out how by Tuesday afternoon Tampa Bay would be in the middle of some serious weather. Like really serious, as in tornadoes. My mouth was hanging open in disbelief! Is this for real? Well, I didn't care, there was no way I going to cancel our first night of respite because of some thunderstorm and half the time the news makes way more out of these things than they turn out to be, so I switched the channel and proceeded with my plans. Tuesday morning was beautiful. Sunny, in the seventies and breezy. As I put Cam's on the bus her driver began talking about the bad weather coming in later, and then the bus assistant chimed in with "Yeah, they're saying tornados and hail! Whooo! It's gonna be bad!" "Would she just shut up?" I kept thinking. If you're gonna rain on my parade could you at least wait until there is actually some rain? I told them that if the weather was bad I would pick Camryn up from school myself because I don't like her on the bus in those conditions, but come two o'clock, the sun was still shining and although it was now more what I would call windy instead of breezy, I saw no "stormageddon" looming on the horizon. Tuesday nights Mason has an art class at a friends house. Because of all the chatter about this storm I decided to call Dale, the "teacher" and see if she had any concerns over the weather and was class still on. She said she had heard the forecast but as of then class was  a go. Great! Now, even though the respite worker is hired solely as Camryn's caretaker, she did agree to watch Mason and Natalie on occasion along with Camryn as long as they were well behaved. But because this was our first night and I really wanted the focus to be on Cams, I had arranged for Natalie to go to my mom's house and then for Mason to go there after art, which is super convenient because Dale lives right next door to my mom. So I had Mace and Nat accounted for and Cam would be at home, which left only Brad and I which meant party time!!! We had planned to go to dinner at our favorite restaurant Red Mesa and I could already taste the salty chips and fresh salsa. I couldn't wait!
By this time it was about 4:30 and the sky was grey, but dry. Amanda, our respite worker, was coming at five and she and I had also talked earlier in the day because although I was determined to take full advantage of this first night of respite, I also have a heart and did not want Amanda to be out in bad weather if she felt uncomfortable with it. It wasn't a problem for her so we just left it that unless it got really bad she would still come. At 4:45 it began to rain, but just lightly. Mason was ready for art, Nat was ready for Gigo's and Cam's was eagerly awaiting Ms. Amanda's arrival. She had met Amanda the week before when she came out for a "meet and greet" so she was excited to see her again. And I was ready for my date! 5:00, Amanda pulls in the drive and the sky is black. The wind had really picked up and the rain was coming down at a more steady pace. Before we left I told her if she felt uneasy about the weather to please call us and we would come home to which she replied" Eve, go have fun. Cams and I will be fine!" I love her!  Brad took the girls out to his truck and I stayed inside just to go over Cams meds. schedule and nightly routine. By the time I headed out  that big monster storm I had seen on the radar twenty four hours earlier was now in my front yard. I made a run for the truck as the wind pelted rain at me from every direction. Lightning was crashing down around me and I was screaming because I am absolutely petrified of lightning. Right in front of the door of the truck where I was to get in was a huge puddle. I sloshed through it and climbed up into my seat soaking wet. By this time, visibility was about your hand in front of your face. I turned the wipers to their highest level and put the truck in reverse.Brad was on a business call so I was the one driving. Mason and Nat were freaking out in the back talking about floods and tornados and every other bad weather related fear they could think of. I headed slowly out of the neighborhood, wondering should we still go. But it was one of those things where you question it, but only as you are proceeding on with the event in question. Dale hadn't called to say art was cancelled so it couldn't be that bad. We live in a low lying part of town, so the streets flood very easily. I had only gotten to the end of the block when already the gutters were overflowing and the street began to disappear beneath ripples of water. I headed out towards 4th street, a main road in St. Pete and the one my mom lives off of. I was no more than a block away when my phone rang and I answered it to hear my mother screaming "Eve, Oh My God there's a tornado on 4th street heading towards downtown! I'm in my closet with the dogs, get off the street!" Well of course I freaked out, who wouldn't and I shouted in the truck "There's a tornado coming this way!!!!" I put the truck in reverse and hit the gas. Mason and Natalie were screaming and crying, Brad was trying to calm them down and I am trying to figure out where to go that is safe. We are still in our neighborhood, so I drive back to the house in a panic. I pulled up out front and tried to call Amanda but she didn't pick up her phone. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I called my mom back to see if she knew where the tornado was only to hear her say that now she couldn't see anything on the news about a tornado but she had sworn they had said there was one in the area. Well, if there was no tornado and we were already in the car then I was going to try this again. I pulled out of the drive and headed back towards my moms. The streets were flooded but Brad's truck is high so it was okay. Lightning was flashing and the winds were howling and there we were making our way down the street at about twenty miles an hour. Wow are we pathetic! About two blocks from my moms Dale called to see if I had gotten her message about cancelling art class. No, I hadn't. We were so close to my mom's and going back would be foolish now, so we kept on. The girls were still freaking out, but I knew they would calm down once they got to Gigo's. She met us at her front door with an umbrella and I took turns getting the girls out of the truck and walking them up to the house. My mom looked like she had aged ten years, her face frazzled and her hair a mess. Apparently, there had been a tornado, but not where she thought. Regardless, she raced to her closet and huddled there with her two Havanese shaking like leaves. I couldn't help but laugh...it was funny!  By this time it was 6:00, an hour of respite had already passed and we hadn't done anything fun yet! The girls were happy to be at my mom's so Brad and I headed out and braved the flooded streets and flashing skies again making our way to the Mesa. There were about five other cars in the parking lot, which made me feel a little less of a loser knowing we weren't the only fools out in this weather. Our waitress came over and said "Either you are really, really hungry or you don't get out much!" "You don't even want to know" I said. I called Amanda and all was well with Camryn. Knowing that all the kids were content, I was able to relax. We ordered chips and salsa, ate our meal leisurely and even fit in coffee and dessert. The weather continued on outside , but inside it was quiet and warm and delicious. Brad and I cracked up at how just like the postal workers, not wind nor hail nor sleet or snow could keep us from our respite. We picked up Mace and Nat and by that time the storm had died down. Turns out a gas station just down the street had it's roof blown off and several hundred people lost power. But back at our house, Camryn never knew the difference. She had no idea what we had gone through to get Ms. Amanda in the first place, let alone what had enfolded over the past three hours while she ate popcorn and watched "Oobi." Nope, for Cam's it was merely a playdate on a rainy night. A very long awaited playdate on a very rainy night. And so that is how our first night of respite went. Despite the drama, it was wonderful! With so many therapies and interventions not covered by insurance or state programs it was so refreshing to see that at least a service as priceless as this one is offered. We have decided to split up our twenty hours into five a week. Three on Tuesdays and two on Thursdays. Our goal is for Brad and I to go out just the two of us every other Tuesday, for me to take Mason and Natalie out just the three of us every Thursday and then for the four of us to do something with the remaining hours. And of course we do things with Camryn all the time. This just allows us to do things that would be normally be on the "Are you crazy?" list with Mace and Nat. It is a wonderful, wonderful program that I am so thankful to be blessed with and hope that if anybody reading this was not aware of this service that they inquire about it immediately! It's not just for families with Autistic children, but any children needing special care that typical babysitters cannot provide.
This past Tuesday our respite got cancelled because Amanda was in the ER with a virus. She texted me Sunday to let me know she would be back on Thursday, but no Tuesday due to her illness. Now what makes this woman think that if a tornado didn't keep us home her virus is going to? I mean really, I have no problem taking Camryn to her if she isn't up to driving over. Of course I'm just kidding, but cleaning poopy underwear and listening to endless screaming can make you kind of desperate and your rational thinking goes right out the window. I'm not that bad yet. But let's see what happens come Hurricane Season.... one Tuesday night you may just see Brad and I blow past your window!