Too close for comfort!

Arizona is in debt. Big time debt. Our Governor left us to go run the Department of Homeland Security and left us in a whole heaping pile of crushing debt. It now appears that our state's politicians are just as myopic and narrow minded as 99% of this country's politicians are. Of the many important, worthy programs that have lost their funding and disappeared after this recent and sweeping budget cut, part of the Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP) has ceased to exist. For my family, the right part, but in reality the wrong part. The Division of Developmental Disabilities (D.D.D.) is gone for now, if not for good. D.D.D. is in charge of helping families with children who have significant disability or delay. So children who have Autism, Epilepsy, Cerebral Palsy, Downs, etc... have lost their services. This is why I say the wrong part of the program was cut, but for my family the right part... Grace's services fall under the AzEIP program. AzEIP only provides (1) service at at time (i.e. Speach, Physical or Occupational Therapy), for children who qualify with a delay or need for services, but the delay is not major. The ggod news for our family, Grace's feeding therapy will not cease. While we are close to ending therapy and while Grace has made progress, she is still nowhere near where she should be. Unfortunately she has reached a plateau in her progress. Some days I feel more frustrated with her eating habits or ability when we have therapy than I do when I am dueling it out with her alone. But the thought of losing Jamie... the thought of being left all on my own... that was a terrifying prospect! So for now Jamie will continue to work with our little Grace and we will hope for our family that the state does not come back around with the red pen and wipe out AzEIP as well. And we will hope for all the families that so desperately need D.D.D. that the funding gets reinstated or D.D.D. adopts the same policy of "one service in, one service out" like AzEIP and gets reinstated. Either way... It was all too close for comfort and I am thanking my lucky stars that we have not been left to figure this out on our own.

Dottie's programs at CPLC were also victims of massive budget cuts. But for the grace of God she still has a job and they were able to reallocate some of their funding to the Domestic Violence Shelter...