DaniB
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
- Messages
- 3,479
I've been away for so long and thought I would post an update this morning. OM goodness this is long (sorry!) and I do thank you for reading!
I posted elsewhere a couple weeks back when my mom was sent to the hospital. She has been having some health/tired/breathing issues for a few months. The news we received over the last two weeks is her heart has started to fail. No indication of whether this is short-term or long-term. My understanding is her cardiologist is unsure himself at this point.
Mom was thinking she'd feel better in September, and the kids would be in school all day, but there's no way. It would be too stressful and right now she needs to avoid stress. I told her we already planned on cancelling and not to worry. All is refundable and the trip insurance will refund the plane tickets.
I was so looking forward to not having the kids around so hubby & I could reconnect but her health is absolutely more important. My husband's parents are gone and he has no grandparents. My grandparents are in poor health themselves. And frankly, I'm not ready to let go of my mom - I need her! My DD12 *needs* her!!
Ironically my husband has 2 brothers & 2 sisters. I also have 1 brother, 2 aunts & uncles. And yet different reasons, we can't (or won't in some cases) ask any of them. Though we have looked after nieces, nephews, and cousins...
My husband suggested we rebook for next year and go for 2-3 weeks to include other parks besides Disney. (Isn't he wonderful?!
) And I tell you, that was so tempting! But I keep remembering how our kids were about a lot of rides and think they would do better at Universal Studios & other parks a bit older. So instead, we changed from POP to POR with the intention of bringing the kids back this September. I made up a new internary; am cancelling all my perfect ADRs for 2 
, and trying desperatly to rebook ADRs for 4 instead. I can hardly believe how tough that is 98 days out! 
We'll make a non-Disney trip in 2013 for US, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Aquatica.
Here's the thing... I haven't booked airfare for our kids yet because there's a good chance we might just cancel the trip still!! There's still seats available on the same flight as us but... We are about to make major changes in our DD12's life. She just cannot continue in the normal/mainstream school system. She comes across as perfectly normal to people who aren't in our lives long, but she has so many difficulties. She has speech & language issues; clothing sensativity; only reads up to grade 2 so far; cannot spell past SK or Grade 1 level; immature; does not pick up social cues & body language; and gets upset at new situations or anything slightly scary (ie, dentist, eye doctor, needles). Her reading, spelling & education I believed had to do with her memory processing issues. She has a hard time storing/accessing her memory. Some days she can read a book perfectly, other days stumbles over the words. But not anymore.
She cannot keep up at Grade level. She's finishing Grade 5 now but every subject is modified to Grade 2/3 level. So, the school has been talking to us about their Life & Learning Skills program and we are going there to see it this Friday. I KNOW DD will flip when she finds out as the only 2 children she knows (who go to this program) are much lower-functioning than she is. I was told there are 2 classes. One for low-functioning and one for high-functioning. She is high-functioning and clever, but I do wonder about the other children. How can I help not? She needs to be in a class with children who have similiar abilities, not even less. Apparently as these children enter High School, they even have different co-op placement programs so they are not forced to compete with the mainstream kids. And access to more? different? jobs/careers. I just hope I like what we see & hear on Friday... And I sure wish the school started this process a lot earlier. I would prefer multiple visits to the class before making up my mind. And I have not even mentioned this to my mom yet!
How this applies to our trip, is I'm not sure whether we could (or should) pull her out shortly after school starts. Honestly, education-wise I cannot see how it matters. But I wonder if I'll get arguements because she's being transferred into a special education class? To me, however, the life skills being learned from the trip are all the more important considering she is not going to have a mainstream education. At the same time, as I write this I start to think we should just cancel period.
Ohh, and she has had 2 pysch tests - with 2 completely different results. Don't even get me started on that!
When it's due again, we're going to pay privately for it.
I just don't know what to do about this. Any ideas or thoughs?
I posted elsewhere a couple weeks back when my mom was sent to the hospital. She has been having some health/tired/breathing issues for a few months. The news we received over the last two weeks is her heart has started to fail. No indication of whether this is short-term or long-term. My understanding is her cardiologist is unsure himself at this point.
Mom was thinking she'd feel better in September, and the kids would be in school all day, but there's no way. It would be too stressful and right now she needs to avoid stress. I told her we already planned on cancelling and not to worry. All is refundable and the trip insurance will refund the plane tickets.
I was so looking forward to not having the kids around so hubby & I could reconnect but her health is absolutely more important. My husband's parents are gone and he has no grandparents. My grandparents are in poor health themselves. And frankly, I'm not ready to let go of my mom - I need her! My DD12 *needs* her!!
Ironically my husband has 2 brothers & 2 sisters. I also have 1 brother, 2 aunts & uncles. And yet different reasons, we can't (or won't in some cases) ask any of them. Though we have looked after nieces, nephews, and cousins...
My husband suggested we rebook for next year and go for 2-3 weeks to include other parks besides Disney. (Isn't he wonderful?!
) And I tell you, that was so tempting! But I keep remembering how our kids were about a lot of rides and think they would do better at Universal Studios & other parks a bit older. So instead, we changed from POP to POR with the intention of bringing the kids back this September. I made up a new internary; am cancelling all my perfect ADRs for 2 , and trying desperatly to rebook ADRs for 4 instead. I can hardly believe how tough that is 98 days out! We'll make a non-Disney trip in 2013 for US, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Aquatica.Here's the thing... I haven't booked airfare for our kids yet because there's a good chance we might just cancel the trip still!! There's still seats available on the same flight as us but... We are about to make major changes in our DD12's life. She just cannot continue in the normal/mainstream school system. She comes across as perfectly normal to people who aren't in our lives long, but she has so many difficulties. She has speech & language issues; clothing sensativity; only reads up to grade 2 so far; cannot spell past SK or Grade 1 level; immature; does not pick up social cues & body language; and gets upset at new situations or anything slightly scary (ie, dentist, eye doctor, needles). Her reading, spelling & education I believed had to do with her memory processing issues. She has a hard time storing/accessing her memory. Some days she can read a book perfectly, other days stumbles over the words. But not anymore.
She cannot keep up at Grade level. She's finishing Grade 5 now but every subject is modified to Grade 2/3 level. So, the school has been talking to us about their Life & Learning Skills program and we are going there to see it this Friday. I KNOW DD will flip when she finds out as the only 2 children she knows (who go to this program) are much lower-functioning than she is. I was told there are 2 classes. One for low-functioning and one for high-functioning. She is high-functioning and clever, but I do wonder about the other children. How can I help not? She needs to be in a class with children who have similiar abilities, not even less. Apparently as these children enter High School, they even have different co-op placement programs so they are not forced to compete with the mainstream kids. And access to more? different? jobs/careers. I just hope I like what we see & hear on Friday... And I sure wish the school started this process a lot earlier. I would prefer multiple visits to the class before making up my mind. And I have not even mentioned this to my mom yet!
How this applies to our trip, is I'm not sure whether we could (or should) pull her out shortly after school starts. Honestly, education-wise I cannot see how it matters. But I wonder if I'll get arguements because she's being transferred into a special education class? To me, however, the life skills being learned from the trip are all the more important considering she is not going to have a mainstream education. At the same time, as I write this I start to think we should just cancel period.
Ohh, and she has had 2 pysch tests - with 2 completely different results. Don't even get me started on that!
When it's due again, we're going to pay privately for it.I just don't know what to do about this. Any ideas or thoughs?
your way and prayers and good wishes that your mom has a speedy recovery and that things get worked out for you 
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, but, through no fault of our own, we have a much bigger problem to deal with. S/N: Robin, Norma and Michelle- I really wish I could have met all of you! Maybe next time!
Now I just gotta save for my spending money or hit the lottery...whichever comes first
