Group Home or Not

We just finished a board meeting at my house an hour ago—Fragile X Association of Washington State. We are planning our annual parent/educator/medical meeting for February 20 at Children’s with world renowned Randi and Paul Hagerman (from the MIND Institute at UC Davis) as our keynote speakers. We feel fortunate to have them come. After we were through working on the logistics of the upcoming meeting, we stood around and talked as parents of children with fragile X. One woman has one child, 28 years old, and he is affected by fragile X. She and her husband are thinking of putting him in a group home and are in the early stages of trying to decide whether that is the right thing for him. Another mother at our meeting has two children, an unaffected daughter who is in college, and an affected son who is 20 and is in the transition program, a three-year program designed for high school students with disabilities to help them transition from high school to work or college. She and her husband are wondering what will be the best thing for him in a few years. Another woman on the board, a grandmother of a fragile X grandson, looked at me and told me I was very fortunate. I agree. We have two affected sons who might fight at times but are companions, plus we have a daughter who lives at home who takes over when Paul and I go out of town or just out for the evening. When we finished talking I opened the front door and was greeted by my very own special group home which should be around for many more years.

We are going to be replacing our sidewalk and porch so this 30-year old bush had to come out.