Emotional Trauma

Don't let the above title cause you to feel sorry for Allie. Feel sorry for us. We're the ones traumatized by separation anxiety the past two days when dropping Allie off at school.

Allie started school yesterday at ARC Potentials in Riviera Beach. There are very few people we've ever been able to leave Allie with. There's been three. So we have some trust issues. The Charming and Beautiful Susan hung out her first day, but it was pure torture for her (Susan). She had to totally turn over control. And Allie was not happy. The Charming and Beautiful Susan's countenance fell.

We felt that a new strategy was necessary. We need to trust them. Since that's difficult, all we can really do is drop her off and peel out as we flee the premises. But today, as we handed Allie over, we were snagged to fill out paperwork. And we had to listen to Allie as she reluctantly started her new routine. The first task: sit on the potty.

This is a paradigm shift for Allie. New concepts make her cry. And here we are, filling in prescriptions, medical conditions and doctors' names on forms. We just wanted to fix Allie. Or bolt.

But once we left, well, wow. We were alone. We went to breakfast, we went to the store. It was like a date. We've had maybe five of these in the past two years. It was nice. And it's nice to know that we'll be able to get reacquainted.

The following video was shot by Uncle Aaron as we picked Allie up this afternoon.

She isn't quite into the new routine yet. Mary is in the frame with me. She is a dynamite physical therapist and teacher. We are amazed at how much the Charming and Beautiful Susan and I have learned from her in the past two days. We could have used her as a personal counselor for the past two years.

Once Aaron and I got Allie into the car and put on her favorite riding around song, she was fine.