What a month!

[Misspoker]

 Well the month of April was filled with lots of ups and downs with Sierra, as well as other parts of my life.  I can only hope May will be a little more of a smooth transition into summer.

It started off with my fiance's father passing away on April 5th from an extensive battle with cancer, so needless to say, the days before and after were very gloomy in preparation and then with making the final arrangements.  It was, and still is especially difficult for him being an only child.  

On Friday April 10th, Sierra began spring vacation from school.  She and I flew to Dallas, Texas where we spent time with her father and his family and then I spent a few days during that week with some of my relatives in Fort Worth so that she could have some alone time with her daddy, who she only gets to see once or twice a year.  We both enjoyed our time visiting but she truly does cherish her time with her father.  They have such a great connection and and she loves him dearly.  Because he hasn't spent a lot of consistent time with her, he doesn't know or understand her syndrome and how to deal with certain things as well as I do but he seems to be taking more of an interest lately.  I was very please to have his family expressing a great deal of interest and concern in getting to know about her syndrome as well.  I gladly shared some of my knowledge and some websites to a wealth of information for them to read about.  I look forward to helping them get more informed.

The week after we returned was very difficult for Sierra.  She had to get readjusted to her daily schedule and routine. I received several phone calls from her teachers telling me about her bad days and she didn't want to go to Sylvan for her tutoring.  She was very defiant to everyone including Dave, my fiance, who took it very personal.  They are both dealing with missing their fathers, just in different ways.  She saw her therapist on Monday and talked about her feeling a bit and seemed to be getting back into focus.  She continued this behavior through this past week, having a major melt down at school yesterday.  Hopefully she is over it now and will be back on track soon.

I sent paperwork to the MIND Institute in Sacramento, CA., who recently conducted a study on 22Q children and will be doing more studies in the future.  I hope Sierra and I can be a part of them so that we can help the professionals find a cure someday.

Stay tuned.......