Post #5

The article I read was “Caring for an Autistic Adult” by Marjorie Ingall published in Women’s Day magazine http://www.womansday.com/life/personal-stories/autistic-adults. The article is about having an autistic son, which has taught his mom the value of strength, denotation and a sense of humor. From the day he was born they knew he was different because he was reading the encyclopedia at age 3 and incredible with numbers. At age 4 Alex was diagnosed with autism. Pam was told to “focus on Alex strengths, not his weakness because his strengths are what will take him places”. While in school Alex memorized lists of prime numbers and almost 1,500 digits of pi, but he spoke in two word sentences for years and wasn’t toilet trained until 13. His behavior during classes was disruptive and was restrained when he would wonder around the room so they decided to home school Alex. Autism isn’t predictable and his anxiety levels grew. Alex medication didn’t help and he lashed out and attacked his father three times. They had no choice but to admit him into a psychiatric ward.  If Alex needed to stay in a long term facility it would cost $250,000 a year but fought with their insurance companies and couldn’t afford it.  They ended up finding a state funded day program that they were qualified for and she says it feels like she is sending her child off to college. They are now moving forward in there life’s again.

I thought this article was very good. I learned more about autism and thought it was sad what the family had to go through with their son. Especially, when the dad was attacked by their son and had to be put in a psychiatric ward that would be really hard on the family. Since you never know what a kid will do with autism you have to keep your eyes open at all times. My friend has a brother that has autism and was in the same position as this family. In the article it said autism causes tensions in the family but this one they became even closer which I thought was very beneficial for the family.  One day he would be very giggly and joking around, then the next day he could be screaming and having behavior problems.

Post #4

The article I read was “Considering Adoption” http://thisibelieve.org/essay/5461/ by Susie Green. She is a divorced mom of two kids but wants more kids. “One church, one child” is what Susie heard at her church. Even though she didn’t have another room for the child and her income barely enough she was able to adopt two year old Henry. When she adopted him they never told her about his rocking problem or never knew about it. When he was awake he rocked on his knees and at night he rocked his crib. After years passing his rocking didn’t stop but her concern about his family history grew stronger everyday but she couldn’t focus all of her attention on Henry when she has two other children also. She believed “that it’s what we do not know about ourselves that stops us dead in are tracks when considering adoption”. Know he is a junior in college and joined the Air Force and now only rocks out to his music.

I thought this article was very interesting. It made me think about what they kid went through to have to the rocking problem. The message “one church, one child” is very true if a member of every church was to adopt a child foster children would decrease.  This would be very good for children that live in foster homes with a bunch of kids because they would be able have a family that won’t leave them. Even though the mom didn’t make a lot of money she still wants another kid so she adopted and the child overcame his rocking problem years later.

Post #3

On Student Success Day I attended the session Successful Scholarship Applications by Mary Dimick and Mary Saurino. They informed us about where to find scholarships, tips for filling out scholarships and about Inver Hills Scholarship process. Some tips they informed us for filling out applications would be read through the entire application, make a note of all attachments that are requested, letters of recommendation,  narrative, volunteerism or community service ,honors, recognition and achievements and be sure to have your FASFA filled out for the current year. When looking for scholarships consider your employer, organizations that your family belongs to, organizations in your community, search for funds to your career goal and Inver Hills Scholarship Foundation.

The class that I attended was very useful to me. I now know more about scholarships applications and what I a good application are supposed to have.  The tips that they gave for scholarships will be really useful to me when I’m filling out applications for this spring. Through the Inver Hills scholarships I was able to find scholarships that I can apply to and am going to look around my community for more opportunities for scholarships.

Post #2 This I Believe

The “this I believe” article I am writing about is “A death he freely accepted” by Greghttp://thisibelieve.org/essay/1383/ .  Everyday his father would say “I love you” but not once did Greg say it back to his dad until the day his dad was laying in the hospital. He thought it was too late to say I love you but when he was about to leave, his dad raised his hand and put it against Greg check. He then was able to say “I love you dad” but then a few second later his hand dropped, fell into a coma and pasted away.  After this he know believes that in “redemptive power of forgiveness, serve and inspire others through good works, and that with faith and humanity we can discover that every tragedy and unbearable heart break hold the promise of a divine blessing”.

 After reading this I thought it was very sad but inspiring to others that are in the same position he is in. It makes you realize that you need to cherish what you have in life because you never know when it will disappear. I’m glad that he was able to say “I love you dad” before he passed otherwise he would of have to live with that the rest of his life and I feel like that would have been really hard for him. The reason I choose this article was because that I felt it was very touching to me and I was in somewhat of the same position as him.