Updates and requests

It’s been such a busy day, I only have time to hit the key points:

- Vincent’s still not home. They called and left a message today that they want to schedule a family meeting. Apparently Vincent finally had a one-on-one with a counselor. Stephanie or Vincent also said they want to do some assessments, which may take at least a couple of days. Vincent is not thrilled with this going on.

- I returned to work still recovering from the flu and Stephanie went to work – on one of the three or four most important weeks of the year – when IN schools are for the first time offering their mandatory standardized tests in the spring – and Stephanie must be there to help offer her English as a new language students appropriate and legal accommodations – coming down with my flu (flu virus depicted above). She started taking my medication. If Vincent stays well, he’s lucky he’s missing this part of home life. Of course, it can’t help that Stephanie stayed up all night Thursday night and since flu A is spreading like wildfire here, a lot of those kids Thursday night in the Kosair Hospital emergency room probably also had it.

- Vincent’s father called him on Vincent’s cell phone, which Stephanie currently has, and she answered. In spite of Vincent’s wishes (though he seemed understanding on the phone tonight), Stephanie told his father about the situation. Vincent’s father continued with the same line that she’s doing the right thing – Vincent shouldn’t be making the same mistakes he made. He also confirmed what we had heard a couple of weeks ago but were not able to confirm on the Web – Vincent’s former stepmother – one of the big nemeses of our lives for several years (one of whose legal actions against her ex-husband – Vincent’s father – caused him to catch up with back child support several years ago) – who apparently had bad heart troubles – died instead as a result of injuries in a car accident – in North Carolina – where she lived with her son (Vincent’s ex-half brother) and her husband – and was buried – ironically – in Vinton Co., OH – near where she grew up).

- Ironically, also today, we got a notice from the Franklin County, OH child support agency saying that Vincent’s child support will end on his 18th birthday – in a month and a half – unless Stephanie wants to elongate it through Vincent’s projected graduation date. Just showing you how little child support was expected – Stephanie said about $150 a month – Vincent’s father hasn’t paid child support for pretty much his entire time in high school and Vincent’s father is still only $5,500 in “arrears.” Vincent’s father claimed to have sent in a little money, but Stephanie will never see any of that $5,500.

- Even though I am still recovering, I went into a meeting with four others that I was concerned about this afternoon and talked almost non-stop for 45 minutes plus – explaining an evaluation research process we’d been using – and – although others were quick to want to tweek it around the edges. – I think I explained the process adequately enough so that folks – who’d been having trouble understanding it – get how we were doing it. After I finish getting out the surveys for this next review, it will no longer be my baby. One of the reasons why I thought it was important to go in for that meeting was that the rumors of mass layoffs continue – perhaps in early April. I joked with one of my colleagues that I’m slated to be in Guatemala on April 1, and so perhaps they’ll try to lay me off then. But, because I’ll be out of the country, maybe they will decide to skip it. This colleague said that this colleague continues to think that more pay cuts and furloughs for all, rather than mass layoffs are what’s in store. Earlier, this colleague had said – if there are layoffs- they’re more likely to be strategic – knocking out whole units – rather than across-the-board every unit must lose a position/a person. But the colleague said the colleague’s heard of no whole units on the chopping block (most recently, they did away with the Media Services unit).

- Friends and family from church, school, Facebook, and elsewhere continue to amaze us with your prayers, phone calls, e-mails, hugs (not so much hugs when we’re sick), and even food. More and more people also open to us about challenges they’ve faced with kids and other family members (a friend talked with me about using the same KY process with one of her parents – the parent stayed on for some months). We covet and cherish all of this love and support. Tonight I would ask for prayers for the many staff and residents as they work with Vincent and us to help Vincent rethink some of the directions in his life. I would also ask for prayers for the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as they struggle with how to respond to the decline in giving and the church’s investment income. And I would ask for healing for our family – for the blurry vision that has apparently accompanied Vincent being on new medication, for the neck/back/shoulder injury of mine that has returned with a vengeance, and especially for Stephanie’s recovery from the flu. And may all the students at Stephanie’s school come prepared to do their best on these standardized tests this week – tests that Stephanie and her colleagues agree seem significantly harder than last fall’s version. Do your best!

P.S. Stephanie also talked with the high school counselor at Vincent’s school, who said - if I remember right – Vincent currently has 18 (full-year) credits and needs 22 graduate. If he took the required classes – back Western Civ, back first-semester Senior English, and second-semester Senior English, then he’d have 19.5 credits – meaning he’d need 2.5 more credits – five semester-long classes of electives to graduate. She and Stephanie also discussed the homeschooling option. No longer at Brown, Vincent no longer has to worry about a Senior project, but he still has to put together with a state required Senior writing portfolio, something for which it’s remotely possible we can still work with his English teacher on. Incidentally, it may finally warm up later this week. With mandatory dog-walking by at least one of us (when both of us are in one stage of illness or the other) and with my car’s heat essentially not working, the weather hasn’t helped our health or mood this past week. Stephanie’s back has been bothering her for months, on top of everything else.

-- Perry