What I am is the Bad Mother, who only begins her journey transforming into the Good Mother , through it's dark existence. I will expose my life to show the world how change has started. It is my hope others will join in the purpose with their own stories. The world needs to see the whole picture through the individuals "all seeing eye". It is about protecting who we all are, universal beings of life..full of shadows, full of new light emerging.
To be continued...time to rest now.
Here's the link: http://www.foggyrock.com/Blogs/ViewBlog/635/Feds_release_strategic_plan_for_autism_research
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
EMK
Toxic metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic are the most common cause of childrens neurological conditions such as learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, Asperger's. www.flcv.com/tmlbn.html Children with these conditions are usually found to have high levels of mercury, lead, arsenic, antimony, etc. in tests by treatment clinics/medical labs. One of the reasons is that many children are more susceptable to metals toxicity due to type of blood allele (APOE type 4) causing inability to excrete mercury and such . Many are also more susceptible due to immune reactivity to mercury, etc. www.flcv.com/suscept.html
Vaccines have been a factor in this: www.flcv.com/kidshg.html
Although mercury is the most toxic substance that kids are commonly subjected to in high levels, from all vaccines in the past and some such as flu vaccines now, www.flcv.com/kidshg.html , children also get high levels of mercury from their Mom's dental amalgam fillings (or their own) www.flcv.com/fetaln.html & www.flcv.com/damspr1.html
and from Florida fish, which commonly has high levels of mercury www.flcv.com/fishhg.html
Medical test surveys have found over 30% of Floridians have dangerous levels of mercury www.flcv.com/fishhg.html
Dental amalgam is the largest source of mercury in most people including Mom's who have several amalgam fillings www.flcv.com/damspr1.html
and dental amalgam is also the largest source of mercury in all Florida (and U.S.) sewers, thus a major source of mercury in water bodies and fish www.flcv.com/damspr2f.html
Dental amalgam is also a major source of mecury air emissions, from outgassing sewer sludge and crematoriums www.flcv.com/damspr2f.html
Most with over 30 chronic health conditions who replace their amalgam fillings and do detox recover or significantly improve. www.flcv.com/hgeovp.html This includes metals detoxification for autism, Asperger's, ADHD,
Metals detox is documented to be the most effective treatment overall for such children's neurological conditions by autism treatment clinics and surverys of thousands of parents of children with Autism, Asperger's, etc. www.autism.com
Mercury/toxic metals also block enzymatic processes required to digest wheat gluten and milk casein, causing eating these to be a major factor in the neurological conditions of such children, and gluten/casein free diet to cause major improvements in most.
www.flcv.com/autismgc.html &
Autism Sunday falls on the second Sunday in February every year. In 2009 Autism Sunday falls on 8th February 2009. Autism Sunday is also the International Day of Prayer for Autism and Asperger's Syndrome. People have been asked to pray for over 60 million people with autism around the world. Many in places like Africa and Asia are struggling without public services. Cathedrals, Churches and religious organisations have been asked to observer Autism Sunday. Faith communities have a role to play in reaching out to the vulnerable.
Please see the wikipedia entry for Autism Sunday or google 'Autism Sunday' for further information.
Autism is not for the weak of heart or mind. I imagine it would be very heavy on ones heart with all the many areas it encompasses that greatly require your absolute attention. I personally look at it as any other challenge, you have to start somewhere, you take it day by day, and you never give up hope. Sometimes having a challenge in your life just adds to what makes life interesting. It is atleast never boring, for if you love someone on the spectrum, you know with each day you do not know what to expect.
Autism keeps you guessing and on your toes, some would call it a constant state of stress, and that is true, since stress can be both good and bad. Planning a wedding or moving are both immensely stressful but both normally are postive things. So my day is no different then someone who is a wedding planner or professional mover, as long as you love your job and take care of yourself you are better off then someone who does not do one or both of those things. The benefit of both those occupations are providing ease and happiness to probably one of the most important days of the clients life. Noah is my client in away, and my job is just that everyday. The pay is lousy and time off never seems to come enough, but the rewards are much better than any other job I can think of.
I really can't say too much about what Autism is like for anyone else, only us and our situation. And that of those I also know whom we are close to. This is how I choose to look at it, I choose to be grateful for the oppurtunity each day to learn something new and see Noah learn new things. I feel fortunate to be given such a special person that mainly requires me to think outside the box. This gives me the oppurtunity to bond with him more. I choose to practice tolerance, patience, and strive to leave each day a little better than I found it. I am most grateful that I can choose.
My goal is like any other parent to make my son a whole well rounded person. My standards might be different, my way of achieving it definatly so. But the one thing I definatly do know, is we will get there as long as we believe we can.
How can anyone encourage funding for children with special needs when they oppose research projects that help identify mental disablities?
Palin says she wants more money for kids with special needs, but then wants congress to pull the plug on an effective research program that is helping to identify and research autism spectrum disorders.
As a person with Aspergers' Syndrome (a form of high functioning autism), I am appauled that Sarah Palin would want to kill a research project that helps identify developmental disablities but would ask for money to support a program that, from my own experience, fails to meet the needs of individuals with mental disabilities because people are either too cheap to pay for them (i.e. insurance companies, school districts) or pidgeon hole induviduals by grouping people who have very different diagnosises (i.e. putting people with Aspergers' Syndrome or Autism in programs with people who have Down Syndrome or severe mental retardation).
Because of such programs that group thouse with mild problems with those with severe problems, I haven't been too keen to participate in any organizations that handle mental disabilites. Those who don't have the severe problems really don't do anything because the program is not geared toward them. I have a degree in Computer Science, but the program I tried working with kept trying to lure me into retraining programs to get into sales or the service sector. I did not spend six years of college just to go back to a school to become a cashier at Walmart.
But the economy is dry. And jobs that require CS degrees have absurd demands in our area.
I've been vying to become an SQL adminstrator for the local natural gas company for about the past couple of years. The job requires five years of experience and has been a vancant position for about four years. Yet my education at the university I was taught at, nor my interest in SQL databases, are not adequate qualifications for a job in a position that I am interested in. I certainly can not wait five years to get this job, and I definitely can not move to another job market where I can work at a job that requires less requirements because I can not afford to move elsewhere.
So why am I being asked to take a job in a career industry that I have no interest in? It is because the people in the organization do not know anything about computer science. I can't blame them for not understanding, but they should atleast know some difference between computer scientist and Walmart cashier.
Because the organizations are focused on sending people who have no education and have severe mental disabilties to work, they don't know what to do with people who have mild developmental disablities who are educated.
And that is where IDEA fails. It helps with children with special needs, but what if that child has a mild developmental disablity rather than a severe mental disability? They're stuck with either participating in the group that helps those with severe mental disability or waiting for the economy to rebound so that companies with reasonable job offers come around.
Five years is too long to wait for a job or for help with developmental disabilties.
Apparently McCain only does what is best for his campaign and not Americans...
"On her unsuccessful outreach to John McCain to discuss autism: "We tried. McCain had come out and said he thinks there's enough evidence between vaccines and autism, so I got on a helicopter [to meet him for] an on-camera interview. By the time I got there, the campaign manager said, 'He's ahead in the polls, and this is too controversial, and he doesn't want to go one way or the next.'"
source: http://www.popeater.com/television/article/jenny-mccarthy-finds-autism-cure/215869?icid=100214839x1211641835x1200714035
I am a divorced mother of two wonderful teenagers. My son, Louis is an aspiring musician in 8th grade at a Catholic School because the public schools in my area are not worthy of my dog much less my child. And my daughter, Desideria is a 14-year-old, 9th grader living with autism. She attends Kenedy Kreiger High School , an hour and half bus ride each way in Baltimore because the school district in my area is abysmal for a girl with Desi’s obvious potential yet slightly inobvious disability.
We are yet another family risking everything to save a child with autism. I am that child; my mother's child, who at 29 is homebound due to the extreme auditory challenges that I've faced all my life and have heightened with adolescence and adulthood. I am unable to work, get out and connect with people and I've had to face medical experiences that I wouldn't wish on a dog. I have an appointment to meet with an audiologist in Highland Park to be assessed to see if I am eligible for Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. TRT consists of retraining the way your brain, not your ears, process sound. I will, if my tests show I am eligible for the treatment, be required to wear hearing-aid like devices that deliver what is called pink noise. Pink noise has a less broader frequency than white noise. Wearing these over 6 months perhaps more may retrain my brain. There will be phobias to work with as I have had scary encounters with the police from melting down violently when I've overreacted to a barking dog or screaming child. The TRT isn't covered by ANY insurance carrier. It costs $3000 to $4000. Only a specialized audiologist trained by Dr. Pawell Jasterboff will perform the treatment. I couldn't even get Medicare to cover a light box. Light boxes are used for depression and more specifically, SAD or seasonal affectiveness disorder. Light box therapy has been around 20 years, but in IL at least where I live, it isn't covered. Pres. Bush did me a favor. The stimulus checks came out and I used the whole of mine to pay for the light box. I'm grateful for the one thing the Bush Administration did for me. But it is not enough. Why can't government meet us halfway? My mom shouldn't have had to take out a loan. She's retired and the family home she's lived in for 40 years was mortgage-free by the 1980's. We are lucky we can even do that. Families have lost cars and homes not to mention marriages due to the sheer stress and financial burden of raising a child with autism. They'd do anything for their child. I know. But they shouldn't be alone in all this. There shouldn't be all this red tape. Homelessness and hopelessness shouldn't be the answers-but sometimes they are-in America where all are created equal and entitled to persue happiness.
http://hyperacusis.net
Northshore Audiovestibular Lab-Long Grove, IL
~Allison
I have, or had, Asperger's Syndrome. My mom knew I was not quite right around 4, and I was diagnosed as being "almost borderline" at 8. At 4 she already did behavior modification therapy, so if I had been tested at 4 I would have probably been considered Asperger's.
At 8 my mom and I talked about how I wanted to change, and I did. The first year after changing was painful. I was aware people hated me, but the next year my life turned around. Autism IS a disease, whether you like it or not, however it has some positive benefits. If someone can be treated (not cured) very well they can be an almost-normal person with a few quirks, and a few amazing talents. That is where I am. I admit my obsession with politics and demographics is related to Asperger's.
My friend was diagnosed at 12. His mom yelled at him and told him to "get cured." He is doing well, but not as well as I was at his age. He was afraid to get a job at 19 and spent his summer playing World of Warcraft.
My other friend is 22 and may not have been diagnosed until recently, although the signs were there when he and I were friends at 11. His parents didn't want to admit to the problem, and they usually left him home alone. He's never driven and never had a job.
Earlier diagnosis and treatment means a better life for Autism/aspies. If I had been screened and discovered at 3 or 4 as being on the spectrum, my life would be even better than it is now, and I think it's pretty amazing.
Even though with severe autism can be trained to fit in. Just because they do not communicate verbally does not mean they are dumb. Obama knows this as do I.
I fully support him screening for Autism Spectrum disorders, and now that I have read his plan for them I will donate even more money to his campaign.
Today, my son Rexie and I reviewed his notes for KiDS for Obama - Missouri. After his school day, he began typing on his community blog; when his fingers tired, I began typing until we finished.
I am truly proud of him and the work he has done in this campaign. Please click the link and read the blog... it's a good read... informative.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rexieplanalp/gG5vNW
OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT '08
Barack Obama with Rexie Planalp, American Airlines Overhaul Base, Kansas City, MO Aug., 2008.
I was a 22-26 week premie. My parents tell me I had 15 diagnosis on my discharge summary from the hospital. I was a "Special Needs" child. Thanks to hospital rehab programs for premies, Missouri First Steps, United Cerebral Palsy, and advocates for children like Barack Obama, I am here today to shout, "WE THE PEOPLE... YES WE CAN! BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!"
Link: www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/jan/03/boy-born-early-leads-busy-life-now/
BARACK OBAMA'S health plan will mandate coverage for children. He introduced the Healthy Places Act to assist local and state governments assess the health impact of new policies or projects. Upon determination, the bill grants funding and technical assistance to address potential health concerns.
BARACK OBAMA introduced the Lead-Free Toys Act, to require consumer Produt Safety Commission to ban any childrens product containing lead. He also introduced legislation that would help protect children from lead poisoning by requiring all non-home-based child care facilities, to include Head Start programs and kindergartens, to be lead-safe within five years. The legislation establishes a $42.6 million grant program to help local communities pay to make these facilities safe.
BARACK OBAMA has been a strong supporter of over $1 billion in federal funding for Autism Research and Treatment.
BARACK OBAMA is a strong supporter to increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
BARACK OBAMA supports increasing funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs to provide preschool children with critically important learning skills; supporting the necessary role of parental involvement in the sucess of local Head Start programs.
BARACK OBAMA's Step Up plan addresses the learning and achievement gaps among grade school children, and supports summer learning and enrichment opportunties for disadvantaged children via partnerships between local schools and community organizations.
BARACK OBAMA (along with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) worked to introduce legislation lowering the income limit so that 600,000 more families can benefit from The Child Tax Credit.
BARACK OBAMA assisted in creating a National Sex Offender Database through his co-sponsorship of Dru's Law. The law was incorporated into the larger Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, an Obama supported measure; co-sponsoring the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
BARACK OBAMA supports The KIDS Act, which requires sex offenders to provide their Internet identifiers (email address, instant messaging tags, etc.) for use in the National Sex Offender Public Registry.
BARACK OBAMA co-sponsored legislation providing assistance to the children of methamphetamine abusers.
BARACK OBAMA DID THIS, AND MORE! He knows that all children have special needs... to have healthcare, an education, parents who participate in their lives, and knows children need to be protected from preditors.
BARACK Obama knows that children with serious medical conditions like Autism and Down's Syndrome require healthcare coverage. That is why his healthcare plan mandates coverage for children.
Autistic children are not, "those kids"... Down Syndrome children are not, "those kids"... Developmentally delayed children are not, "those kids"... poor children are not, "those kids." THEY ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE UNITED STATES -- THEY ARE OUR KIDS... ALL KIDS ARE SPECIAL AND REQUIRE SPECIAL NEEDS... EDUCATON, HEALTHCARE, AND A SAFE ENVIRONMENT!
BARACK OBAMA IS A CHAMPION ADVOCATE FOR CHILDREN!
"In 2007, before Palin assumed her office of governor, the State of Alaska FY2007 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary (this department provides services---not just school but services---for children with severe disabling conditions) includes approved and necessary budget increases to help special needs children. This budget was released in December, on the 15th to be precise, 2006.
In that budget, the budget actuals are (FY = Fiscal Year):
FY 2005 6945.30FY 2007 Management Plan 7949.30FY 2007 Governors 8265.30
Palin was elected governor in November of 2006, and assumed her position in January 2007.
When budget time rolled around in 2007, Sarah Palin---self professed advocate for special needs children, mother to a special needs child, aunt to a special needs child, and who promised in her acceptance speech last night that she was there for special needs children---slashed the budget. When she said she would be a "friend and advocate in the White House," I guess she just meant in words, not with actual money for needed services.
Here's what the State of Alaska FY2008 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary shows:
FY 2006 7949.30FY 2007 Management Plan 3173.70FY 2008 Governor 3156.00
You see right. Under Governor Palin, funds decreased from a planned budget of 8265.30 to 3156.0. That's a 62% decrease. Actual consumed amount went from 7949.3 to 3156.00, where it lingers to this day. That's a 60% decrease." (http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2008/09/sarah-palin-sla.html)
P.S. My Mom helped me type this.
REGISTER EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE... AND MAKE SURE THEY VOTE BARACK OBAMA!
Thanks for reading all this,
REXIE PLANALP, Chairperson KiDS for OBAMA-Missouri
I don't want people to read this without understanding my persepctive. I am not a die-hard liberal - I have leaned conservative, especially on national security, most of my life. At the same time, I have a son with autism. That is a reality I have talked about before in this space and have lived with for more than eight years. He's 11, was diagnosed at 2 and a half, and utterly changed my family's world. I also have a wonderfully typical daughter, aged 3, in case anyone cares. In any event, I'm not a one issue voter - it just happens that I have a vested interest in the developmentally disabled population.
In any event, my son's diagnosis and my own struggle should make me a pushover for Sarah Palin. After all, she's proudly gave birth to Trig Paxson Palin, a baby with Down Syndrome (the national association likes Down, not Down's, for reasons of advocacy I'd rather not get into) and told me point blank tonight she'd be an advocate for parents of special needs children. But it is that very act that disgusts me more than anything else I have heard about the woman.
I know first hand the pain of realizing that your child is different. I am faced with it every day. I didn't talk about it openly for years after my son's diagnosis. Not because I was embarrassed by it, or loved him less, but because I just couldn't stand the pity I received any time my son's condition came up among family or friends. I wanted my colleagues, especially, to respect me, not take pity on me. I could easily have used my son's condition to make my life easier, taking off from work or rejecting responsibility on the grounds that I had to spend time with my son. I chose not to do that, to rather take the time necessary without explanation, for fear that others would resent the privilege I was granted. After all, I wasn't disabled, my son was. Although as it would later prove out I was actually on the Autism Spectrum, too (I just didn't know it growing up) I clung to the idea - a very Republican concept of self reliance, to be sure - that I couldn't use my son as an excuse, a crutch, a basis for scoring easy points. That would have been beneath contempt - to use the plight of the less fortunate as an excuse for my own deviation from expectations.
Sarah Palin is taking just the opposite track. First, the right seeks to heap praise on her for "choosing" to give birth to a child with Down Syndrome. Of course, the irony of a pro-life person talking about the bravery of such a choice is never mentioned. If all children are the blessings the right asserts, and choice is irrelevant to the greater duty of birthing life, then she deserves exactly no credit for birthing Trig Palin. If anything, she gets a demerit in the book of righteous behavior for even having prenatal testing about his condition, seeing as how amniocentisis(sp?) is known to increase the risk of birth defects. I love my son, would never have thought of aborting him even if I had known the challenges my wife and I would face, but I know our choice to care for him is not brave. It's basic human instinct. My wife's choice, to make the care of the developmentally disabled her life's work after first giving up her dream job for my son - that's brave. Sarah Palin, though, not only wants credit for birthing Trig, she wants credit for ignoring him. She wants everyone to be proud of how she plowed right on through to working as governor of Alaska. Sorry, no one gave me extra credit at my firm for fathering a special needs child, and I refuse to give it to you - especially as you haven't even entered the really hard stages of parenting such a child.
Claiming the mere fact you have a kid with DS makes you an advocate for special needs, as Gov. Palin said tonight on behalf of poor, oblivious Trig Palin, is also specious, especially as John McCain's proposed VP. John McCain opposes requiring states to transition people with developmental disabilities from state institutions (basically prisons without barbed wire) to community settings. He opposes making the ADA more than an unfunded federal mandate. He refuses to acknowledge that No Child Left Behind, as enacted, encourages schools to isolate and ignore children with special needs. Case in point - my son has been "encouraged" to sit out NCLB testing twice (even though he met or exceeded state and federal standards), and minorities, kids with special needs or a combination of the two seem to get blamed every time a school falls below Federal guidelines. McCain's pro-voucher stance doesn't do anything to address the abilty of private schools to discriminate against kids with developmental disabilities. Currently, they are allowed to exclude anyone, and will exclude anyone with behavioral difficulties even if the child is academically proficient (been there, done that). Vouchers, if adopted widely, would also cripple the ability of public schools to provide critical assistance to children who can access the curriculum but need help in the form of instructional aides. So, Sarah would have to fight John to the death (or at least get a public reversal of numerous policy positions) to convince me she really meant anything she said about parents of special needs kids tonight.
I try hard never to call my son "special" or "special needs" unless I'm fighting for his rights with school admin types. I want him to have a full life, including higher education, and maybe even marry and have kids some day, and I am dead set against limiting that for him in advance by imposing labels on his potential. As a result, he is beautifully, blissfully unaware of any distinction between himself and his peers. I actually tried to have a "you have autism" speech with him recently, after he blissfully gave away over $100 worth of Yu-Gi-Oh cards to "be nice" to a casual acquiantance. I asked if he knew what made him "different." He said, God bless him, that it was his love of magic and Yu-Gi-Oh that set him apart - not the stemming, the squealing, the inability to understand cause and effect, the lack of communication or anything else. I was at once humbled, terrified and oh so proud of my boy at that moment. I long for a world that won't cripple or kill his generous spirit without thinking, but I fear for his future in the world as it is.
Palin, on the other hand, seems quite comfortable with sacrificing Trig on the altar of ambition before he ever has a chance to realize his own potential. That she couples it to false encouragement and faint praise for parents like me only deepens my resentment and my resolve to see a new day in America. One where we acknowledge not just the raw glory of life but its diversity. One where we truly embrace the Golden Rule and love our neighbors as ourselves. One where my son, though incapable of being "normal" is nonetheless accepted and allowed to be the majestic person that he has the capacity to be. An America that will not tolerate abuse of the least deserving of such treatment. Sadly, an America the Republican Party has no interest in creating. Tha's why, unlike Governor Palin, I really mean it when I say "Thanks but no thanks" to her offer to be my advocate in Washington.
Autism Speaks Announces Multi-State Insurance Legislation Campaign Florida, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania are Key Battlegrounds in Effort to Change Insurance Laws
Full Story:
http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/insurance_legislation_campaign.php
Michigan has yet to pass.
I found this text on the web regarding Obama's inclusion of helping children with Autism.
Support Americans with Autism. More than one million Americans have autism, a complex neurobiological condition that has a range of impacts on thinking, feeling, language, and the ability to relate to others. As diagnostic criteria broaden and awareness increases, more cases of autism have been recognized across the country. Barack Obama believes that we can do more to help autistic Americans and their families understand and live with autism. He has been a strong supporter of more than $1 billion in federal funding for autism research on the root causes and treatments, and he believes that we should increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to truly ensure that no child is left behind.More than anything, autism remains a profound mystery with a broad spectrum of effects on autistic individuals, their families, loved ones, the community, and education and health care systems. Obama believes that the government and our communities should work together to provide a helping hand to autistic individuals and their families.
I am a strong supporter of Obama, but as a mother of a 4 year old daughter with autism we need more than a "helping hand from the community." These children can retain anything they learn before the age of three. When my daughter was 20 months old I quit my job to learn to do the therapy that I could not afford and spent five hours a day teaching her everything I could knowing it was a race against time. Today, professionals all agree that without the intense intervention she would never be where she is today. But because health insurance does not cover therapy I had to quit my job and learn myself. Many others are taking out 2nd and 3rd mortgages or have lost their home all toghether to pay for anything that will help their child. There is hope but you need to react quickly with these children. Research is good, but there are very EFFECTIVE therapies that we need RIGHT NOW.
Obama, please speak to the parents of children with autism.
This is not just a health care issue but an education issue as well. I dare say as well that this is not just health care and education, but the research may clearly show us some day that it is an ENVIRONMENTAL and FOOD issue as well. These increased cases are just beginning to hit the elementary schools and the public schools are not ready for educating the increasing number of students with this disability.
I sincerely believe that you have the ear and potential vote of families dealing with autism (1 out of every 150 children and their relatives) to give hope to. Please take the opportunity to address us, tell us how you can help our children before the election. It is more than helping us "live with autism", it is about helping us not go bankrupt because of the discrimination by the health insurance companies. It is about the race against time in doing interventions before three, not just evaluations (evaluations are not covered either). There is help out there but we can't get too it because we cannot afford it.
Arguments In Support of Private Insurance Coverage
of Autism-Related Services
Austism Speaks releases their arguments for coverage.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/docs/arguments_for_private_insurance_coverage.pdf
Autism Speaks Applauds Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for Signing Autism Insurance Reform Legislation into Law
See full story: http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/governor_signs_louisiana_insurance_law.php
Autism Speaks Applauds Pennsylvania House Speaker Dennis O'Brien and State Lawmakers for Passing Strongest Autism Insurance Mandate in the Nation
See full story:
http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/pennsylvania_autism_insurance_bill_passed.php
I would like to see Obama take this on as part of his national health care plan. There are a lot of families that need this help. Michigan has not yet passed this and we need help for our children!
