End of Year Max Update, and more and less

This photo has nothing to do with what i'm writing, except it's Christmas & my guys are here.

  Last summer we signed Max up for a day program with a dedicated staffer, called a 1:1 ratio, as opposed to the standard 1:4 he had had. 
  First Max wanted to think about it before deciding.  Then the program director was on vacation.  It took awhile to find & hire someone.  To train someone.  Then i opened my email on a night i was too busy to open it & didn't see the really important one that i needed to see and another couple months went by with nothing happening. 
  And then the find, hire, train process again.  Sheesh.
  But there is a person now.  The first one realized that her ducks weren't in the row she thought they were, the next decided the job wasn't what she thought, but last week we met a lady who decided that working in a nursing home wasn't for her because it was too much paper and not enough people.  Max thought the only problem with her was she kept talking to ME not HIM.  They had a good day at the program Friday, and we expect more to come. 
  So after way too long, progress.  Meds are good too. Maybe later this year we'll revisit VR.
  And in between, look at Mom's needs.  Keeping up is getting harder & harder.  i can read the novels, i can come up with fascinating connections that i think ya'll might find of interest too, my Bible study classmates think those connections i find are fascinating anyway, but i haven't the energy to stay at the computer long enough to share them.  We'll see what we can do this year. 
  Anyone have a great autism or art story you think my readers would like?  Shoot me an email & we'll talk.  wood dot valerie dot valerie at gmail - you make the spambot eluding translations!