Ben turns twenty-two on July 30th. His funding for Monarch in Cleveland ends the day before. Illinois and an adult group home -- yet to be found -- beckon. Today is July 1.

Four weeks to go.

We have been working on this for a year, feverishly for months. For fourteen years, I have had various written attempts of mine published to draw attention to autism and related issues.

Karen knows a ton. She is the assistant to a first-rate special needs attorney, and is becoming an advocate-ready expert herself. We have tried to meet, greet, or kiss the feet of anyone and everyone who might be able to help Ben and us.

Four weeks to go. 28 days. And so far? We just still don’t know. Only lots of irons crammed into too few fires. And Ben, our guy that this is all about, has no idea what’s going on now with us. Or what’s coming for him.

F***ing autism.

~~~~~

An addendum to the above about money. Funding for Ben isn't the issue. He's going to get what Illinois provides. The problem is that overall, Illinois's funding rates are the lowest in the country, and (in large part because of that) there are nowhere close to enough providers in existence. There are very, very, VERY few decent (and that's lowballing the term) places, period. Finding one THAT WILL ALSO WANT YOU in Illinois is like panning for gold. Like Karen says, "The situation is one of 'no vacancy,' especially for high needs individuals like Ben." It is why so many of us have to leave the state -- our HOME state -- and go elsewhere.