Our life

We have made it through 2 weeks of school! And today was the first day of the 3rd week.

Ava LOVES school, and I think things are getting a little easier there with transitions as the teacher seems less overwhelmed with miss Ava :) Last week (and this week) I have been battling a horribly nasty cold and Ava only slightly came down with a little one, so thankfully she didn't have to stay home from any school.

Last week I spent my time (between coughing and sneezing) calling Autism therapists, particularly those practicing ABA therapy. I sort of knew Autism therapy was expensive but just like with infertility I had no clue till we were in it ourselves! I naively assumed our insurance company would cover therapy but we soon found out that was far from the case.

After calling a few places we found out that the standard ABA home therapists would NOT be an option. Everyone we had talked to (doctors and otherwise) suggested that she needs at least 20 hours of therapy a week to be super effective. We can cut 9 hours out of that for what she is in school, which is down to about 11-12 hours of Aba therapy. We found out that for 1 session a week (3 hours a session) would cost $1500 a month and closer to 10 hours of therapy a week would cost $5000 a month and we are looking at about 24 months of this degree of therapy.

I cried for a few minutes, picked myself up and decided to move forward with something else. I was determined to find something else that we could afford. We had been told about a program here that has lots of backers that help subsidize their costs so that therapy is more affordable. Its not in home therapy, we would have to drive to the center but 1 session a week is $175 a month. They want her to do 4 sessions a week which still ends up being $700 a month plus another $200 for some other activities that run 2x a month. Although we do not have $900 dollars a month extra to spend, we are going to find a way to make it work. I will be working more to cover therapy and we pray its enough.

We are no longer going to be able to pursue infertility treatments. There is just no way we will be able to afford it in the next 24 months. Again this was a very hard and sad realization for me but not really a hard decision to make (if that makes sense). Regardless I will always put Ava first and that is the reality of secondary infertility. I can't put off Ava's crucial autism therapy in order to try and maybe get pregnant via infertility treatments.

Our goal is to make our little family of 3 as happy and healthy as possible. I pray that someday we will be able to try and do infertility treatments again but till then we are focusing on our little family and on helping Ava get all the help and therapy she needs.

I pray someday insurance companies see a need to cover BOTH infertility treatments & autism therapies. Its not a fun thing to have to go through these things and then not be able to afford the help needed. I could sit here and cry every night over the fact that we cannot hardly afford one of these things let alone both. I could be angry and bitter but I'm choosing not to be. I'm choosing to move forward with faith, faith both in Ava and her abilities and that this is not the end to our infertility journey. We will continue to pray and do everything else in our power to add to our family.

We appreciate the prayers said on our behalf, the on going love and support, messages, emails, & notes. Although I am very much not good at responding, I am so grateful for the support. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, beautiful smart loving little girl and that all 3 of us are here together, honestly what else could I really ask for!