Attorney Journey Conclusion
I left off with the fact that the district had decided to initiate settling out of court. This is exactly what we wanted. And that started the ping pong ball of negotiations. Back and forth. A lot. It was stressful. But our attorney is a hard ass and always always had Emma’s best interest in the forefront. In the end, as time went on and I got more nervous (and consequently the attorney told me to “calm down”), it was getting down to the wire. I kid you not, we signed one day before our court date. I don’t know if that happens all the time or not. But holy cow. Stress! But it was done. And, as luck would have it, I had to put it in the hot little hands of the director of special ed myself. Not something I looked forward to, but in the back of my mind I was chanting “VICTORY”! And it helped that 3 of my closest girlfriends were coming over that morning. 2 of them didn’t know, one of them brought orange juice, and I popped some bubbly. We toasted with mimosas to our success! The journey was over! (we just wanted to see our money back!)
It felt good. We were relieved. We could breathe easier.
It was so sweet. On Thursday at Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law had everyone say what they were thankful for. Emma was the 1st one up. What was she thankful for? School.
And here’s where I need your help. During this whole process is when I decided to start my Etsy shop. I wanted to channel all of this stressful and angry energy into something creative. With the help of (said) friends, I decided to take some of my photographs and turn them into note cards. I wanted to sell these notecards to raise money to give to people in our situation. People who aren’t able to hire the advocate they so desperately deserve. There are so many families out there that need the help like we did. These advocates (the experienced ones) have so much more knowledge about the system, laws, rules, then we could ever hope for. And I truly believe that in most special ed situations, they are necessary. Unfortunately, while they are necessary, they aren’t necessarily in everyone’s budget. We were fortunate enough to be able to afford our advocate, Kristina, but I know there are many families who can’t afford one. And so it is my hope to gift “scholarships” to families who desperately need the help of an advocate but can’t afford it.
These are my ideas. I have a lot of ideas swirling in my head! I just want to help. I have ideas on how to carry this out, but haven’t put forth any actions, with the exception of starting my Etsy shop and I am beginning to see money come in.
Right now I have my note cards as well as my mom’s jewelry. 100% of the proceeds of my cards and my mom’s Jumping Waves jewelry collection will go to my Jumping Waves charity. I don’t keep any in my wallet. I believe the items on my Etsy shop are perfect for the upcoming holidays. I will be gifting my children’s teachers a set of my note cards. And I have friends doing the same. I even have teacher friends gifting their room moms with my cards. They make wonderful and affordable gifts for so many people. I would love to see the story of Jumping Waves spread.
Please go check out my shop and let me know what you think! Right now (celebrating Cyber Monday) you can save 25% on your order by entering ‘CYBER25′ upon check out. I would be so honored if you took a peek and passed on the word. This is my passion…to help people who are in the situation we were in.
These are just a few of the newer cards on my shop. Thank you, in advance, for taking a look!
