Life is a Box of Cracker Jacks . . . .

Friday the social work at OHES left a message for me while Micah and I were out riding the Dinky and doing errands. I didn't think too much of it, so I put her on my Monday To-Do List and in between taking Thea to school and Ela arriving to work with Micah, I'd call.

She beat me to it, as I was sitting at the computer updating my Half.com account (I'd just mailed out an almost 20-year old Naguib Mahfouz paperback for the princely sum of $1.00 plus postage and handling) the phone rang.

Here's the stun gun part: She asked me if I would be willing to consider going to Summit Speech School for an intake interview for Micah. (For the bored and curious, http://www.summitspeech.com/)

Say whuh?

That's what I've wanted all along, but since the Service Coordinator at Early Intervention fired off that first horrific salvo in the battle to get Micah into the right preschool (aka "the parents want an out-of-district placement" debacle), I've been going along and getting along figuring that I'd save the going ballistic for the IEP meeting.

And here, before we even have the meeting to present the findings of the CTS testing, I'm being offered The Prize.

I was shocked. I promptly called the Parent-Infant Group coordinator at Summit to give her the news - but the district had already called the school, so she knew about 30 minutes before I did.

And - here's the punch line, the OHES social worker said to the school's executive director (Dr. Pamela Paskowitz) that Mom might take a little convincing to accept the placement.

Say whuh?

And when I talked to Miriam at Summit, I asked, if this has all be put into words, can it be taken back? I don't want to have the The Prize snatched away at the last second. She assures me it won't happen, and that if the district is placing him at Summit School, the cost of transportation will also be underwritten.

So Micah will be riding the bus (van) five mornings a week to/from Summit. Lucky for us, he's a seasoned car traveler.

I spent the morning practically spastic from joy, relief, whatever. Fortunately Ela and Micah had there own agenda so I was superfluous anyway. They made a photo book (from pictures I was up until 2 am printing, must find better photo printer), played with trains, made patterns while I fluttered in and out with supplies (tape, glue stick, paper).

Fingers crossed that I didn't wake up in some parallel universe where everything goes right, and tomorrow I wake up back in regular old New Jersey.