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I had a LONG conversation with who I believe is the primary staff member from the finance committee Monday morning - about 1 1/2 hours to be exact. After venting for the first hour, I informed him that we still have time to get someting to the floor that will start helping our kids. I also said that it doesn't have to be a "perfect world" scenario for any party at this point, but it can be a start of change to begin supporting our children with ASD's in our state. I even told him that I would take the next three days off of work to simply lock myself behind a desk with one or more people to bang this out, get something we can all nod our heads on, and get it moving. The response I received was that he would take it to the chairman and I would be contacted later... Since then, I have heard NOTHING!!! I even called the offices, and NOTHING!!! So, with much regret of me saying this since tomorrow is the deadline, it looks as if we have been stonewalled again this year and the buck has officially been passed to another damn study committee.

I feel like I did everything that I could do to simply get something, ANYTHING started to begin helping our children and supporting our parents - but in the end, we lost out to political agendas and personal self-interest thanks to Delegate White. Plus, the insurance companies did everything they could to make sure that they still possessed the license to steal from our children and their families.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that support this bill by calling, emailing, faxing, and showing up at the capitol this year. Though we didn't get our bill passed this year - our voices WERE heard! We made a tremendous impact at the capitol and got the attention of the ENTIRE Legislature. They now know that we truly are everywhere, and we are not going away.

On a personal note, I want to say that I'm sorry... I'm sorry that it didn't happen this year... I'm sorry that we were lied to... I'm sorry that I wasn't able to find the way to move this bill out of the finance committee... I'm sorry that this was one more stressful thing in our lives that we didn't want to have happen or need to have happen to us - because god knows we deal with enough... And I'm sorry if I have let any of you down in this process... I came into this regular session about as well prepared as I thought and knew to be. I had to make some adjustments on the fly and retrieve new paperwork, but that is all part of this game/process, and I was able to do it pretty quickly thanks to my fellow board members and other state district leaders with A-CHAMP!!! (A special thanks goes out to you all...) Each time I went to the capitol, I used my son and all of the other children I have met or seen pictures of as my motivation (and especially those children I have not met or know of at this point) to work that much harder each time I was there to get this bill passed. The children I have met or seen (like Cody, Jonathon, Russell, Aiden, Hayden, Bryson, McKensie, Laura, Chase, Dominic, Kaycie, Kyle, Alexis, Tyler, Michael, Justin, and Jackie - along with my son Cameron) have been my continuing inspiration and driving force to pound that pavement, have our voices heard and get the RIGHT THINGS DONE FOR OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES!!! And all of our children will continue to be my inspiration as we move forward with this resolution... The bill maybe stalled this session, but thanks to this resolution, I have a WHOLE LOT MORE HELL TO RAISE this year!!!

So, here's the plan as far as I see at at this point:
1) Make Delegate White's life at the capitol a living hell until session ends... I'm going to call, email, fax, write letters, and make ONE MORE visit to his office to let him personally know what I think about this entire situation and I fully plan on asking him "Why do you not care about our children?", and I'm going to DEMAND an answer - with the caveut that ingorance and stupidity is not an answer for him anymore!!! Plus, through some media in his face for a week and a half, and he will be the happiest guy in the Legislature when all is said and done with this session.
2) Work the HCR 72 Resolution as much as possible, get the right people in there, make sure the committee avoids the people that have no business talking to the committee on behalf of autism, and do everything I can to unravel it ALL - problems with insurance, eductaional system, Medicaid, available services in the state, etc... and really let this committee know what we are TRULY dealing with day in and day out.

The battle may have been lost this session, but we WILL win this war of injustice and unjust discrimination against our children. It will be a fight, likely a long one, but with the support we had this session, and the continuing growth of support each and every day, we WILL come out on top in the end...