We jumped over one big hurdle this past week. We are now Stephen's legal guardians. I don't know about other states, but in the state of Kansas a child approaching the age of 18 needs to have a guardian appointed if they cannot make their own life care and financial decisions due to a developmental disability. It makes it a lot easier later on when the child is in need of certain services, the guardian can argue on his or her behalf. Even though we are his parents and it seems crazy that we have to jump through these hoops, it really does need to be done. June 4, 2010 we became our son's guardian. That was a day I had thought about and worried about since he was born. Would we know what to do? Would we get it done in time? Would we be able to get all the IQ testing done and psychological reports prepared in time? Yes! It all fell into place, but that is because we planned and prepared. I feel sorry for those children who really should have a guardian, but their parents either do not know it needs to be done, or simply do not care. They might miss out on services that really should be available to them and that could affect them the rest of their lives.
