Life is Hard

We all know that life is difficult. We all know that we have trials and challenges to help us grow. We all know that "it could be worse." And we all know that we can pray for strength to get through. I would like to cry uncle and give up now. The challenges can stop. The trials and hardship can be over for a while now please. I need a break, a time to breathe and rest, a time to recover for the next round of hardship. I feel like we have weathered a lot the last few years. Things that for some people would be no big deal. Today my challenges were added to and I am feeling buried! My darling baby went through 8 hours of cognitive, behavioral, and social testing to see where she lands on the autism scale. We got the results today. It's not as bad as it could be, but it's not what I hoped for. What I hoped to hear was this: "She's not anywhere on the autism spectrum! She's a genius and learns differently is all." What we actually heard: "She's very smart, IQ in the 97% percentile. Emotionally at a 3 year old level, needs a lot of therapy, speech, OT, and PSR, to have her functioning by the time she's 12-13 years old." This really sucks. Yes, it could be worse. Yes it's better than the alternative. But I am tired and I can only imagine how she feels. I am trying to figure out how this is going to effect everyone in the home. I am trying to figure out how to get her the best help at school. I am trying to figure out how to pay for all of it. Uhg! But we go on, and my daily mantra has become, "Life is hard, but I can do HARD things!"