While Emma and I had a busy month, I felt that it was important to make a post about something that we were doing for Emma that was not a normal topic. On March 14th, we started the process of updating my will and creating a Special Needs Trust for Emma. For those of you that are unfamiliar with what this is, if you are a parent to a child who may not be able to be 100% self sufficient as an adult, you may want to look into this further. I first heard about it at a Special Needs Resource Fair put on my by local school district's Special Education PTSA last year. I took Emma with me and we found several great resources and learned so much about the services available to us that I hadn't heard of before. One of the people I met was a gentleman that worked at Life Planning for Families of Special Needs and we spoke for about 15 minutes. I realized that I needed to start planning for Emma's future so I could be sure that her needs, no matter what they may be, we taken care of. I have since been working with this group to get my financial planning in line and I highly recommend them to anyone else that needs help.
While I am no lawyer, I can say I have learned much more than I care to think about on a daily basis when it comes to estate planning at the age of 32 from the workshop I attended with some family members. I now have an updated will and a trust in place so that if I was hit by a bus today, Emma would be taken care of and still qualify for benefits she may need in the future. It is hard to think about someone other than me taking care of Emma to the extent that I do currently, but I know that the day will come that she will be more independent and I want her to have that for herself. I will always be her mother, but I also know that I must give her room to spread her wings and fly (even if I secretly run around beneath her with a net in the beginning because I'm still worried about her).
So, while this post is short and sweet, I just want to urge those that are families with children that have special needs to look into the waiver programs (MDCP, CLASS, and HCS). Keep in mind that these programs are specific to Texas, but if you live in another state, check and see if they have their own programs. Some of these lists in Texas have shorter waiting list times (3-5 years), but others are much longer (10-12 years), so it is imperative that you get your child on them as soon as possible. If they are lucky enough to not need any of the services when they grown up, then you can simply pass when their name comes to the top of the list. But if they do, you'll be grateful that you did it now.
