What the...?

Monday, I had the pleasure of testifying before the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee. I did it last year too. Last year, I was "begging" for more money, for Early Intervention, DSPD, and Utah Birth Defects Network. It was tough, really tough. The stories people tell is heart wrenching. I have friends, who need services, and aren't getting it. Husbands can't work, so they can take care of their families, and so they can qualify for state assistance. It's so wrong. People who WANT to work and support their families, can't.

ANYWAY...this year, I volunteered, and was asked (by DDI, where Jack gets his services from) to testify, on behalf of Early Intervention. I pulled up my testimony from last yr, and realized, I wanted to plea for other things too, as well as tell them all the things EI has done for our family. They say it's good to give them something in writing, so I made them this letter(click on it to make it bigger), and summarized it, with Jack on my lap! He was SO good, and cute, and charming!

There were SO many people scheduled to testify-over 90, so the usual 2 min allotment was shortened to 90 sec. After we finished, a man came up to me, and said, "I am so and so, from the Deseret News, can I get your last name, and how old is Jack?" I don't remember his name, but he had a camera. And the ladies I was with, said Jack was totally "flirting" with the camera, while I was talking.

So of course I'm excited to see our picture in the paper! Well, much to my dismay, they used a different picture, but it was fine, they used a cute one. But the article... good grief. You can read it here. First of all, YOU all know, Jack is not 7!! Second of all, as you can tell from my letter, I didn't say that. Seriously. And the wonderful Egg analogy, was told by my good friend Luwenn. AND...the Autism Registry, was SO not the main focus of the meeting. We are all pretty bugged. Luwenn, already emailed everyone on the committee, and I intend on emailing the reporter, who needs to be held accountable for getting SO MANY facts wrong.

Can anyone out there think of anything else we could do!? Maybe a letter to the editor? Or should we just let it go?

I think this whole thing is what set off my mood...