Well now that crisis is over - Hello to everyone. For newbies, I'm
Joelle, widow with an 18 year old son and 16 year old daughter, single
parent for wow has it actually been 7 years now?

AOL dropped newsgroups and I frankly hate google usenet - that's a big
reason I dropped out. Also decided I had better things to do than some
of the petty conflict that popped up here so often. And life got
better and isn't it true that when things are good we just go and live
our lives but bitch and whine more when things are bad?

I moved and it's better for everyone - it was tough on Sarah but she
adjusted and made new friends soon enough. My son two years ago was
diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome after years and $$$ of doctors and
shrinks and school counselors and people telling me I was a bad mother.
He's still in high school - he missed so much school from being
suspended for acting like a kid with Aspergers. And no way is he ready
for the adult world - but we've got a good deal going with special
ed--he's taking some online college courses and doing some social
skills work. And I got Social Security to keep him on under disablity
although I do think some day he'll be able to work and maybe live
independently, just not on the same time schedule as everyone else.

I even started skating again which I had to give up because paying for
two skaters in the family was impossible.

So to all those struggling --they do grow up, hang in there, it does
get better.

Joelle