making me some cutie pie...

these are my babies. I haven't put up my own photos for ages, and was just stealing pics from pinterest! whoops! Anyway. Ta da. Scroll to the end for a short rant on the public health system. This wouldn't be my blog without some angst.

hacking genius at work

First day at Maddy's new school

The A-team

Jedi Knights

So here's my rant. We have a great public health system in New Zealand. What makes it great? It exists. That's got to be good, right? We don't have to buy medical insurance, because if we are sick, we will get taken care of. That's the deal. Yes, medical insurance can be super helpful, if you go to the doctor regularly, are of a sickly constitution, or just need to skip the long waiting lists(we waited for a year and a half to get Maddy seen by a developmental paediatrician). But in general, especially with little children, you can get help. For free. Unless(and this is a purely hypothetical unless)... you have a child with a diagnosis of autism who also has related anxiety issues, who needs to see a psychologist. In Auckland we have a specialised unit that deals with child mental health issues. Its called Marinoto Mental Health. It's really excellent. However, they don't accept kids with autism. Anxiety? Yup. Depression? Yup. Other stuff I can't think of right now? You betcha! Anxiety with a previous diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder? No way! What were we thinking? Are we crazy? Well yes, but that's kinda moot. 

So we've been referred to a private child psychologist. A really good one, who sounds lovely. $425 lovely. When the receptionist nurse lady(I'm sure she has a better sounding title) heard my silence on the end of the phone, she asked - can you afford that? I searched frantically around in my head for something that would make us sound like responsible caring parents.... but in the end I just stammered out a big fat No. She asked if we'd been seen by Autism NZ(yes we had) and that the good Doctor was on the board for Autism NZ, and would be happy for her to give us a discount. We can go for $300. Would that be better? Again an uncomfortable silence, but when she'd been so generous, how could I say no? So I was profusely grateful and accepted her offer. 

Woot. Anyway(and I'd actually like some comments here please), I'm wondering about how trust funds for families work... And I've seen on lots of high-needs-related blogs that others in similar situations set up a fund for public donations.... I wonder how one goes about that? I need an accountant. Or someone who at least speaks their language. Thus ends my rant. I leave you with a couple of more snaps of really cute children who can't get help from the public health system... your opinions please?

Goodnight.