Shawn has been living on campus for a week!

For a week, Katheryn and I didn’t hear from Shawn directly.Today we couldn’t take it anymore and had to contact him. We got information from the Crossing Points web presence which occasionally showed Shawn in different activities like shooting pool in the dormitory recreation room or involved with his classmates in cooking activities. We got some reports from staff members directly letting us know that he was doing well, or we would hear from another family member whom Shawn had called—but never contact from Shawn himself. After all the strength of letting him flourish on his own and an effort to wait for him to call us, we broke down to call him on the phone. Katheryn asked him what he was doing, and when he said the dorm she asked if he wanted to talk on FaceTime. He was excited and hung up and called us right back with FaceTime. He apparently walked the halls of his dormitory going from his room to where his friends were and back but he invited us to come see him at the university. 
Katheryn and I went to see how he has been doing. He was very excited for us to be there and we could tell that he has been learning a lot of communication skills—his phone had texts and phone calls to and from family and staff members alike-all had been reviewed, so he is using Siri to help him communicate. We noticed that his lanyard didn’t have his keys on it, and staff said that he had lost them sometime Thursday or Friday, but they were working on resolving this. He explained what he had been doing, and one of his roommates came and spoke with us about the activities they had been doing as well. Apparently the guys all stayed up rather late last night (some reports were that Shawn was up until 5 am this morning) since the weekend gives them some unstructured time. All of his portable electronics were at minimum power—likely he had used them all night long and hadn’t plugged them in today. The late night was something he told us that he was planning for before he moved into the dorm last Sunday—almost a rite of passage in being a college student. All told, he was doing very well, but we could tell that Shawn was a bit exhausted this afternoon. As we were leavinghe was working with a mentor to do his laundry and he was a bit like a walking zombie, but was still functioning. 
He is enjoying his music class and told us about some of the life skills work he has been doing this past week. As we were leaving we were advised that the program is still working on getting him into an employment site for the summer, but that the site they are coordinating with is looking at a potential for lasting employment beyond just the summer program. If this works out, Shawn could be working at a recycling center, so fingers crossed.
Next week we will be having him spend some of his down time on Sunday with us—likely going to visit family. The mentors and staff suggested that he may well be excited for that as a break from the very busy schedule that he maintains during the week.
So we have counted fingers and toes, and he is doing well. There were some bumps along the ride so far, but that is expected while he is settling into his new surroundings.Already we are seeing some changes, small things that lead to bigger things.
Thank you for your encouragement and continued support of Shawn.
Jim, Katheryn, and Shawn

Next Post