While Jasmine was enjoying her new life as a Muldowney, our house was becoming smaller and smaller with all her equipment that we were accumulating. When we adopted Jasmine DYFS told us that if we needed help with things for Jasmine as she got older that the state would help us as much as they could. I know that DYFS only gets bad publicity, so I would like to say that they have some really great people working there, and that they really do have such a heavy case load that I can imagine how things can get mixed up sometimes.Not to say that there are some who don't do their job, but that is true in any profession. I took DYFS up on their offer and told them that it was getting harder for us to get Jasmine in and out of the car. Lifting her from her chair to her car seat, and back out again into her chair, and collapsing her chair and lifting it into the back of my car, was very exhausting. I asked them if they could help me in any way get a handicapped accessible van. After estimates from a few dealers and alot of paperwork, they offered to pay for the conversion part of the van, which is around twenty thousand dollars. I had to trade in my car, and then submitted the paperwork to The Children's Catastrophic Fund, and they also chipped in to help defer the cost after we purchased the van. This van has saved my life (not to mention my back) They also paid to have a ramp put on the front of our house. Then I requested to get help with renovating one of our five bedrooms into a handicapped bathroom. Again, we had to submit three estimates and they offered to pay to have the room changed into a bathroom! I lost a bedroom, but I didn't care. I was then able to put Jasmine on a shower stretcher and just roll her right into the shower. The room is big, so I have plenty of room to move her around in her chair. That was my second request that was answered from the State of New Jersey. I felt a little guilty that I was so lucky to have all of this for Jasmine, but I was reassured by many that I was saving the state a whole lot more than that, because if she was in a hospital it would cost the state that much in one month.I was still very appreciative and was so happy that they made my life easier. Our house is a ranch, and unfortunately my bedroom was on one side of the house, and Jasmine's was on the opposite side. Jack installed a camera in her room pointing directly at her bed, and had monitors placed throughout the house. We had one in the dining room, one right next to the television in the living room, and one right next to my bed. I had it magnified so I could see her face up close and personal, like she was right next to me. I could hear her breathing, and when she started choking on her saliva which she did quite frequently, I would jump out of bed and run through the house to get to her room. Unfortunately, this happened throughout the night so I never really was able to fall into a deep sleep. It was getting to the point that I either slept in her room in a chair, or would put her in bed with us so I didn't have to sprint to her room in the middle of the night. This went on for quite some time. I decided I was going to call my "friend" at DYFS, an adoption subsidy worker who had done so much to help us in the past, and ask her if she thought that they could help us with an addition so we could put Jasmine's room right next to ours. I felt funny asking, but it was all for Jasmine, and she was going to need more room for home therapy and to walk in her kid walk, and have a safe place to live for many years. I have to mention that I have a hard time asking to borrow even a dollar from someone for myself, but when it came to Jasmine, I became a different person. I was her advocate, and I knew she deserved to have the best of everything. I had no problem asking. Jack thought I was crazy, (not the first time) but I figured there was no harm in trying. I called her subsidy worker and told her my idea. She told me to put it in writing, explaining what Jasmine needed and why, and gave me a name and an address to send it to. I typed my letter, sent it certified mail, and waited for a reply. Like many times before, I had a positive outlook on everything pertaining to Jasmine, because I knew that God was looking out for her. Maybe a month or so later, I received the phone call I had been waiting for. Jasmine's subsidy worker told me that it had been approved, and I should send in three estimates for an addition for Jasmine's new room! I knew where I wanted the room,(there was really only one place that would be feasible) so we had the estimates drawn up. The addition was 21 by 30, and would have a door leading from my room to her room, and a doorway from the kitchen into her room. We sent the estimates in, and eventually got the OK. It probably took almost a year from start to finish because we had some permit issues, but the addition was built, and Jasmine had her new room! I am forever grateful to The State of New Jersey for giving Jasmine a room she can grow up in and live for the rest of her life. I only wish that they could help more people with disabled children make their life as easy as they have made ours.
