While I'm here, I will give an update:
I'm still living at home. It's a little weird, but passable. Absolutely unsure of what we are doing. My wife and I have been going to a marriage counselor who specializes in counseling couple's who are separating (weirdly, if it looks like the couple wants to reconcile, she will refer them to a different counselor for the job of making it work). A strange niche to have, I guess. Tomorrow I go to see the counselor without the wife. I'm a little anxious about it.
Wife and I don't want to kill eachother, so that's nice.
As for other updates: A HUGE part of my anxiety is taken up over my daughter (8th grade) trying out for the high school basketball team. The high school routinely has a girl's varsity program that ranks as one of the top programs for the state (we go to TC Williams High School, of "Remember the Titans" fame). 8th graders in our district can try out for the HS squad.
She is a great athlete, and has great size for her position (she's almost 5'10" and is SOLID; she looks trim but is incredibly strong and must weigh a good 150 or so).
My anxiety stems from the fact, as some of you might know, that she was born without a right hand. So she has to be good enough with what she has to make the team. We've done a lot of practice together (when she'll let me join), and she's a pretty good dribbler with her left, and can even dribble a little with her right. But her real skill now is her low post defense. She is a monster in the paint. I am desperately hoping that the coaches value this.
I've basically parented her by just pretending she has two hands, and let her figure out what she can do, and how to adapt. No special services, or PT or OT visits, no prosthetics or trainers, no special keyboards or velco shoe laces. Just . . . you can figure it out, you got this. But I die inside a little every time I see her fail, even though I know that's how she learns to achieve.
One cool fact -- my daughter told me a couple of weeks ago that the JV assistant coach has MS (I think it's MS), and he told her that he was the first disabled kid in his high school history to letter in a varsity sport (I think cross country). He seems to have taken an interest in her performance. Not a homer interest. And other kids have been incredibly supportive of her. She is skeptical of all of it. She doesn't consider herself disabled, and doesn't want any extra help. She wants to rise or fall on her merits, nothing more. I couldn't be prouder of her. But I'm still a ball of anxiety over making the team.
tagging
@jhib, who had some similar experiences and has given me support through the years. How's your daughter doing, buddy?
tl;dr -- my daughter is trying out for sports. :confetti: