The amount of times Benjamin has been evaluated is large. Not as big as the number on the back of the car in front of us as we traveled to yet another psychiatrist, perhaps. 

"Ben. That license plate says 607. What are the factors?"

Short pause. 

"It's prime." 

How does he even do that? Later on in our travels another car pulled in our lane.

"That car says 2733. What are the factors?"

Almost no pause this time. Ok, long enough for the light to change. 

"1, 3, 911 and 2733."

I had, I admit, thought that the inquiry would keep him busy for longer than eight seconds. He was being patient with the late afternoon traffic to Lansdale. Which is more than I can say for myself. 

I get it, I suppose. Each agency needs to have their own paper trail, or shall I say six lane highway? Medical fraud is a real concern. But how many vanilla colored folders with BENJAMIN ODHNER on the tab are parked in as many cabinets in as many offices around the county? I have no idea about the statute of limitations but it is possible there are still a few in California. 

I do wonder how it is that I can order batik fabric off of Joann.com and not a day later batik shows up in my social media feed with alluring designs. Someone is communicating with someone else about my preferences. Taking notes in fact. But apparently there is not the same incentive to coordinate minutiae about my son. Hence the need to parrot them back a few times a year to a litany of service providers. 

While I exhale over the exhaustive coverage of his health records, are there reports of any description about other things that I hope will progress? My marriage. Parenting. Efforts at spiritual growth. There is a modest list on my phone of the people I am praying for. That is something I value. A journal on my desk keeps tabs of the quilts I have made, given, and sold. It can dissipate the nagging sense that I am treading water. The pile of books on the shelf is a testimony to small groups I have belonged to, and one might hope, benefitted from. Though such things are not as easily measured as weight and height. 

But it helps to try.