  Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a middle-aged, happily married American man with two boys, ages 5 and 7. Both of my boys are autistic and mentally retarded. I'm currently dabbling in Buddhism -- I enjoy meditation and the idea of training my mind to eliminate afflictive emotions and strengthen the more positive aspects of my mind is appealing.
I have mild/moderate depression and am being treated with medication and therapy. I'm also an attorney in the employ of the Federal Government, and I live in Louisiana. DW and I recently made the difficult decision to place our older boy in a residential school for autistic/MR children for a period of around 18 months. During that period, we will get on top of our younger boys violent, self-injurious, and odd behaviors, while the school does the same for our older boy. It's a big risk; let's hope it works out. This is a depressing thing for me -- I've really put all of myself into raising my boys, only to fall short. Oh yeah, "Dumpster" is my handle on various Internet bulletin boards. 
