April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day and April is Autism Awareness month. My family will be participating in a walk later on this month. I also plan to blog about Asperger’s and Autism this week.
When we found out Drew had Asperger’s in January of 2012, I was able to accept it pretty easily. I had done my research and I knew that was what he probably had. But when I thought about him having Asperger’s meaning that he had Autism…well that was a much harder label to accept. For months I had a very hard time with it.
Autism…it can be a scary word. When you find out you are pregnant, you worry about things and Autism is one of them. You might wonder in the back of your head if the things you do for your baby will lead to it down the road. It is scary to think about. You don’t want anything to be wrong with your child.
But now, 15 months later, I can say I have pretty much accepted it.
My child had a form of Autism. We have an Autistic child.
And that is okay. It is not the end of the world. It is not the worst thing that could happen to us. Not even close. It means having more patience. It means having more struggles. It means breaking down and crying and praying a little more often but it is not the end of the world.
School started out as a challenge but lately things have been going well. Today is the first day back from Spring break so I am hoping he has a good day. We will have summer break coming up and I hope it goes well and then hopefully we can have a good transition into first grade in the fall.
He doesn’t quite understand he has Asperger’s or Autism. He does plan to wear blue tomorrow only because I told him to. I am not sure when we will bring it up to him. So far he hasn’t ask any questions. He doesn’t wonder why he has people with him at school that other kids don’t. He doesn’t question why he gets more frustrated about things than his brother does. I think someday he will question it but it hasn’t happened yet.
Later this week I plan to blog about how Moms of special needs kids usually just know something was going on with their kids before the doctor did, my hopes and dreams for my son as he gets older, questions others might have about Asperger’s, and parenting a special needs child during a deployment.
Please let me know if you have any questions or topics you would like me to blog about. I would be happy to answer them or talk about them in a future most.
i understand that you can get to that place, but when looking at these children, they do have medical issues involving many bodily processes such that should be addressed and to totally disregard that, well that’s negligent.
Acceptance is not ignoring medical issues. I do not believe this mama implied that at all. Sheesh.. judgmental much?
I just wanted to say that Autism is not a bad thing. I worked with special needs people from the time I was 13 until I was 21…every summer I looked forward to going to “work” at the day camp. I was furious when the director wanted to start paying me to be there. Every summer I go back to Michigan, that camp is on my list of places to go and volunteer for a day or two (though I haven’t been back in the summer since I was pregnant with my daughter in 2008).
In all honesty, I can’t say I loved my autistic kids and adults the most, or the down syndrome kids or anything else, they are all special and wonderful and unique. The one thing I will say is, I loved them more than the “normal” kids I grew up with, went to school with, danced with. These kids with the difficulties, they are the ones that make life so special and wonderful and worth living every day. I can’t help but smile anytime I see someone with a special need. If I could, I’d give you a great big hug right now because you, as a parent of a special need child, make them the wonderful human beings they are. Thank you!