Posts Tagged ‘autism family’
Somewhere Along the Way it got Easier
Somewhere along the way it got easier. I can’t tell you exactly when it happened either. I sometimes try to figure out when we let the breath out that we’d been holding for so long. But I can’t pinpoint it. I remember it being hard. New baby hard. No sleep and nursing hard. And then toddler hard. And then really hard. Nonverbal autism hard. I remember trying to live our lives the way we always had. And failing. Everything was hard. And I mean everything. We couldn’t win. No matter…
Read MoreIt Will Always Be Like This
It was a normal Monday afternoon. My boys were playing while I finished up my work on the computer. I closed the Macbook and started thinking about dinner when I heard a large thud followed by crying. My 20 month old had fallen off the toddler bed and hit his head. He was bleeding and a bump was forming. As I was trying to check it better and hold an ice pack on it, my sweet baby stopped breathing. He’d done this before. He gets so mad and screams and…
Read MoreThis is Not What I Expected Either
“He’s 6 years old, he should be able to walk the block without complaining or flopping.” “Trick-or-treating should be fun, not stressful.” “We should be able to walk through Target together and not have to put him in a too-small cart so he doesn’t get away from us” “Field trips should be such a fun day away from school….” These thoughts either go through my mind or they cross my lips far too often. Combine our lack of child rearing experience (prior to E), our expectations, our own childhood experiences,…
Read MoreWe’re Having Fun and We’re Doing It Together
Hear me out… This phrase is our family’s unofficial motto. When you live with severe autism you work so hard every day to make even incremental progress. When you’re at the end of your short rope and sweating from the preparation and execution of the simplest task to enjoy a teensy slice of normal, you can hardly believe it all came together for one shining moment. An autism diagnosis is like having the wind knocked out of you. You know you’re likely to take a deep breath again, but when?…
Read MoreThe World Deserves to Know Him
We have always been very diligent in letting our son interact with the world. At 19, he is 6’3” and 230lbs. If he were the same boy as he was at 6 or 12, he could not be living with us. We could not handle him at this size. It’s been scary, difficult, unpredictable and emotionally hard. Time consuming and physically demanding at times. But with a neurotypical daughter who is an avid athlete, we knew he had to be acclimated to her world and the world. As much as…
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