Posts Tagged ‘happiness’
Am I Brave Enough?
I just left the grocery store. I only had a few things today so opted for the self checkout today. While I scanned my items, I became aware of two young men next to me. I would say they were both in their 20’s. It dawned on me rather quickly that one was helping the other shop for groceries. He was helping him scan each item, slow and meticulously. Talking him through he step. The gentleman being helped was very much enjoying himself. He was laughing and making very happy…
Read MoreWhen They Say, “Very Delayed”
To the parents reading the school test scores that will get their child special education services at school, I see you. My daughter is fourteen years old and has been in the public school system since she was three years old. Every year Olivia has an IEP meeting. Her IEP team goes over all of her strengths and weaknesses and then we create goals based off of data collected from previous goals and testing. Every three years they do extensive testing to figure out what range she falls under cognitively,…
Read MoreLuck and Destiny Unite: Embracing the Magical Journey with Our Daughter
As nature and nurture are woven into our lives, so to are luck and destiny. Luck, by definition is success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. Destiny, by definition, is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. My daughter Seeley is now eight, and on the day she was born, she made our family whole. I can recall every detail of the day. First, we got the call! Labor! Then we rushed, smiled, cried, hurried, called,…
Read MoreTo My Sweet Boy
My sweet boy, It’s your old mom here. I have something I want to tell you. Something I want you to know. Years ago, during our hardest days, I made a promise to you Cooper. You didn’t know it. I made it late at night. One of those desperate internal conversations that happen at 3 AM in a scared mother’s mind. We were two years into your nonverbal autism diagnosis although I was nowhere near an expert. We had just said goodbye to kindergarten. It wasn’t working and you needed…
Read MorePrioritizing My Autistic Child’s Happiness
Is she happy? When I think about my autistic daughter, that is the question that is always in the front of my mind. When I think about school, when I plan a trip, when I go to the store, or when I look in the rearview mirror and see her staring out the window of the car, it is always on my mind. Do I want her to learn to read and write? Yes. Do math? Sure. Gain skills of independence and make friends? Of course. But in the end,…
Read MoreIs My Son Happy?
‘Everyone has a different idea of what happiness looks like.’ Is my son happy? I think about that a lot. As do many parents of children who struggle to communicate. Who can’t show us. For a lot of years I honestly didn’t know the answer to that question. At age five my son didn’t laugh or smile much. He didn’t enjoy leaving our house. At home, he isolated himself a lot. He didn’t play or interact really. He was full of anxiety, only we didn’t know because anytime we asked…
Read MoreCan Children with Severe Autism be Happy?
When a child is diagnosed with autism, it can feel like the whole world is collapsing. I should know — I felt that way in 1999 when my son, Lucas, was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe autism just before his third birthday. My younger son, Spencer, was 18 months old and all the dreams I had of them growing up and being best friends disappeared. It makes me sad to think of how devastated and disappointed I felt in those early days, and I wish I could go back and give myself…
Read MoreWhat I See when I Look at You
Before you were diagnosed sweet boy, I prayed for a lot of things. I prayed for answers. I prayed to find doctors that would listen to me. I prayed for strength to never give up. And I will admit, that I was so scared of the ‘word’ autism, that I prayed it was anything else. A speech delay. A developmental delay. A hearing loss. I prayed that you were just a late bloomer. That you were strong willed. Anything but that word that people were afraid to say out loud.…
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