Posts Tagged ‘severe autism’
My Autistic Son’s Peers
There is nothing I love more on this earth than my son. And I like to believe that Jamie and I are past the grieving that goes into having a disabled child. I truly do. We have two beautiful children. Wonderful lives. We are blessed and happy. We don’t think about how our lives are different because of autism. We don’t dwell on the fact that our son doesn’t speak. Or that he can’t really leave the house. He’s not our ‘autistic’ son. He’s just our son. Our lives are…
Read MoreThe Day We Drove our Autistic Son to Residential Treatment
I’ve gone round and round with deciding whether to share this part of our autism journey or not. I hope to share in a way that is always helpful as well as inspirational even though it definitely was a very low point. Everyone’s journey is going to be very different. Some are going to be filled with much more heartache and struggles but in the end we’re all striving to do our very best in learning how to navigate this world of autism. I hope you find something helpful in…
Read MoreMy Son, You are Home to Me
I know you are home Cooper. Because you are always home. If you aren’t at school, you are here. You like being here. Home is your whole entire world. You don’t have play dates. You don’t have sports. There is no one picking you up to take you somewhere special. It doesn’t work like that in our world. Although I can name quite a few people that would literally drop everything to take you somewhere if you ever asked. You are comfortable here. You are safe here. There are no…
Read MoreMedical ID Bracelet Giveaway!
As a mom to a little boy with nonverbal autism, I worry about so many things. A big one is…will he be able to communicate when I am not around? Right now, today, the answer is no. Even with his communication device, Cooper still can’t respond to simple questions. What is you name? Are you lost? Do you need help? And say he did have his communication device with him. What if the battery died. What if it malfunctioned. We just can’t trust that right now. All of this scares…
Read MoreA T-Shirt Made Just For Me
A month or so ago a company named Sevenly reached out to me. Sevenly was founded in 2011 with the mission of leading a generation toward generosity. Based on a simple, core belief that ‘People Matter,’ the Sevenly team activated the now global ‘cause art’ movement and started creating 7-day cause campaigns, inviting customers to purchase “advocacy art, apparel and accessories” that donate to non-profits. Each campaign and every product would also create conversations. For April they wanted to do a campaign around autism awareness and acceptance. They found my…
Read MoreSuperman isn’t Autism…and Autism isn’t Superman
Superman is Superman. He is one of the happiest little boys that I have ever seen in my life. He is also my son. Before Autism, he was my son, after Autism, he is still my son. There is a never ending debate about curing and symptoms and gluten and all of the other crazy stuff that gets wrapped in with an autism diagnosis. Of course we have IEPs and we do whatever the hell we have to in order to make his life easier. But…that’s us, that’s me and…
Read MoreI Can’t Expect You to Understand Autism
I am always in situations where I am around people I don’t know. Or at least don’t know well. I work outside my home. I am a member of a few boards. Involved in clubs. I try to have a social life when I can. My five year old and I attend church. He is also getting more involved in events every day. Soccer, groups, play dates. When I am in many of these public situations my mind will wander to Cooper. It always does. I tend to observe a…
Read MoreBreaking My Silence After My Viral Video
It’s time for me to break my silence. I recently had a video go viral. It was originally shared by Today Show. When all was said and done the video has nearly 20 million views. You can see it here. First, welcome to all of my new followers. Nearly 20,000 of you on Facebook and thousands more visited this website and found me on Instagram. I am so happy to have you here. I want you to know this a tight community where we celebrate the unique joys and struggles…
Read MoreThe Moment No One Talks About in Special Needs Parenting
Remember that time The Today Show created and shared a video about me? I sure do. My world was turned upside down. When all was said and done the video was viewed nearly 20 million times between two different Today sites. Thousands and thousands of comments and reactions. Mostly positive. Some negative. Which is to be expected I guess when you are reaching that volume of people. So many encouraging and positive messages though. I’m still shocked and surprised about the backlash. I’ve decided to be more private with my…
Read MoreMy Girl Found in the Creek
It could have ended with me on the news as the grieving mother. It didn’t…but it could have. And sometimes the “could have” is painful too. Whoo-hoo! I was out of town on a girls’ weekend where I could finally relax and not think about autism. The second night, I called my husband, Greg, to see how things were going. He sounded a little down, but that was to be expected since he was in charge of chasing our three young kids around for a few days. “Ha!” I selfishly…
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