Posts Tagged ‘Special Needs Child’
Kindness and Grace
Let me set the scene for you… My husband and two of our boys plus baby get on the elevator. We are loud and busy. Our two year old is trying to push all the buttons. I am using my hip to block him. Our ten year old is autistic and adores elevators. So he is happy flapping and dancing. Just as the door is about to close to bring us to the second floor of the hotel my husband yells out…‘I’ll hold the door for you!’ And a big,…
Read MoreTreasures
I am doing a 25 days of autism photo challenge with Autism adventures with Alyssa on my Instagram page, Findingcoopersvoice. Today is day 19 for me. ‘Post a picture of your child with their treasures, or any item they love.’ Can we just all take a moment and acknowledge how incredibly cool these photos are. Cooper adored putting his favorite treasures in lines. Now I’m not autistic so I can only speculate as to why he did it. To me it seemed like he wanted order in a crazy world.…
Read MoreWorth the Wait
There are really precious moments in life. Like when your father-in-law comes to find you to say… ‘Cooper and I just walked around the campground. He held my hand the whole entire way. He’s never done that before.’ He just beamed as he said it. Ten years is a long time to wait as a Grandpa. But worth every minute. I’ve never met a more loved or treasured little boy. Finding Cooper’s Voice is a safe, humorous, caring and honest place where you can celebrate the unique challenges of parenting…
Read MoreThe Beauty of a Brother
Laughter. You know the kind that comes deep from the belly? It’s the best. And when you hear it coming from someone else you immediately smile. Especially when it’s two of your children. Ages 10 and 2. Brothers. One would assume they don’t have a lot in common. Or a lot of time for each other. But they do. See they both really love The Good Dinosaur and Cars. And bull dozers and fire trucks. The older one loves acting out scenes from movies. He will zip around the house…
Read MoreWe Will Not Silence Him
Why is it so hard for some people to realize that Kyle isn’t defined by his diagnoses? That’s not all that he is. It’s only a small part of him. He really doesn’t make any more noise than other children. Just because his noises aren’t concrete words, doesn’t make him noisy. He has his own way of communicating with us. It doesn’t make it bad or wrong. He is working on making his sounds something someone can understand. Who says how he talks is wrong? Why are we labeled as…
Read MoreThe Future is His Own
When I used to Google autism, so many supposed ‘facts’ came up. Children with autism don’t… Show love. Smile. Laugh. Have emotion. Children with autism are… Withdrawn. In their own world. Removed. Unfriendly. I remember reading those words on my phone. Typically late at night. In private. Free from judgement from others. Sometimes I’d even be in bed with my sweet boy. He was three. And my body would be snuggling his. I’d smell his hair and listen to him breathe and read about his future. And I’d pray. Pray…
Read MoreLet Me Tell You About My Son
Let me tell you about my son. His name is Maxim, but sometimes we call him Max. He has light brown hair, chocolate eyes that twinkle with mischief each time he smiles, and a laugh so big and full of joy it fills you up from the top of your head to the tips of your toes when you hear it. He loves jokes, cars, trains, and the smell of hair after it’s been shampooed. He will roar like a dinosaur to try and scare you, and call out “tickle-ish!!!”…
Read MoreComfortable With the Silence
When my son was 7 and 8 and the reality of nonspeaking forever was sinking in, I used to spend a lot of time thinking about his future. What would it be like? A teenager and then a man who couldn’t speak. Would I ever know his favorite color? Or why he loved trains so much? Would I ever hear I Love You? Would people be kind to him? Would they be patient with him and treat him with the respect that he deserved? Would they know how cool he…
Read MoreThe Words He Couldn’t Say
I didn’t know much about autism before my son was diagnosed at age 3. I knew even less about being nonverbal/nonspeaking. I didn’t know that some children never learn to speak. Or that some communicate with computers that speak for them. Or in my son’s case, with a combination of sign language, sounds, gestures, a speech device, and clips from shows. Today, Cooper spent some time with a new friend. A young man who is going to spend some time with him this fall. Cooper is a complicated guy to…
Read MoreEmbrace the Messy Moments
Embrace the messy moments. That would be my advice to my younger self, now that I’m older and a special needs mom. My first born son is moving out in 14 days. Today as we were cleaning out desks, I found a picture of him at the tender age of three, dressed and ready to go out with what looks like shaving cream ALL over his body. Truth is, it was lotion. Not quite as quick to clean as shaving cream. My first reaction was…
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