Saturday, April 10, 2010

Autism

April is Autism Awareness month. It is a month that has special meaning to me.

In was around this time four years ago when my son was first diagnosed. 


Though deep down I myself had been concerned about Autism to hear a doctor first suggest it was crushing to me. Not for me, I would love my son no matter what the disorder or dis-figuration, but for my son. I felt as if they, in one hesitantly spoken word, had swept away my little boy's future. I spend the next week crying, holding and kissing him, all the while with him seemingly oblivious to my nearness or even my existence. It was as if he lived in a world apart from mine, and in a sense I guess he did.

When the week was over I dried my tears. The only time I cried over my son's condition following was with each leap and bound he made. Tears of pride and love as no one can cry unless they witness the hard work and success of a beautiful handicapped child.

The past four years have been filled with uncounted hours of speech therapy, occupational therapy, and in home early education teachers. I have watched him struggle first with resistance, then acceptance, and then with change.

The best day in my life was the day my son, for the first time, called me "mom". I had grown to expect that I may never hear those words from his lips. No word spoken since has ever had so much meaning to me.

My little man has come so far. I would not trade him for the world. He is the light of my life, my joy, and my hero. God trusted him to me and I could not feel more honored!

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