World Autism Awareness Day-Two Years in Review

Friday, April 2nd is International Autism Awareness Day - Wear Blue in Support!

As a mom of an autistic five year old little girl, I am constantly amazed at a few things. First, that it has now been two years since we first heard the word autism linked to our daughter. Two years and with God's blessings numerous wonderful doctors and therapists later. I refer to this as blessings because without her Speech Therapist, Susan, Occupational Therapist, Kathy, her Physical Therapist, Patty, her DAN! Doctor, Dr. Spore or her wonderful preschool teacher, Marcia, I don't know where we would be today. Her 'team' is patient, kind, tough when they need to be and always wanting and expecting the best of her. I know how fortunate we are to have every single one of them in our and Aleks' life. When I look back two years ago, I see a little girl who was testing at around 18 months in various areas, mostly non-verbal and was lost in her own world. Aleks didn't understand much of what we said and we just thought it was a speech delay. Now fast forward two years later and her Speech Therapist just got done administering a test where she tested close to her actual age! I say this with so much respect for her and how hard she works every single day, in every thing that she does.

The second thing that I am really left with after two years is this; My daughter has autism and works harder every single day than most of us will ever have to work in our lives. She doesn't know that she has to work hard, for her it is just what she has to do. She works to find the right words to express her thoughts or finish a sentence. She works to control her body when it just wants to move and the world says you have to sit still. She works hard when she runs down our hill to get her ball and has to work extra hard to keep her feet from getting out from under her and falling down. She works hard when she puts on her coat and has to turn her body to put her arm in her coat and use her fingers to find the zipper and zip it up. She works hard at having the strength to put on her shoes and pull the Velcro straps herself. She works hard holding a fork and balancing her food on it. She works hard up until the moment she goes to bed. Then finally at the end of a day of working hard, she rests. I may never know just how hard she works, but I know how far she has come and the work it must have taken to get there.

Thank you Aleks for constantly teaching me to be a better person. Thank you for helping to grow the seeds of compassion and love that you planted when God gave you to me.

Love -

M-