Goodbye Sweet Friend...We'll Miss You!

Saying good-bye to a friend is heart breaking. Double that when you watch your child cry and say good-bye to their best friend. For the past year we've been blessed with Kayden, Aleks' best friend living behind us with her grandmother. We couldn't have asked God for a nicer, more understanding friend for Aleks. Kayden understood Aleks quirks and loved her unconditionally. Wow, I know I can learn a lot from Kayden about being a friend.

I was thinking as I cried on Saturday when Kayden told me they were moving Sunday (yes ,the next day) that every day is precious and you just never know what God has in store. I feel so blessed to have witnessed such a great friendship between two little girls. I was thinking that a year plus ago, my prayer to God was for a best friend for Aleks. I don't think I realized until today that God granted me an amazing gift by having this little girl in our lives. It reminds me of the saying..."Some people are in our lives for a lifetime, some for a season." I'm thankful for this past season.

xo

Kids Can Be So Darn Mean!!

Kids can be so darn mean. Haven't we all heard this numerous times and probably said it ourselves. One of the difficult aspects of having a child with autism is seeing how some other kids treat her. I have come to find her quirks and bluntness charming. I know though that other kids have called her behavior 'odd' and 'weird.' I witnessed today a group of girls, a little older than her, being rude to her and rolling their eyes at her. I was furious! To one little girl, I simple told her, "You could say no thank you." (Aleks offered her a drink). You know what, the little girl even rolled her eyes at me. So what do I do? As an adult and as a parent I feel like my choices are so limited in regards to other people's children. Do I say something to them? I feel like I have to be really careful on this one. I always say, how would I want it handled if it were my child. Do I talk to my daughter about their behavior? The problem is that sometimes I notice and she doesn't, so why draw attention to it and make her feel badly about herself. So I'm back to doing a lot of biting my tongue and thinking of all the things I wish that I could say.

I also feel an extra burden besides being a parent of a child with autism of also being a Christian and making sure that what I say reflects that. Here's what I will say, sometimes I do a good job of editing my comments and sometimes I don't do such a good job with my comments or my thoughts. :) I thought that being picked on as a kid was bad, but honestly it is 100 times worse to see my child being picked on. I know that today was really mild, I know that. My fear is that this is just the beginning and that I can't always be there to protect her. Knowing that I will continue to pray for her and pray that God blesses her with some really wonderful friends.

xo Melissa

Post HBOT - What We Learned

We said goodbye to 'subbie' - aka the HBOT chamber on Thursday June 30th. It was with a strange mix of emotions that we finished the HBOT treatments with Aleks. We went from having to argue with her and bribe her into getting into the chamber to having her ask to go in. I actually found that I looked forward to our alone time in the chamber together. We would crawl in, zip it up and disappear into our own little world for an hour. Aleks fondly named the chamber 'subbie' as in submarine and was shouting "good-bye subbie" as it was loaded up and taken away the last day.

Was it worth it? Have we seen any changes? I think as the parents who are with Aleks every day that is a hard question to answer. I will say that both Bill and I feel like we have seen some really positive changes post HBOT. I feel like during HBOT treatments her words were easier for her to find and that her emotions were more even keel. It also seemed like making transitions were easier and less dramatic for her. Since we were gone last week it will be interesting to see how this week goes for her. My hope is that the changes we saw with HBOT are still there this week. It wouldn't be fair to her to say whether or not we're still seeing progress since she was out of her regular routine last week and usually reacts more emotional to change. My hope is that the progress is still in tact and that this week will be another one of moving forward towards healing.

*BTW, I think we did about 20-23 dives @ an average of 60 minutes day.

Blessings xo Melissa