After many, many of my husband’s suggestions I’ve decided to write my adventures and discoveries as a mom, not just any mom but a mom with a story of love, hope and eventually a triumph we will someday reach. A triumph over what you ask? It’s actually not even my triumph as you will read; it is the triumph of someone I love dearly, my son, Bug.
Where do I start? Nov. 21, 2006, our lives changed in a way I never thought possible. Our first born, my beautiful baby boy who is five by the way was just diagnosed with PDD-NOS (an autism spectrum disorder). Granted it’s not a death sentence or anything like that but it certainly changes EVERYTHING and explains a world of questions.
We’ve known for a while that for some reason he just couldn’t communicate his thoughts correctly. Words either came out jumbled sounds or sentences that made no sense at all. It seemed that cars were all he was interested in. By the time he turned 5 he already owned over 300 hot wheels. You could call him and call him and it appeared as though he was ignoring you or just didn’t hear you call him. The terrible two’s continued way beyond age two, three and even four.
I guess we saw signs well actually I should say my husband saw signs early on but every time he would say “why can’t I have a conversation with my son?” I would get defensive and tune out any thoughts of my perfect child not being so “perfect”. I don’t know how many times I defended his inability to converse well. Looking back I’m sorry I did. Had I know where we would be now maybe, just maybe things would be different. But there is no going back only onward and upward.
Challenges lie ahead. Not only for Bug as he struggles through school and the daily frustrations but also, we as a family have challenges ahead. The divorce rate of families with a child with autism is frighteningly high. We will not allow the stresses that accompany this to pull us apart rather we shall use the love that created our family, both Bug and his little sister Princess, be our strength along with the bond of God’s love to pull us through it.
