Another Face of Autism

I have a sweet little boy (actually I have 3 sweet boys, but I'm focusing on my oldest right now). This little boy is loving, SMART, caring, interesting and can be very funny. Also, he is VERY handsome..at lest I think so. My firstborn son was born with Autism. I know you have probably heard all the hype about immunizations, however my son NEVER progressed normally, thus never had regression. At first he was diagnosed with a communication disorder, b/c he didn't really talk by age 2 1/2...he made sounds. I thought my child was the best behaved child alive, b/c he never made a mess and played quietly with his cars for hours on end. I did childcare at the time and other kids would come in my house and would pull EVERYTHING out and jumped from one thing to the next AND DIDN"T CLEAN UP!!! Plus they were rough (I watched mostly boys). They would run around, wrestle and basically find trouble WHEREVER they went. Not my son...he was quiet...would watch TV, play with his cars and didn't really run around alot. I thought my son was selective b/c he didn't really connect with the other kids. Well, let me say right now....I'M SOOO SORRY FOR MY JUDGING...(like I said before...I have 3 boys and the other two very much resemble what I thought was an undisciplined child...now I know this is the ultimate definition of B-O-Y!). Donald was not diagnosed with Autism until he was 4 years old. By this time we KNEW something was up and so did a bunch of other people. Mr. D and I made a 4 page list of everything that we..and others thought were unusual. And then it came..Classic Autism Spectrum Disorder...the LABEL. Life was in a whirlwind after that ...we did a bunch of things, but we never "dealt" with it...we were too busy with getting settled in a new place, getting pregnant with twins and having the twins...then one of the twins had a birth defect that almost took his (Mickey's) life. We just didn't have time to think about it...we did whatever the doctor told us to do...if we could afford it. We did get involved in a case study for HBOT treatment, that was FREE (4-5 thousand dollar treatment for FREE...couldn't pass that up)! Then the "dealing with it" began...some 2 years AFTER diagnoses. My husband and I had to mourn the loss of the son...a son that we had hopes and dreams for...who was going to grow up and have some great profession, change the world, MOVE OUT...go to college, get married, have a family and MOST IMPORTANTLY accept Christ as his Lord and Savior and grow into a deep relationship with HIM. However, our idea of success had to change. We began to celebrate the small victories like when he learned to pedal a tricycle at age 5....when he became potty trained (for the most part) at age 5 1/2. When he started to read at age 7 1/2. But will Donald ever understand the forgiveness that Jesus' sacrifice offers us? Will he accept this free gift and truly understand what he is accepting? I still cry every time I see a baptism not b/c of happiness b/c one more soul is in God's kingdom, but b/c I don't know if I will EVER see my son come to this understanding. New challenges arise... now he is learning how to deal with frustration...an acceptable way which doesn't involve running away (&out of the school), stabbing the assistant in the hand with a pencil, slugging the assistant, or screaming (we are talking about curl your toes kind of scream). One thing at a time I guess. Donald has learned things to say like, "I need a break" or "I don't know", "stop it". Donald's vocabulary increases every year...Praise the Lord! We learn every year how to better teach him...VISUALS....less words. You see one of the symptoms he has is a sensory disorder. When people talk to him all the words get jumbled up in his head...along with all the smells, any background noise, lighting...you get the picture. Imagine all this trying to take the number one spot of importance while it is being spun around like in a washer machine....that would be frustrating wouldn't it? How do you think you would deal with such a challenge? I'm PROUD of my son, he tries so hard. He comes home from school wound tight b/c he has been trying ALL DAY to conform to the world's image of normal. Am I upset about this...no..he has no choice in this...he didn't ask for Autism...BUT God did know about this even before he was born...he lined up the provisions and HE has a purpose for Donald. God loves His little sparrows...my Donald as one of them. We try not to place limitations in our mind of what Donald is capable of doing...why? Because that is the same as giving up...Donald is a puzzle to unlock and we will not know his full potential until it is unlocked. This is only part of Donald's story...and there will be many more chapters to follow...however until then...I wanted to show you another face of Autism.

See, I told you he is a handsome boy!

And funny too!