World Autism Awareness Day!

Shine the light on the whole family!

It's been a long while since I've posted on this blog!  Some may think I've forgotten it!  But life has certainly become a circus.  The kids are settling into a routine, which in my mind, means the military is going to throw a huge wrench into my life and move us so we have to spend months acclimating Jacob again.  '

He's doing well in school, reading well, and even excited to add cursive to his growing list of accomplishments.  He's taken up taekwondo, played soccer and is constantly asking what he gets to do next.  I can't wait for the day a school can put him on a track team and I can just sit in the stands yelling, "RUN JACOB RUN" in full Forest Gump mode!

Lauren is also settling into her own.  She's learned to become her own identity.  That's something I think is so important for the sibling of a child with autism!  Her life used to be defined by what he wanted. What would he eat?  So he picked restaurants and menus.  What could he handle? So fun trips were cut short.  One thing Andrew and I tried to do this year was give her the autonomy she deserved.  And shes flourishing.  She is a talented artist- taught by a local professional artist named Sharon LaPine of Limelight Studios.  She amazes me daily with her sketching in particular.  She can draw amazingly and I see that going somewhere for her.  She also is still very much the class clown.
Andrew and I often wonder if her big personality developed to try to be noticed among meltdowns and self-harm situations.

Today, on World Autism Day, I want to take the time not only to recognize the children living with autism and how wonderful, bright and kind they are.  But to recognize the toll it takes on the family.  That kind of awareness is overlooked because we love our children! I love my son to death!  I'd do anything for him!  But raising a child on the spectrum is HARD. And it doesn't make you less of a mother, father, sister, brother or grandparent to admit it.  Sometimes we need help!  The divorce rate among couples parenting an autistic child is much higher than the average divorce rate.  Research has found that parents of adolescents who are autistic have PTSD levels that match those of soldiers returning from war according to CNN.  And 30% of mothers who raise autistic children need psychiatric help and medication for depression and anxiety to cope with the day today reality of their lives!  I write this  not to create pity or to make mothers of children with ASD martyrs. But to say if you as a mother need help, you're normal and it's ok.  And if you know a mother who seems to be less social or stressed, offer a helping hand.

No two children diagnosed on the spectrum are exactly the same.  In my immediate family we have four. And all four fall in very different areas on the spectrum.  But all of them are intriguing, hilarious, intelligent, loving and special.  The world will be a different place because they were brought to it.  They are here to teach us about the power of the human mind.  To teach us different ISN'T less.  To remind us of the creativity we've lost as a society and the childlike wonder we skip over in favor of a standardized test.  They are gifts, meant to bring us together in celebration, understanding and empathy.  And that is what Autism Awareness month is all about.  Focus on the able, not on the label.

I read the quotation a while back and it has brought me joy and so I will sign off by sharing it with you today:

"It takes a village to raise a child; but it takes a child with autism to raise the consciousness of a village."

To hear more on a day to day basis about how our life's journey goes, you can follow me on Instagram!  

@thepanhandleprincess