Today is April 2nd and we celebrate World Autism Awareness Day! For our family… autism awareness day is EVERY day! It’s every time we leave the house, go to school, vacation, home.. every day… every where…

But I still think it’s great to celebrate this day! It gives others the opportunity to talk about autism, ask questions, bring awareness.. and hopefully more acceptance. And that is my goal.. for not only myself and my family to raise awareness but for others to do the same!

We love seeing our community come together and educate our children in school. They’re teaching our children about autism and they go above and beyond to bring acceptance and inclusion into our classrooms.

This year, Ethan’s make shop teacher had little puzzle pieces made for him to pass out to his friends. He brought them home and he painted them with his brother.

He loved painting them and kept saying “friends” it was so sweet!

After they were finished painting, I wrote a few kind words on them. I thought it would brighten the day for each and every person he gave one too! And it surely did! The kids LOVED them!

It was a nice day celebrating World Autism Awareness Day! Ethan had a great day at school passing out his puzzle pieces to his friends! He then did a LIVE video with me over on my Love Hope & Autism page on Facebook and he did awesome! We talked about his day AND the exciting news about our book! If you don’t follow along on Facebook, here is the link!

https://www.facebook.com/LoveHopeandAutism/

I ended the night with some amazing friends celebrating Team Cassie (my friends daughter) and listening to her beautiful voice as she sang her favorite songs! She is truly remarkable and has a voice of an angel.

I hope you all had a great day sharing your stories with others and helping our world understand autism a little bit better. If you didn’t get the opportunity today, there’s always tomorrow! Every day is a new day to share your journey and advocate for your child and others.

Be the change you want to see in the world!

And Happy Autism Awareness Month!

What a perfect day to start blogging right!? This blog is new but I’m definitely not new to writing! I’ve been sharing our journey over at Love Hope & Autism On Facebook for a few years now and I’ve always wanted to start blogging too. And thanks to my awesome friend Holly for helping me set this up… here we are!

So for those who don’t know me, or haven’t been following along on Facebook, let me tell you a little about me and why I’m here!

This little guy right here that’s why! 🙂

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I am a wife and mom of three! I am passionate about spreading autism awareness and increasing acceptance and inclusion. Our son Ethan, nickname “Bubba”, is almost 8 years old and was diagnosed with autism at 3. He LOVES dinosaurs! He enjoys playing outside and wrestling around with his twin brother. He has a laugh that is truly contagious! And a smile that can light up a whole room. 🙂 He keeps us on our toes and I’m pretty sure my husband and I have become mom and dad ninjas! Ha ha! (He likes to throw)

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Im sharing our journey and our stories because autism impacts everyone differently. We have different back grounds, different stories, different walks of life…. but one thing I do know is that it’s a roller coaster ride for everyone! Ups… downs.. highs… lows… and sometimes you get the big loops and spins!

Through the good days and hard days, I want you to know that I “get it” . … that I’ve been there… and most importantly I want you to know that you are NOT alone!

I’m excited to start this new chapter and look forward to sharing our crazy, busy, messy and sometimes comical life with all of you!

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Today we planned a trip to the movies… something that can be hit or miss depending on the day…

If you’re a parent of a child with autism then you completely understand what I’m saying!

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much planning… how much you talk about it…Or how many times you watch the preview to the movie….

Sometimes… autism has a DIFFERENT plan…

But I’m here to tell you IT’S OK!!

At first I thought it was his anxiety…He kept asking for home.. (breaks my heart) So we waited a few minutes and tried to get him excited about the movie because he LOVED the first 2! We were seeing How To Train A Dragon 3..

But shortly into the movie and realizing no matter what I said or did he just was not happy.. he wasn’t smiling, he was restless and he was definitely not enjoying himself..

My mother inlaw and I both tried again to get him to cheer up but it wasn’t doing anything… so I asked him if he’d like to take a break and come back.. he said yes so out we went!

After just a few short minutes of being out of the movie theater, he was happy!

We walked around! We played silly faces on my phone!We made friends with a sweet little girl who knew sign language! We played games! We sang to music on my phone!

And of course we had to watch a few Dino videos on YouTube!

Was this how I planned the movies?

Nope.

Was this how I wanted our family to enjoy the movies? … with my husband watching the movie with the rest of our family and me in the hallway with bubba?

Nope.

But you know what !!!??? It’s not about ME!

It’s about making sure HE is happy and that HE is enjoying what we are doing too!

He said “ loud “and covered his ears when we were in the hallway. (And that’s with his noise cancelling head phones on). I said “is it too loud in there for you?” He said yes. I asked him if he wanted to go back in and he said no. I also offered to take him into another movie so we walked around looking at another movie he might like and he also said no to that one.

He said “ no movie” and I said OK.

So yes, we went to the movies and Ethan and I did not watch a movie…. BUT we had some amazing Mommy and Bubba time laughing, walking around and playing!

He was smiling and he was HAPPY!

And that makes this mama’s heart full.

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since Ethan was diagnosed with autism.

It is a day that our family will never forget. As hard as it was to hear the words “ you’re son has autism” it also gave us answers to questions we had for years.

We use this day to celebrate how far our sweet bubba has come!

Countless doctor appointments, hospital stays, therapies, trainings, and more… it’s never ending.

He has overcome so many obstacles in his 7 years of life and it’s amazing to see how far he has come. We are so incredibly proud of him.

He has taught us so much about life and love.

He has taught me to never take life for granted and to not sweat the small stuff.

Autism does not define our son but it is a big part of who he is and what makes him our Bubba.

He is sweet, funny, silly and loves to make people laugh! And he has the biggest dinosaur collection you will ever see!

And hands down … he has the BEST SMILE!!

The type of the smile that lights up a room…

And lifts your spirits on the darkest of days.

He is our bubba and we love him for who he is inside and out.

Here’s to you my sweet boy! Today is your day!

Thank you bubba for making our family complete ..

For making us stronger than we ever thought possible!

For bringing us joy every single day to see the world through your eyes.

Thank you for being YOU!

We love you so much.

Social stories have been a huge help for our son over the years. They are something we use consistently to help him through changes that we know about ahead of time. Especially big changes!

If you’re not familiar with social stories, I can tell you a little bit about them and how we use them. They are short stories (with pictures) that are put together by parents, schools, behaviorist specialists, therapists, etc. They are usually put together with input from the parents on what the change is and how things will be different.

We have used them for holidays (because those days are so different and busy.) We use one for our family vacation, potty training, school, new therapists, summer camp, dentist, hospital stays, and more.

The idea is to prepare your child for the change and for them to become familiar with what is going on and what’s going to happen. For example, our beach social story has pictures of our house, our car, our luggage, our family, the beach house we stay in, pictures of his room at the beach house, the beach, and pictures of things we might do at the beach.

We start showing the social story a few weeks ahead of time or even a month depending on how big of a change it is. For the beach, we even read it in the car on the way down and when we get there he’s excited because he has seen the pictures already and it looks familiar!

This particular social story we have now is definitely a BIG one and super important. There is a big change for him coming up at school and although we are nervous, we know that he (and our family) are well supported through it all. They put together a very nice social story talking about the things that will remain the same and then the change that will be happening soon.

We have been reading it every day 2 or 3 times a day to help him understand and be aware of what’s coming. So far he seems happy when we are reading it to him and that’s a great sign.

We are so grateful to have a school district that is supportive and accommodating to our son. They really do go above and beyond to help any way they can.

If you ever need help with a social story or looking for what to add/put in them, I’d be happy to help give ideas! And you can always try talking to your child’s teacher, therapists, school, etc and I’m sure they can help you too.

My sweet boy …. the only time his body (and mind) are fully at rest. ..

So peaceful …

I could watch him sleep all night…

As I sit here looking at his sweet little face… I wonder …. and I wonder a lot…

I think it’s typical for parents of children with disabilities to think and wonder what things will be like ….

What their future holds …

What will they be like ?

Will things get better ? Worse ?

Stay the same?

High school…

College …

“Aging out” ..

Life skills …

Will they be independent?

Work …

Family …

The list goes on and on…

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t worry … that I don’t “wonder ” what he’ll be like …

Hearing things like oh my sisters friends cousin has autism and she graduated from college with honors!

Or … my friends brother has autism and you can’t even tell !

Or … oh he’s going to be fine ! I mean doctors think he’ll talk some day right ? You know like we do ?

Oh well it worked for my friends daughter, I don’t know why it didn’t work for your son..

Now I know that when people say these things .. they mean well. I truly believe that.

But Every Single Child and Adult with autism are DIFFERENT

Please please please try to understand that ..

There is no “look”

There is no “type ”

And as much as we LOVE to hear stories about success and goals met and things achieved … we still worry … we still wonder ..

They are “our babies” and it’s OK as their moms and dads to do that..

One thing my husband and I never lose sight of is HOPE and LOVE.

Although we may worry and wonder …

we will always have hope.

We trust that God gives us strength through this journey and watches over our family as we take on autism together.

My sweet bubba … you bring us so much joy and happiness and have made our family stronger than I ever thought possible. Mommy, Daddy, Braidan and sissy love you so much and we are in this together supporting you every step of the way.