A reason to celebrate...

When my son Jesse was 8 or 9 months old I started noticing things about him that made me think he could be autistic. He didn't really interact and loved staring out the window or looking at how the sunlight would play on his skin for hours. He was scared of loud, sudden sounds and didn't tolerate the texture of food well. I mentioned this one day to his DR who told me I was an overly concerned mother and that there was no way we could know something like that so early on. The Dr wanted us to wait until Jesse was 5 to really voice concerns.

As Jesse grew my concerns continued. He wasn't talking, didn't play with toys, didn't walk until he was 18 months old and continued to enjoy being in his own little world.

Thankfully we had a wonderful Parents As Teacher case worker and friend who also was concerned about Jesse and helped us get him in our states Early Intervention program. He started receiving speech therapy, Occupational therapy and Physical therapy. He was also evaluated through this program and received his diagnosis of Mild/Moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I have gone through times where I have been very depressed, angry, hurt and felt like I lost something, but at the same time having his diagnosis has allowed us to help him in a way that we might not have been able to before. His diagnosis is not a label... it was a means for us to reach our son.

Jesse turned 5 last week, and as I sit here and think about everything we have gone through so far in this journey, I realize we truly have a reason to celebrate. We have our son and he is talking, laughing, happy and very unique. I have gained so much in learning about who he is and what it means to find joy in the simple things of life. Had we waited to "become concerned" about him when he turned 5 I am not sure I would have had the joy of a conversation with him about what he did in school today or the fact that he told me he had fruit snacks that had green, orange, yellow and blue but no purple or red. I have learned to laugh about some of his quirks. They are who he is and we are very blessed.