Life After Divorce | The New Me Mom

2 years, 3 months, and 10 days. That’s how long its been since my son was diagnosed with “Level 3 Autism Spectrum Disorder.” I know I’ve written about him in past posts but I wanted to give an update on how he’s been doing since today is World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month, and he deserves to be celebrated!

Right now he’s home with me. Sitting to my right side eating popcorn. Popcorn definitely is a hit or miss on when or if he likes it. Among other things his food choices are very much still limited. He tolerates only crunchy food at the moment. Won’t eat meat, vegetables, and will only eat apples (peeled and cut a specific way).

In the mornings, since August of 2023, he’s been going to a local elementary school for their Early Childhood Program, 4 days a week, 4 hours each day. In addition, we moved him from a small therapy clinic where he was getting 2 hours a week of Speech and Occupational Therapy to now where he goes 5 days a week 4 and a half hours a day of ABA Therapy (Applied Behavioral Analysis). He just turned 4 years old, two weeks ago, and has been doing so well! He’s still non-verbal. Some diagnosed with autism can have limited vocabulary and be considered non-verbal but my son has no words in his vocabulary. Just sounds. That doesn’t stop him from trying to communicate at all! He uses a speaking device to communicate and he’s actually developed quite a sense of humor. He’s very playful and silly when he speaks and sometimes you can even sense some sarcasm. But he is so very smart on all things for his age related. He only has to be shown something once before he catches on too.

Sure, we still have some not so fun challenges that I don’t brush up on much. He’s still not a fan of bath time. This has been a struggle for a long time but we recently learned from therapy that he loves to play with shaving cream so that’s been our bath time fun lately. Traveling is never going to be fun with him. He doesn’t like crowds or people he doesn’t know so going to the airport gives us all a sense of anxiety. He doesn’t like hotel rooms as I’m sure its due to there’s no safe place for him or a place to be alone and quiet. He doesn’t like the beach, we tried and failed this spring. If you think about it, there’s a sensory overload being at the beach. The texture, the people, the sounds. We got a different car recently and it took him a full two days to actually get in. It wasn’t what he knew or what he was used to and even now I still have to pick him up and put him in because of his hesitation. Weekends are hard when there’s a lack of structure. Those who are around someone with autism will understand this way more than I could explain it. It can be a make a break for us for the whole weekend with nothing planned. And because he has a sister that is Neurotypical, it isn’t fair to her to always be on the go.

My kids have an interesting bond. My son beats her up the most when he’s having a hard time. He has pulled hair, broke skin, left scratch marks and bruises. But this sister of his will always fight for her brother and be his biggest advocate, I think even more than me. When I asked her what she see’s when she looks at her brother, this was her exact words…

“He’s enough. He’s always pumped up. He’s loving, emotional, a hard learner, he’s picky about his food, he’s cautious when he knows not to do something, he has a cute smile, he’s everything. He’s the best brother in the world. And I wouldn’t change a thing about him.“

It is hard raising someone with special needs but I truly know it was God’s plan. I get to raise this little angel that teaches me to be a better parent and person daily. He shows me patience and teaches me how to be present when I might want to give up. These last 831 days may have not been a walk in the park for any of us but he still teaches us all how to love without words and we are all better for knowing him as he leaves an impression everywhere he goes.

Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. Romans 15:7