Lately, I have been getting a lot of questions from followers wondering why I haven’t been sharing any videos of Cooper. Well, the answer is quite simple. I’ve been a little nervous. Lately, I’ve been receiving an abnormal amount of bullying. Some of it’s to be expected. I reach millions of people so of course not everyone is going to like me. I get that. But, lately, it’s been targeted at Cooper. About his looks. About his personality. About him in general. Name calling. Threats. Scary stuff. I’m not okay…
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I am so much older and so much wiser these days. And yes, so much more thin and worn out than when our eighteen year old daughter Jazz was given that autism diagnosis at age three. In those early days, I swallowed every book, watched every documentary, attended every autism-related conference in order to get a handle on this thing life had thrown my way. I was puzzled by the old moms I encountered and their silence. As a newbie to autism, I was naïve perhaps as to what changes…
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Lately, there have been an alarming number of stories in the news about special needs children being physically and verbally abused at school. I read them daily. I see them because I have a child with special needs and I follow people and pages that share these stories. Many times, they don’t make the front page paper. They aren’t featured on the news. I don’t know why either. Just another reason why our kids feel like second rate citizens. Everyone needs to be outraged about child abuse. Not just the…
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As a parent of a child with autism, or in my case two children, I’m sure most of us have had plenty of hard moments. This was my very first hard moment, and also the hardest one. I’m a mom of twin girls born in June of 2014. Let’s call them L and T. They were born 11 weeks early and we stayed in the NICU for six weeks. Dramatic yes, but we had a good outcome. No damage on any organs, scans looked good and so on. I was…
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I am the blessed mommy of twelve year old twin boys. Noah has severe, non-verbal autism and epilepsy. Owen is absolutely typical. When you have a child with autism, life is anything but ordinary. Today I’d like to take a moment to honor and THANK one of Noah’s champions and favorite people in the entire universe, his Grandma (my mom) Cindy. Cindy has been an integral part of Noah’s life since day one. She gladly accepted the role of caring for our boys when I returned to work after six…
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Today I watched my almost three year old run into the street in front of a car. It wasn’t how I planned. It wasn’t what I THOUGHT was going to happen. But it happened. I will literally never forget that moment, for as long as I live. Deep into a meltdown, he ran. I’m grateful to the driver who was (luckily) paying attention and spared my sons life. Backtrack- Dylan was diagnosed at 2 years and 3 months, which was 10 months ago. He’ll be 3 in February. We knew…
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I saw you walking your dogs. You had arrived at the deserted park the same time we did. Me, Cooper, Sawyer, the baby and Jamie. A family of five. We park, the doors spring open, and immediately Cooper’s squeals of joy fill the quiet, cold air. I smiled at you. You and your two dogs. You are young. Out for a hike. I imagine you don’t have kids yet. You are a dog mom. That used to be me. Now I have three boys. We are so loud. It’s safe…
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“Hi Mrs. France, we wanted to call and let you know that everything was fine with Jack’s X-rays. There are absolutely no abnormalities.” As your mother, you would think this would have been a phone call that I was elated to receive. Instead, I hung up in tears. It’s not that I want anything to be wrong with you, my sweet boy. I was just hoping that what was going on was something that could be “easily fixed.” I thought that maybe you just couldn’t hear the world around you…
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Dear Snow Day, You suck! Yes, you are beautiful! Yes, the kids are excited and the teachers are excited but you are reminding me that my son has autism. I always dreamed that my kids would go play in the snow and build snowmen but you are a reminder that my son cannot do that. You are a reminder that my son cannot even handle a day when his routine is changed. You stress him out. He likes his routine and he likes going to school. Then you come and…
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So often we forget the power of our words. We will say something and not realize that what we said could have a lasting impression on someone. Positive or negative. I received notification earlier this week that Sawyer’s class enjoyed a lesson from the school’s autism program. Each student had the opportunity to experience what it is like for some students to learn when there are constant distractions affecting their five senses. As soon as I read the message I was curious. Sawyer lives autism. It is his everyday life.…
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