It is 5 am at my house. I am up to get a head start on my day, catch an early yoga class. OK not really. It is not that evolved, progressive or interesting. I am up because my son woke up at 3 am. He woke up giggling and has been playing his keyboard on repeat. He has been running up and down the halls, flicking lights on and off, laughing, giggling and playing like it is the middle of the day. He is happy; this makes it feel…
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A month or so ago a company named Sevenly reached out to me. Sevenly was founded in 2011 with the mission of leading a generation toward generosity. Based on a simple, core belief that ‘People Matter,’ the Sevenly team activated the now global ‘cause art’ movement and started creating 7-day cause campaigns, inviting customers to purchase “advocacy art, apparel and accessories” that donate to non-profits. Each campaign and every product would also create conversations. For April they wanted to do a campaign around autism awareness and acceptance. They found my…
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Superman is Superman. He is one of the happiest little boys that I have ever seen in my life. He is also my son. Before Autism, he was my son, after Autism, he is still my son. There is a never ending debate about curing and symptoms and gluten and all of the other crazy stuff that gets wrapped in with an autism diagnosis. Of course we have IEPs and we do whatever the hell we have to in order to make his life easier. But…that’s us, that’s me and…
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I am always in situations where I am around people I don’t know. Or at least don’t know well. I work outside my home. I am a member of a few boards. Involved in clubs. I try to have a social life when I can. My five year old and I attend church. He is also getting more involved in events every day. Soccer, groups, play dates. When I am in many of these public situations my mind will wander to Cooper. It always does. I tend to observe a…
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I stood there sobbing as Ethan stared at me, wondering what was wrong. “Mom why are you crying?” I couldn’t answer. The tears just rolled down my face as the illumination of another glimmer of possibility, of hope, burst through the room like a ray of sunshine bursting through the clouds. “Mom what’s wrong? You’re making me uncomfortable,” Ethan said in his funny quirky, humorous way. I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. He always knows just what to say to make me laugh and smile. I’m not only…
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It’s time for me to break my silence. I recently had a video go viral. It was originally shared by Today Show. When all was said and done the video has nearly 20 million views. You can see it here. First, welcome to all of my new followers. Nearly 20,000 of you on Facebook and thousands more visited this website and found me on Instagram. I am so happy to have you here. I want you to know this a tight community where we celebrate the unique joys and struggles…
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Remember that time The Today Show created and shared a video about me? I sure do. My world was turned upside down. When all was said and done the video was viewed nearly 20 million times between two different Today sites. Thousands and thousands of comments and reactions. Mostly positive. Some negative. Which is to be expected I guess when you are reaching that volume of people. So many encouraging and positive messages though. I’m still shocked and surprised about the backlash. I’ve decided to be more private with my…
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It could have ended with me on the news as the grieving mother. It didn’t…but it could have. And sometimes the “could have” is painful too. Whoo-hoo! I was out of town on a girls’ weekend where I could finally relax and not think about autism. The second night, I called my husband, Greg, to see how things were going. He sounded a little down, but that was to be expected since he was in charge of chasing our three young kids around for a few days. “Ha!” I selfishly…
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In my recent viral video, backlash came over several topics. One that surprised me the most was the anger over me describing how having an autistic child has affected my mental health. How the worry over his safety and his future has changed everything. I had no idea that would anger people. It’s a normal conversation topic whenever I get together with other moms who have children with special needs. We talk about the stress, anxiety, migraines, ulcers. We complain about how our sleep is affected. Our sanity. We joke…
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My ‘aha moment’ developed over a series of very confusing, embarrassing, bizarre, and frustrating events. But, I know that there was an undeniable moment in time, where I saw without a doubt, that there was something about my son very different from other kids his age. Something very different from my older son. The difference wasn’t a spoiled child. It wasn’t a lack of discipline. It wasn’t just the toddler stage. This difference was beginning to infiltrate every moment of every day and every night. Looking back, I could say…
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