So many God-things happened over the next several weeks as we navigated the craziness of getting Little Handsome a comprehensive evaluation (evaluated by a psychologist, speech therapist and occupational therapist. The very hardest part of it all for me - and still is - is that I constantly felt like I didn't know crap about what I was doing. The learning curve is ridiculous. When your kid needs tubes, there's a specific series of steps that has to happen. Your pediatrician's office usually will set this all up for you. Boom, boom, boom, you've got tubes.
That's so not the case for autism. As a mom, I've just felt completely inadequate. The only way I've made it through (and yes, there's been some ugly crying, etc) is because Jesus is my Savior, my Help. God knows exactly how Little Handsome's mind works. And He loves every part of him. Father God loves Little Handsome more than I can. That's a hard truth sometimes and sometimes it's a relieving truth.
There were 5 places that our pediatrician and our Speech Therapist suggested we call and get an eval from. They did not recommend any one over another. They were both very diplomatic about all of them - which was no help to me! But, I see this now, that I had no choice but to dive in and lean on Him. This was to be the first of many plainly visible examples where God was moving.
I randomly called 3 places and got into one of them pretty quickly. We'll call it MP. They had a cancellation and were able to see us the next week.
One of the other places I called said it would be months - months!? The other did not do comprehensive evals. What's awesome about a comprehensive eval is that team is able to get a very accurate picture of your kiddo by doing everything in the same place. Also, it's easier on the family because you're not carting everyone around to multiple places.
I had zippo knowledge of MP other than I thought it looked cool from their website. I know, I am totally awesome.
Then we found out we knew someone on the board. Then we found out we knew another person on the board. People from out of town were telling us that MP was the best place to go in our state. Every time we even mentioned MP, the automatic response was, "oh that's the best place to go ." It got to where Sweetheart and I would just laugh because we heard it so much. Even Little Handsome's preschool teacher said it was the best place. Exact same words from everyone.
We had no prior knowledge of MP. We had never even heard of it before.
The verse that The Lord was speaking to my heart at the time: "The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8 HCSB
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Our Story
Sigh. This family cannot seem to get well. Stomach virus. Blah. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Autism effects (affects or effects, I never remember) the ENTIRE family. Actually, it effects every person your kiddo comes in contact with on a daily basis. When we were getting our diagnosis from our psychologist that is one of the huge things we came away with. That no matter what, we have decide what treatment is best for not only Little Handsome but for our whole family.
Did we think he had autism from the beginning? Nope. The only milestone I don't remember him reaching was pointing. Literally, the only one. Now, I can look back and see things, but the change was so super subtle. He was always verbal, adventurous, active and independent.
He even made eye contact and responded to his name. Then, he didn't. When he stopped, I just thought he was being obstinate, stubborn.
His first month of preschool, when he was 2, Little Handsome's teacher approached me to tell me he might have a speech delay. Although he used words at home, he would only grunt for them. I had noticed that the other kiddos in his class were far more sophisticated in the way they spoke than he was, but I was a first-time stay-at-home mom. I just figured he was quieter - a thinker - and he totally is by the way.
I panicked, called our pediatrician right away. It was just so out of the blue that we decided to wait and see. The months from September to January were spent with me constantly questioning whether or not he was "normal." Every interaction with other kids was analyzed and tested in my brain. We talked to his sunday school teachers, his children's minister, our family. We questioned ourselves.
Finally, in the middle of January, I was just fed up with wondering all the time. Got his hearing thoroughly tested, speech evaluated and started therapy by September.
By 2.5 years old, Little Handsome had learned all his letters and their sounds. He'd wake up in the middle of the night shouting letters at the top of his lungs. He became the biggest fan of Super Why you've ever seen, repeating scenes in his room, in the car. He'd run the circle in our house while watching tv. He'd jump alot, flapping his hands at times. The list goes on...but most notably in a year, he had greatly improved his speech, but his eye contact and social interaction was only a tad better.
So a year later, when our pediatrician mentioned she thought he was on the spectrum, I would've thought that I would've been again panicked, but I wasn't. It was like, "Really? Oh. Yeah. I see it now." I can only credit this to God.
Almost exactly a year later we had him evaluated.
To be continued...I know! Such a cliffhanger!!
Autism effects (affects or effects, I never remember) the ENTIRE family. Actually, it effects every person your kiddo comes in contact with on a daily basis. When we were getting our diagnosis from our psychologist that is one of the huge things we came away with. That no matter what, we have decide what treatment is best for not only Little Handsome but for our whole family.
Did we think he had autism from the beginning? Nope. The only milestone I don't remember him reaching was pointing. Literally, the only one. Now, I can look back and see things, but the change was so super subtle. He was always verbal, adventurous, active and independent.
He even made eye contact and responded to his name. Then, he didn't. When he stopped, I just thought he was being obstinate, stubborn.
His first month of preschool, when he was 2, Little Handsome's teacher approached me to tell me he might have a speech delay. Although he used words at home, he would only grunt for them. I had noticed that the other kiddos in his class were far more sophisticated in the way they spoke than he was, but I was a first-time stay-at-home mom. I just figured he was quieter - a thinker - and he totally is by the way.
I panicked, called our pediatrician right away. It was just so out of the blue that we decided to wait and see. The months from September to January were spent with me constantly questioning whether or not he was "normal." Every interaction with other kids was analyzed and tested in my brain. We talked to his sunday school teachers, his children's minister, our family. We questioned ourselves.
Finally, in the middle of January, I was just fed up with wondering all the time. Got his hearing thoroughly tested, speech evaluated and started therapy by September.
By 2.5 years old, Little Handsome had learned all his letters and their sounds. He'd wake up in the middle of the night shouting letters at the top of his lungs. He became the biggest fan of Super Why you've ever seen, repeating scenes in his room, in the car. He'd run the circle in our house while watching tv. He'd jump alot, flapping his hands at times. The list goes on...but most notably in a year, he had greatly improved his speech, but his eye contact and social interaction was only a tad better.
So a year later, when our pediatrician mentioned she thought he was on the spectrum, I would've thought that I would've been again panicked, but I wasn't. It was like, "Really? Oh. Yeah. I see it now." I can only credit this to God.
Almost exactly a year later we had him evaluated.
To be continued...I know! Such a cliffhanger!!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
3,2,1
When I pray with the kids, I have a tendency to count down 3,2,1 to get their attention and prepare them to pray. Kinda wish I would've had a 3,2,1 to prepare me for the last few months!
This is the inaugural post of the blog. And as you can guess by the title, we are now proud owners of an autistic kid. I know, I know, we've always had Little Handsome, but it is so very eye-opening to look at him with different lenses. It's simultaneously overwhelming and relieving to have a diagnosis.
The purpose of the blog: to share with our friends and family all at once what's currently going on with Little Handsome, to be normal and real about this process in our lives, and to bring glory to God.
I have kept short journal entries on my phone from the beginning, so for a while I will be giving backstory and exactly how God was and is speaking to me throughout. I hope whomever is reading will get some laughs, info and inspiration into who He is in our lives.
One disclaimer: It's said that if you know one kid on the spectrum, then you know one kid on the spectrum. Meaning-every diagnosis is unique, every kid is unique and every treatment is unique to that kiddo and their family. I am also completely new to this and the learning curve is crazy. We (Sweetheart and I) have to educate ourselves in order to be great advocates for Little Handsome.
I am so excited you're with us on this roller coaster ride! Enjoy!
Oh and one last thing - to honor my Sweetheart, I will have very few pics and be using code names for our babies.
Legend:
Sweetheart: my husband of 6 years
Little Handsome: our 3.75-year-old boy diagnosed with autistic disorder and expressive-receptive language delay in January 2013
Ladybelle: our 2-year-old girl
Schmoopy: our 5 month old boy
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