Autism Awareness Month

There are many different "kinds" of autism , when our daughter was diagnosed we knew she was on the spectrum and at the time of diagnosis she was low functioning . Through a year of therapy and pre-k(early intervention) she has blossomed into an amazing little girl, not that she was not already . She is now high functioning but has problems with social situations, sensory issues, and pain to name a few. (She does not like crowds or new people, she does not feel or notice pain the same way others do, and she is very sensitive to light, sound, taste, and touch.)  Lilly was diagnosed very early around two years of age, and boy am I glad. If she was not diagnosed and not given the therapy and early intervention she would still be low functioning, she would not speak , sleep, play or interact with anybody. Seeing her play and interact with others is amazing after watching her struggle to just come out of her room. She still lives in her own little world and through out the day she is either hot or cold. Meaning she is either turned off and sitting and not saying a word or completely high strung running in circles and jumping and happy. There is no "normal" day , there is nothing to expect. You wake up in the morning and just take the day as it comes. Since its Autism Awareness month I have seen a lot of videos popping up online about how "awful " and "stressful" it is to have an Autistic child. Yes ! It's harder, yes it's stressful but AWFUL? no way ....life with our autistic daughter is an adventure, and we love every minute. You have to go through tough patches with any child, so our child has a little more tough patches, that does not make it any less worth it. I keep seeing these videos and I share them online but they make me angry. I am happy with our two kids, one Autistic, one not. I would not change either of them. Being Autistic is not awful its awesomeness . End of story-