Welcome

This blog will serve as an outlet for me to voice my frustrations and joy in a constructive manner.  I love my children and I do become frustrated at times, like any mother does.  Sometimes, being the parent of a child with special needs can result in a lot being held within oneself.  There may be rants on occasion if it has been a particular rough day and this will also be helpful in remembering how far we have come in a short time.

Christopher was born in January 2008.  He is our second child and his sister is four years older.  We experienced ths normal baby stuff.  Wondering why we were starting all over when we just got Allison to be pretty self-sufficient.  After his first birthday, Christopher was not talking and because his sister talks so much we didn't really notice the babbling never took hold either.  Around April of 2009, I really began to question his development. I am a social worker and have oodles of experience with developmental delays so I knew where to go for help.  That's when WV Birth to Three came into our lives.  We had a terrific team working with Christopher.  (Except for the OT that I fired after a month of blah service)  By December 2009, Christopher's teachers were thinking Autism so we made the 2 hour trek to University of Virginia Hospital to see a developmental pediatrician.  The doctor confirmed the teachers suspicions (and ours that we had on and off since April) and gave a diagnosis of Mild-Moderate Autism.

Since the diagnosis, we have had people swear he isn't Autistic (one of the reasons the OT was fired).  We had complaints about "labeling" him.  And we had a lot of support from friends, family and church.  I am reminded constantly that God does not give us more than we can handle and that there is a reason I was blessed with Christopher.  He has made tremendous progress in the past year.  Christopher began to communicate with PECS and sign language.  Signing Time is excellent!!!  The PECS taught Christopher about the exchange in communication.  He is saying some words and phrases now.  We often cannot understand what he is saying but he is talking.  Christopher loves to sing and we can usually pick out from the melody what he is singing.

Christopher started pre-school after his third birthday (we lost his Birth to Three teachers then too).  An amazing thing happened, he went from no idea about toileting to having an interest after the first day of school.  (We ended up having several snow days, so I got to work with him on it).  It has its trials still but if we manage to take him every couple of hours he will stay dry all day long! 

Well, that's the highlights.  I glossed over a lot but will probably point stuff out as I go along.