Moving Forward!

When Elizabeth was first diagnosed all I wanted to do was learn everything I could about Autism. I remember reading everything I could get my hands on just to try to help me understand my daughter and her new diagnosis. The one thing that everything I read could not tell me was her prognosis. The reason for that is because no one knows, and that is so frustrating as a parent. The feeling of not knowing what the future holds for your child.

I guess in some ways not knowing may be a good thing. Not knowing means that the future can still be bright and that gives us hope. I think hope is important because hope is ultimately what drives us to keep going with our kids, to keep pushing them to be the best person they can be.

Autism changes your perspective, the life you thought your child would have may not be the life that they are headed for. That is still a hard thing for me to accept. I keep reminding myself that my idea of what her life should be may not be the life she is hoping for. I need to remind myself that as long as she is happy that is really all that matters. I need to push her to be the best Elizabeth that she can be and not the idea of what I have in my head of what she should be.

I think we need to remind ourselves that the outcome may not be bleak, it will get better. Elizabeth has come such a long way in the 2 years since she was diagnosed. It is kind of hard to realize that when you are in the thick of it all, but if I really take a look back at where we were 2 years ago I would see that she has come a long way. It has been in slow, painfully slow steps, but we are moving forward. She still does not have functional communication, she still has very poor social skills, and she still has some issues with sensory stuff and eating, but now she will lead me to some things she wants and that is a huge thing. Leading us to something was something she never did at 2 years old and now she is able to do that. Small steps are still steps!

Now I seldom read "educational" types of things on Autism. I stick more to personal things like blogs or inspiring stories. Most of the studies or the educational material on Autism all basically end up saying the same thing, they don't know for sure what the cause is and they don't know for sure what the cure it. I would rather stick to reading personal things like stories and blogs, things that help keep me going when I am having a tough time with my kids. Its nice to know that there are other people out there going through the same thing you are.I have even met a few other Autism parents here and there in the Pittsburgh area, its nice to surround yourself with other parents in your area that can help point you towards the good resources.

So anyway..........this was not even what I wanted to write about, but this is what popped into my head and came out so there you go. I guess I will have to change this post title from "Fun Summer Stuff" to something else. I will write about fun summer stuff another day.

I apologize in advance for any run on sentences and grammatical errors but I am a very lazy proofreader.

Comments are always appreciated!