A Mother’s Love
All expecting parents hope and pray for the same thing; healthy children. As a young mother myself, so many questions arose daily. Did I feed my son enough? How often should I change him? Did I over feed him? Was his bath water too cold? I never concerned myself with what, at times, could be “obvious.” At the age of 30 months, my son still was not communicating clearly and had started to “mimic” or “script” scenes out of movies/cartoons that sparked his attention.
My son, showing complete interest in a very small selection of movies, and even toys for that matter started to appear. While watching the movie “Cars”, my son would pick his toy cars up and act out the scenes at the exact same time as the movie, repeating every line word for word. Shortly after that, I noticed my son would organize and arrange his toys, whether it was his cars, lined up around the edge of the table, or lining them up all around his race tracks.
It had never dawned on me that there may be something special about my one and only son. Sometimes I would blame the fact that my son wasn’t around other children, on his speech development. His father and I made the big step of enrolling him into a local daycare facility, with hopes that the interaction with other children his age, would help with improvements.
Shortly after enrollment, we were approached about having an evaluation on our son for developmental delays. Suddenly, I felt like a 10-story building crashed down on my chest. This wasn’t something, as a parent, you ever want to hear or expect to hear.
Evaluation day came and left. We had been informed that our son was diagnosed within the Autism Spectrum. At that point in time, we had no idea of where to begin, or what to even do next. Upon formal diagnosis, we had received stacks upon stacks of information, resources, special events, and support groups. We no longer felt alone. Although life altering, and at times overbearing, stressful, and very emotional, we have accepted that our son is special. He is not alone in this world; he has an amazing close-knit number of family members, supportive teachers, and he will have many friends along the way to assist him.
Some things that have happened with my son, were unfortunate, however I do believe they all happen for a reason, and help mold us into the people we become. Life changing is the biggest conclusion I can make. He is our little prince charming. In our eyes, he is typical, even if typical is defined by his individual character. One puzzle piece at a time, our son will strive, to the best of his ability, not to the best of mine.
If you or someone you know would like information on support or special events, contact Kim Elayazra at 724-245-8489 or halo4autism@yahoo.com.