What do you love and value most about your child with #Autism?

I love my oldest son's outgoing nature, giftedness in electronics, writing and academics, and the way he tries hard to be a good leader for his little brother and his brother's friends. He is always hugging everyone because he craves heavy pressure, and him telling me he loves me is actually one of his OCD behaviors, so I hear it all the time!  I love my youngest son's energy, love for learning, and desire to become a live stuntman. He does the craziest things. Keeps me on my toes.

The following are my son's most lovable and wonderful traits.  We struggle going through periods of what I call The Dark Days where many of these traits seem to be washed away, but I still know they are there (and thankfully, so does my son.  I think they serve as his beacon during his more frustrating times). He has a genuine, warm smile that is caring, inviting and melts my heart.  He is inquisitive, loves to learn and explore, and has an incredible memory for detail and observation.  I love learning his perspective and understanding when the words are available for him to share.  I love his honest, thoughtful and caring heart.  He has experienced an extremely frustrating time lately that we are continuing to work through.  Part of this frustration has erupted into physical aggression with those around him.  Things are beginning to settle and he's beginning to rejoin some of the people he was aggressive with.  When I asked what the first thing he wanted to do when he saw these people, he told me, "I want to give them a big hug."  THAT is my boy with the golden heart.

Having a child with autism is an eye opening opening experience.  

She is not only gave my body a chance to support her inside of me for 9 months, but she gave me an opportunity to teach and share my knowledge with her, possession of  which I have taken for granted. In return, she gave me an opportunity to share the joy and happiness of all of the achievements.

She is the most delicate flower in my garden that I am so lucky to have!

Because of her, I am a better parent that I could have been. 

I love her creativity and need for deep hugs! I love that she has taught me more about myself and the world than I could have ever dreamed possible. I love how she turned our family dynamic completely upside down, and that when the dust settled, we have found that we are all exactly where we should be, and better off for it! 

I love my son's constant faith that things will turn out well no matter how bad things get. I love his affection and his protectiveness of me specifically. And I love his amazing intelligence and his artwork. Of all my children, he has been the easiest to raise, the most affectionate and the most thoughtful. And that says a lot since my older three are girls!

I love her creativity. Some of the best memories I cherish are the 2 of us sitting at the kitchen table she had a pad of paper with amazing illustrations for a 4 year old and She would ask me how to spell every word of her story. I can't tell you how many books she had made this way. Now that she is almost 10 she has moved on to writing her stories in powerpoint! She writes the story and then searches the internet endlessly for just the right picture to go with the words. She wants to be an author/illustrator of children's books someday and wants to have her writing published. I think I will focus on this task over fall break coming at the end of September! She is an amazing drawer, I swear she copies stuff off of the computer screen but she swears she doesn't. Her writing has improved so much over the last year as well. Thank you for reminding me that I have to stop and enjoy her and not get all tied up in the STUFF that she has to deal with. I also need to enjoy our evening talks together more. I have made it a point to be off of the computer when we are having our nightly therapy session. I need to embrace the fact that she still wants to tell me everything and I do mean EVERYTHING.