Or at least I hope so. Throw salt over left shoulder. Knock on wood. Rub rabbit's foot. Cross fingers.
Alex is 7. He was diagnosed at 3 with "autism disorder, mental retardation unspecified." Seeing those words on paper put us on a raft in the middle of the ocean in the dead of night. But let me tell you what happened in the weeks/months just prior: hubby lost job, no stable income, had to sell home and move, hubby's heart assaulted by strep bacteria that eats away at his mitral valve and nearly kills him, weeks of hospitalization, hey, hey, he's walking, ok, pack up, you need to move again... and btw, your son has a mysterious neurological disorder we have no cure for. Get at least 20 hours ABA ("What's ABA? Oh, just go to your school district." School district: "F-off."). Thanks for your time. Bye. Good luck.
But despite my gripping I would have to say, thus far, luck has been kind (finally, anyway). Somehow I think we've found the right people at the right time come into his life... each one giving that one push to get him to that next step. And Alex, now undergoing biomedical treatment alongside his behavioral therapy, is making steady progress. The cause of autism is still up in the air. Though I think its less mystery and more who/what is responsible = who gets sued billions of dollars. That's for another entry. Anyway, people can say what they want but the proof is what I, as one of the people in the front lines, see every day. I see a little boy who plays with his sister instead of shoving her away. I see a little boy who searches out opportunities to interact with his loved ones instead of shutting himself off. I see a little boy who looks at what I have to show him, says "frog" and laughs when it startles him by jumping out of my hands. A little boy who will run and wrap his arms around my waist and smile up at me. This is more than I had dared hope for when we got his diagnosis. When it took 3 months of intensive 1:1 just to get him to LOOK at you when you said, "Alex, look at me."
You, reader, may have no idea how far he's come. That's OK. All you have to know is how absolutely proud my kids make me every day.
