May 22, 2013... 2 major milestones of my life... I turned 37 and heard for first time, (heard, confirmed, told, started digesting- not sure which verb is most accurate in this situation, but none the less) my son has autism. My almost 10 year old, active, loving, bright, sometimes lost little boy. I guess any mom in my same situation would understand this came as no huge surprise, I had after all asked for the screening just 3 months earlier. After dealing with SPD and speech difficulties since he was 5, then ADHD when he was 7, there was still something obvious we were missing. I felt like we had the pieces to a puzzle, but still didn't know what the frame was, the big picture. Another piece of this evolving puzzle is my Lee was also evaluated and identified as gifted just a month before, topping out the test in reading. While I feel like I have just started a new chapter in my son's raising and educating myself to be his best teacher, advocate, and mom, I know a great challenge is ahead of me - his dad does not yet know. Our results / IEP meeting is coming up in a week. I work in my son's school and was met with informally, gives me time to digest and really come to terms with our newest "new norm", before trying to help his dad understand and accept the news. We are recently divorced, which just throws another monkey wrench in EVERYTHING, but I guess I can just take things day by day and we finally got answers and now more questions then I ever could have predicted....autism...
