My Journey

I am a single mom of four wonderful children. I have a disorder called Atypical Cri du Chat along with two of my children. They range from 9 to 17 years of age. When I had my youngest son I thought to myself, "Piece of cake!!I have three other children, I can do this."  I was so wrong. It seems the whole planet had tilted, throwing my family and I into orbit and I was parenting a child from another planet and although my outside world resembled Earth, my house resembled Mars. My days were filled with odd behaviors and tantrums I had never experienced before and the nights were sleepless. I had a child with absolutely no language and I really felt he hated me. I had never felt like this with any of my other children. (until my daughter became a teen.) His siblings couldn't relate to him and he was very aggressive to them. After speaking to the doctor on several occasions they would just say, "He will grow out of it. He is just delayed."  I didn't have any answers, but I knew something was not right. We floated in this empty space for a while until we finally came to a planet called Autism at around age 3 1/2. Finally some answers, although the fight does not end here as he is also medically fragile.  

I have the blessing to raise two boys whom are both on the Autism spectrum. Jacob (Buddy) has Aspergers, Tourettes syndrome, and Atypical Cri du Chat. He was diagnosed in January 2011. Jacob has always been verbal which was awesome and probably why he was diagnosed so late. He loves computer stuff and technology. I really think he would be amazing with coding. The boys are complete opposites, while there are similarities they are also very different!

Charles (Chucky Cheese) has Moderate Autism, Sensory Processing disorder, and Mitochondrial disease. Charles was nonverbal for almost 5 years and was very aggressive due to his lack of language. He is now verbal and that is amazing. He is a fighter. He had a feeding tube placed in June 2015 because his gut is no longer performing properly.

As for my girls, they are just as amazing. Jocelyn (Chipmunk) si a bright young lady that is also musically inclined. She plays the violin beautifully! She deals with a lot of anxiety due to the medical and special needs our family faces. She is a very brave and strong person.

Krystal (Princess), is my oldest and is a cancer survivor and has atypical Cri du Chat. When she was 15 her left lung collapsed and after being transferred to our children's hospital we found it was a tumor. Her left lung was removed and biopsied and they found four more tumors in her lung. She is now cancer free and doing wonderful.

I welcome you to join me in their triumphs and struggles and to join my world of attempting to maintain a healthy household while dealing with special needs and medical complications.

When I started this blog it was surrounding Autism, but I am glad that I titled it the way I did because this is far more than Autism. This is life, change, adapting, coping and trying to juggle all of the aspects of special needs parenting. It is about finding a balance between children and myself. It is about learning to accept the unthinkable and make the absolute best out of it. This blog encircles many disabilities together. No one's battle is any more or less than the other.