Life after loss with autism, preemies and a rainbow baby
Well I thought I was in a blogging funk and then a fellow autism mom told me the story of her daughter being excluded from Girl Scouts and lit a fire under my writing butt. I then told the story to Ashlyn because it helps her to hear that these things happen to other kids […]
There have been lots of gift guides going around over the past few weeks and I had this thought that since I’ve been attempting to buy gifts that make Ashlyn happy for the last 18 years that I might be qualified to create a gift list for kids and teens with autism. I started my […]
The girls varsity soccer team Ashlyn helps manage has a scrimmage and picnic each year. The freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams combine and then split into two teams to verse each other in a fun game with a trophy of bragging rights. Ashlyn was given the opportunity to play this year. A small gesture […]
Ashlyn came home Friday with a new bowling shirt. She hates getting her picture taken but she wanted a photo of the front and back and waited while I sent the picture to her Papa. I talked her into changing out of it for dinner and she even almost hung it up so it would […]
I have been worried about this day for a long time. I have watched the bagger at our local grocery store and complained to the store manager when the cashier barked at him to move faster. I’ve talked to the ticket-taker at our movie theater about her nail polish and waited as she told me […]
I am on her last nerve. Unfazed, I continue my questioning. Mothering a teenager, annoyance is my job. I ask again who this mystery friend is and get a deep sigh because I should know these things, of course. She is in my third hour, we were office assistants together and she is really nice […]
When Ashlyn was well beyond the age most kids learned, I decided it was time for her to ride a bike. I was a single mom then so my brother and dad offered to help. They removed the training wheels from the bike she had barely ever used and got on either side. As they […]
We spent Ashlyn’s 18th birthday in San Francisco. My brother lives there and my other brother and sister-in-law flew in to surprise her. She was a little overwhelmed by the crowds and the noise and I was a little overwhelmed by how in the world you find your way around such a big city. If […]
I should be a pro at this by now, nothing should surprise me. When she was young the reminders poked through our every day… children talking in full sentences, baby book pages I was unable to complete, the furrowed brow of our hundredth specialist. The weight of her diagnosis, the uncertainty of her future, hunched my […]
When Ashlyn was four or so and going through all kinds of medical tests, as kids with autism do, I remember one particularly awful appointment. She needed to be sedated and her IV wouldn’t go in and then she fought the anesthesia and I stood there trying to hold her and not cry or scream […]
