My boys and their HUGE year.

We have one more holiday to go and we can kiss 2014 goodbye, and to tell you the truth since our autism diagnosis 6 years ago, this has by far been the best year and the biggest learning experience and the most growth for the whole family.

The year started out extremely rocky we had horrible tantrums and episodes at school with Franklin and it was so hard because we had him coming off medication and moving toward a more biomedical approach to treat his autism, and it was awful and hard and I wanted to give up almost everyday.  However, we plowed through together and he made amazing strides, and it was a victory.

This was also the year that we were able to give him a voice via an iPad and ProLoQuo2 Go.  We are a work in progress, and everyone at school is not properly trained in it, but we have given the boy a way to communicate with us and it has eliminated a large percentage of his behavior, and it was the biggest dose of gratitude that I could have asked for.  I am moving forward with my education on the device and plan to become a "mommy expert" on the device, via other mommies and classes that I'm finding in our area.

Jackson has started Kindergarten this year and my baby is becoming a big boy and it was hard for mommy to deal with.  I love babies, and part of me has struggled to not "baby" him, and let him grow up and catch up developmentally.  Jackson has made friends, and he has some buddies, and friend that he initiates play with and engages with and I absolutely love all the kids in our lives that we work on our social skills and are building relationships with.

This year after 3 years of therapy and desensitizing them, and working and blood sweat and tears, we conquered THE BEACH.  OMG.  I can't say it enough we can go to the beach, and stay, and no one cries - except me - Happy Tears.

All our work, and all the therapy, and all the sacrifice and the boys are changing, learning, maturing and my believing in them and myself as a parent is making things happen.

My boys have grown and changed and launched so far forward this year, and they work so hard, and mommy found a louder advocate voice, and I feel like we have put them on a path where 2015 is going to KICK ASS.  Our team is fabulous, and I am so happy and anxious to move forward and let this be year the of recovery and improvement.

We were sitting at families house yesterday with all our cousins and friends and I was also forced to look at how different and challenged my kids are.  While everyone was playing on the swings and doing games and things that 5,6, and 7 year olds do.  My 6 year old was locked on some paper cut outs of letters and numbers, and was completely in his own world and wanted nothing to do with the other kiddos.  I saw the difference, I saw his cousins looking at him like he was a little different.  But yet he was HAPPY, and while it hurt me as a mom to see my kids isolating themselves, no matter what I did to try to get them to engage, they were not having it.  Those are my struggles, and my hurts and lack of acceptance of autism.  But even while it hurt me a little, my kids rocked this holiday season and  I couldn't be more grateful.

I got to also see a lot of our autism families kids rocking it,  we saw some amazing things this year in our little OC community, and I'm thankful, and happy and hopeful, and taking all that into 2015 and looking forward to giving autism a run for it's money.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Rebecca