Happy Autismversary!
It was a day very similar to this one. Sunny, bright and crisp. I was pregnant with Chloe and my family and I were getting ready to join our neighbors in the backyard for a BBQ. But first a psychologist was going to evaluate DJ to see what was going on with his current developmental state. 4 years ago today, the words that rocked my world were told to me. "Your son is autistic." I can still feel the pain of that day as if it were yesterday. It's a feeling that never goes away. Like many parents, all of my dreams for DJ flash forwarded and evaporated. I was left with only a darkness. I remember sending an email to my family to let them know what was going on. And then, that was it. I shut down. Danny and I didn't discuss it. We were numb. To this day, I have no idea what he felt and all I could do was cry. I didn't answer the phone calls from family and I didn't mention it at work. I didn't know what it meant to now be a special needs family.