The Autism Mom and Motherless Daughter

When you have a child with special needs, you definitely have to take a step back and see who are truly your support system. In this autism world, you lose a lot of people. Let's face it, there aren't too many people out there that truly understand a child with special  needs. Having more than one child can really put things in perspective. Dj is usually the odd man out. He gets excluded from things that his big sister doesn't.  And while he hasn't a clue what's going on, one day he will.  I try my best to protect him because when he gets excluded it hurts. I was raised with a take it or leave it attitude. If we all can't roll together, that none of us can. But not everyone is accepting of that. I'm going to live the rest of my days shielding DJ from strangers leaving him out because he's "different". But when it starts to happen in your own backyard, that's when it's the most hurtful. So what do I do? Let it happen? Start a war? ...

Before this whole diagnosis thing, we were just a family trying to adjust to each other. I guess after DJ turned a year, I started to realize that there may be something wrong. Working with kids gave me a little more insight into a child's world. I watched DJ for a while as I compared him to Adriana. I decided to ask his doctor for a referral to Early Intervention. Then came all the evaluations. That was October 2009. The outcome of the first set of evaluations proved that he was fine. Bull! I know he wasn't. At the very least, I knew he had a speech delay. He was silent, too silent. Then May 31st rolled around and Daisy the psychologist just kicked me in the gut. On May 31st, DJ received a psychological.  Daisy looked so concerned as she asked me questions in regards to his behavior and observed his current set of behaviors. The evaluation took an hour, tops. Then she said it. "Daniel has pervasive developmental disorder." Huh? Never heard of it. Then she expl...

DJ was diagnosed with PSS-NOS in May 2010. PDD-NOS is a pervasive developmental disorder, off the Autism Spectrum. Yes, folks. Autism. I thought to myself at the time, "How the hell did that happen?" It was horrifying. The only person I knew with autism at the time was my nephew. I lent encouraging words to my brother when his child was diagnosed. I gave him all the pep talks in the world and then it happened to my family, 2 years later. I was 4 moths pregnant with my youngest, struggling through pregnancy while juggling an out of work husband, a preschooler and DJ, a toddler. Then they tell he's autistic! Damn! How'd my husband take it, you ask? I still don't know. It's a bitter pill to swallow. The only boy in our pretty little family, what would become of him? Would he be the suave young adult breaking hearts whenever he lands? Would he become a professional athlete and have millions of adoring fans? A young entrepreneur? All those dreams I had when I...