Into the Unknown

I am a planner by nature. I like to know what is going to happen tomorrow, the next day and even ten years from now. With autism that is never the case and it is scary.

After Logan was diagnosed, our public school happened to start a preschool program. Logan was one of the first children to be enrolled in the program. It was an amazing opportunity because I was learning from the teachers and they were learning from Logan. Was it perfect? No, but we grew together over the next couple of years.

Logan was not potty trained when we started the preschool program. I was so frustrated because at 3 years old I thought for sure he would be completely trained. For Kyra, it just clicked and boom she was trained. She never wet the bed. It was amazing. Luckily for me, the preschool program helped train Logan. They knew exactly what to do with him and by four years old he was trained. He never really had an accident after that. 

While Logan was in preschool I began to realize that we are part of a team. Logan’s team. I will forever be the number one cheerleader for Logan’s team. It takes a full team to make this work and we will always need a team. Logan had his teachers, paraprofessionals, speech, occupational therapists and many more. We had to work together to figure out what works for Logan. Not everything worked. Some things worked better than others. We were constantly communicating so that I could continue the education at home.

Logan attended the preschool for 3 years. Over that time the little boy who didn’t speak started to talk. He used the bathroom by himself. There were so many little things that he started to do that were amazing to me. It seemed like we were moving mountains—little mountains, but they were mountains.

Everyday we are entering the unknown. I have no clue what to expect when we wake up each day. Will it be a good day? Will we be fixated on the ending of a movie that we can not control? Will we be obsessed with death? Will we not eat the foods that we have been eating for years? I never know what will happen, but I do know that it will be ok. We will have good days and bad days, but we have days and are lucky to wake up every day and accept our daily challenge. It’s not always easy, in fact there are more challenging days than easy days,but every day is full of growth and opportunity.