“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” John Shedd.
Every day, I need to remind myself that my kids cannot stay in the harbor.
I am the mother of two adult children with autism (Will and Mary), and one adult child (Patty) who struggles with issues surrounding her brother and sister. My husband, Ralph, has been very involved. Since my children are really starting out in life/transition to jobs, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Will and Mary are very high functioning young adults with autism. There are a lot of them around. At the time of their entry into the world of special education, they were both labeled as mentally impaired, with a subset of other labels. Later, the diagnosis of autism covered most of their labels. Will has a Bachelor’s degree in computers and Mary has a Bachelors in Accounting. I will be writing about the transition, the struggles, and the successes in our lives. I will also be writing about the issues that my younger daughter has been dealing with. She is currently attending college.
Will has transitioned since I began this blog to a job with a large IT corporation and in the process, moved away from home. Mary currently works a part-time job at a homeless shelter (6 hours a week) in the accounting department. She is currently taking a computer certification class to broaden her skills. Her goal is to get a full time job and be able to move away from home. Patty graduated from college in May with a major in History and minor in Economics. She is taking a year off to prepare grad school, and working as a TA at the college she graduated from.
“I Thessalonians 5:16-18. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
annkilter 
Hi Ann. Very interesting subject matter indeed as I have a 20 year old with Aspergers. Glad you are writing.
Thank you. This feels like uncharted territory. But the early years of autism care seemed insurmountable at the time.
I’m so glad you commented on my blog and I’m so happy I followed you here. You are exactly what I need to be reading right now. Thank you for the gift of these words.
Thank you for your kind words. It is helpful for me to look back.
Nice. I really enjoyed our exchange tonight. Write On!
My son is only 5, but I look forward to reading more about your children. It may give me insight on what to expect in coming years.
Welcome. I benefited from others who were farther along on the journey than me, also.
Thank you for sharing your life. I wanted to honor you with a Liebster Award. See my post here.
http://especiallymade.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/dearest/
Dear Ann,
Thank you for stopping by my Blog and liking “Happy Mother’s Day”. I’m in absolute awe of what you must have gone through, and what you still go through. Thank you for sharing. God’s many blessings on you and your family.
Thank you. 🙂
Love your Blog very moving story xxx
Thank you for reading.
Thanks for liking my blog, I think yours is terrific. Not to buzz market you, but I do think you’d like my book.
Thank you. What is buzz marketing?
Ann, thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I have worked with autistic children and know several families with autistic children. Thank you for your powerful witness.
I enjoyed reading your blog about writing.
Many thanks for the ‘like’ on my “I’m not disabled, I just cannot see” post. I’m so glad it brought me to your blog. My wife’s a teacher (history) but having come from Romania with me 9 years ago had almost no knowledge of autism; since teaching in the UK she has found she develops a special relationship with autistic pupils and repeatedly wonders at their achievements. However, they are often still labelled as ‘under achievers’ by the system.
Thank you for visiting. My son gets along quite well with people who speak English as their second language. Perhaps it is because they take more time to speak, or are a little more literal in their thinking in English. I think that many are unaware of how much work it takes for autistic people to “under achieve.”
Thank you for stopping by. I admire you for who you are.
Thank you for stopping by here.
Hi, my daughter is 3 and was recently diagnosed with Autism. I like your blog because it gives me a glimpse into what the future could hold. Sometimes, it seems like things will never change, and meltdowns of nonsense screams, hitting and biting will never end. Boogie is high functioning, so it’s wonderful to read your blog. Thank you!
Things will change. For me, it was often two steps forward, one step back. We learn to take encouragement from small victories as well as surprising large victories. One of the things about the Internet and blogs is that we receive hope and encouragement from others. When my kids were young, I was encouraged by a speaker at a conference to think not just about the present (which was often overwhelming), but about the long term future. My overarching goal than became independent living for my kids. My son now lives on his own with a good job. My older daughter has two part-time jobs and lives at home.
Thank you for your amazing blog and support of mine! I just want to say that I nominated you for The WordPress Family Award at http://annarosemeeds.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/wordpress-family-award/. Thank you for welcoming me to WordPress!
Hi Ann, I just nominated you for the Sunshine Award!
http://aspiestory.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/the-sunshine-award/
Please don’t feel obligated to follow the rules that go with the award. Only if you want to. 😉
Thank you for your nomination.
I really appreciate that you are writing about this. I will be following your blog.
I love that you are living that ship quote!
Continue to keep venturing out of the harbor, many are be blessed by your journey!
May God bless you in your journey as well. God prepares a path for us to take.
You “liked” one of my blogs and I am very thankful. One of the children that I wrote about in that post is autistic.My oldest is also autistic. I praise God for people like you who dedicate their lives to making sure their sons and daughters will be successful. Thanks for liking my post. Be blessed.
Thank you. I think that you are also one of those people.
I hope to learn from your and your children’s experiences.
Hi Ann, I wanted to let you know that I have been enjoying your posts and I wanted to tell you Congratulations. because I nominated you for the Liebster Award today. To learn more visit my blog at http://lilypadheart.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/nominated-for-the-liebster-award/
Renata
Thank you for sharing so openly. My 14 year old daughter was just diagnosed with ASD 1 (formerly Asperger’s). I have read many of your posts and so appreciate your sharing. I have hope thanks to people like you 🙂
Hello Ann, I see you are following one of my blogs. My other blog is about creativity mostly: IamNoman. I am a new blogger in the formal sense. I have been blogging for years really; I just didn’t know it. I wish to develop and maintain quality content for people who are interested in what I have to say. You are invited to make suggestions and offer criticism of a literary manner. I don’t take offense.
At this juncture it seems our common thread is disability issues. So you know, I’m post-polio and Bipolar basically since birth. I was diagnosed BPD at age 52 so I have a slightly different take on that and mental health issues in general, (I mean if you’ve been crazy all your life; what is reality and what is dream)?
I have dealt with autistic people since about third grade. I didn’t know it then of course but upon reflection, I know it now. For the most part I have always been tolerant of people who are different. Probably because I am different too. The autism spectrum kids I grew up with were my friends. I think; there were four of them in my elementary school class of thirty. As I have grown older I learned to recognize autistics and have pretty much learned the rules of etiquette in dealing with these folks, (sometimes I slip up or forget. We’re all “normal” anyway, we just have different kinks).
I like to work with people and hopefully help them out. I was mainstreamed as a kid so sometimes this can be a tough love approach but Iam what Iam. I guess that enough of an introduction. Thankyou for your interest and support.
Tommy Coughlin
I’m so glad you stopped by and liked one of my a to z posts. I need to read blogs about adult autistics. It gives me hope for my precious Isabella. Easter blessings to you and yours!
Hi Ann, thanks for stopping by and liking one of my posts on my blog! It led me to your blog and reading your story made me feel pretty good, since our Asperger’s son is about to leave home for college later this year. I’m sure I’ll enjoy learning from you about this transition!