Happy Story

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I couldn't think of a better place to tell people of this short little story.

My son is autistic. For the first time in his life he got to shine. The story is here:


http://lifepenned.wordpress.com/2009/12 ... e-minutes/

He must be as proud of himself as you are of him

I was just happy to see him rise above the struggles.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your response.

You made me cry. And I can assure you that it's pretty difficult
I hope that growing up your child will find a spot in life where his gift and intelligence will be valued more than any strangeness.

great story. I am sure your son will find a world much more a pleasant place when he finishes school.

Thank you for the compliments.

Admittedly, few people can appreciate the story as well as those in this forum.

Great story, I wish him good luck!
And you are not bad at retelling the story yourself

EDIT: And now I did it again... I wrote in the "Parents' Discussion"... Oh well..

Bittersweet, so few of our kids get that prideful feeling that so many take for granted and don't even realize how fortunate they are. I get what you mean about people not being able to appreciate it because like I said so many take these things for granted. Understandable, they have never walked in our shoes or our child's. I wish that for just one day they could and maybe the teasing and bullying would stop and there would be a new found awareness, bullying replaced by kindness. In a perfect world I suppose. I remember being so happy when the neighborhood kids would knock on the door asking my son to play football until he finally told me more often than not they would just pick on him and really just needed an extra player. Needless to say he doesn't play anymore. How crazy is that to be happy about something that for others is just a typical day after school. I wish you and your son all the best and many more moments like that one....peace to you.

Thank you all for your comments and feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

It is impossible to tell the world just how challenging it can be to raise an autistic child. Even our families think my wife and I simply don't know how to raise children. Oh well...

I've been writing about it all for some time, always keeping it to myself. Just this week I decided to create the blog, anonymously, to protect my kids' identity.

Here is something else, if you are interested. I can't say this one is "happy."

http://lifepenned.wordpress.com/2009/12 ... ear-peace/

Thanks again for your responses.

During a neighborhood picnic, hosted at a neighbor's house, someone walked up to my wife and me and said, "Your son plays the piano well!"

My wife and I ran inside the house expecting to see him rudely banging on our neighbor's piano, but he was actually playing. It wasn't with the skill of Mozart, but it wasn't rudimentary either. It was well above the ability of a kid that, for all we knew, had never even seen a piano.

I asked, "Buddy, where'd you learn to do that?"

"There's a piano in the hallway at school," he said. "Sometimes I play with it."

The first attempt at a piano teacher, well, she stopped the lesson early. She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a name and number for a professor of music at the local university. "Call her," she said. "For music instruction, your son is out of my league."

I'm sorry if I sound like just another parent bragging about his kid. I don't mean to be. It is an interesting story, even to me. It's like something you'd see on TV. He has a gift.

He has taken lessons for three years - technically. For over a year of that time his ability to play was squashed by heavy doses of drugs. Lexapro, Risperdal, Lamictal... He was stimming so badly, playing was impossible. The frustration for him almost made him give up piano. So, it hasn't been an easy road. It never is, is it?

I'm writing another story. Sorry.

For whoever reads this, I wish you all the best of luck with your autistic child. For us, the past seven years have been a heavy, heavy burden. The stress came within inches of completely destroying this family. But things are looking up now. Life is improving. I hope all of you and your children find the peace and happiness you all deserve.