How did you meet me?

Did you meet me many years ago, a child innocent and free, more interested in dolls and card games than school, influenced by the beliefs of my parents more than the media, eating food that others made me without thinking of the cost or how it was cooked? Had you met me then you would have known a very different person to who I am now. The innocence of childhood is long gone now.

Did you meet me in high school, a teenager preoccupied with my puppy fat and how to avoid being bullied? When it felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders as I struggled with French homework that made no sense and tried to remember the periodic table of elements. A time when friendship was someone to stand beside at break time, when my view of life became tainted by smokers in the school toilets and the pressure of exams made me cry. The confusion of my teenage years is long gone.

Did you meet me at university, a naive student who had yet to taste alcohol or party right through the night? The novelty of living alone soon forgotten when the loneliness and homesickness set in every night. When a determination first set in to achieve and my views of child development were rose tinted and way more fantasy than reality. When I let my world fall around me as the first person to ever call me a failure spoke into my life. Had you known me then you would have met an insecure and way too innocent student ill prepared for the reality of a full time career in teaching.

 Did you meet me when I first fell in love, a believer in happy ever after, dreamer of happy families? When I consumed myself with wedding planning and being with my lover more than anything else because life suddenly seemed amazing, and bright and exciting again after the failure of university. Did you perhaps watch me walking down that aisle full of hope and love and a belief that together with my new husband life would be everything we wanted and more? It takes so much work to keep that spark, excitement and fire going. But the depth of love has not gone cold. I pray it never will.

Did you know me through those wilderness years of bitter disappointment, early pregnancy loss and grief of infertility, when darkness could overshadow me so suddenly I felt like I was being devoured? You may have met someone so negative at times, so consumed with their own pain it was difficult to see the hurt in others, someone so emotional and yet appearing cold in order to protect my heart from pain. Someone trained in child care yet avoiding anywhere children could be found. Someone who worked four and five jobs just to keep busy so as not to face the uncertainty of life. The pain of those years and the volume of tears may have subsided but the lessons learnt run deep inside my heart.

Did you meet me during the exhilaration and thrill of the birth of my babies when I wanted to scream my story out to the entire world and explode from happiness? Did you send me a card or buy a gift for my children? Or at some point on my journey shared with me as you bore children at the same time, experienced teething in your children as I did in mine or liked my children’s photos on social media? There is nothing more bonding for woman than sharing experiences of their children. I may have bored you with stories of their funny faces, silly antics and baby smiles. The beauty of those years will live long in my mind.

Did you meet me through the agony and pain of realising my children where different, of never ending appointments and devastating diagnosis? Have you journeyed with me through autism, neurofibromatosis, vision impairment, faith, sleepless nights, developmental diagnosis and fighting the system? A mother so emotional yet determined, so overwhelmed yet so focused, needing to learn but struggling to cope. Have I poured out my heart to you in person or online craving that knowledge that someone somewhere cares and has been here before to show me the way? Have you seen me tell someone else it will ‘be OK’ and you wondered where or how I can find that confidence from?

My heart has been changed now. Compassion has taken over. Where there was once judgement there is now empathy for others. Where there was selfishness there is love. I am not the child, teenager, student, wife, or mother I used to be.

Life has a way of changing people. Disability has a way of changing people. Children have a way of changing people. Faith has a way of changing people.

Everyone’s journey is different. Forgive me if in the past I judged you, acted selfishly or was aloof towards you.

How did you meet me? You met me on my journey and my journey isn’t over yet. Bear with me as I keep on walking.

It has been lovely to walk with you for some of the way.

Thank you!

  

 

 

They can’t just “get over it”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son has Neurofibromatosis type 1: he can’t just ‘get over it’. He has it for life. The implications of it are unknown.
My daughter has autism: she can’t just ‘get over it’. She has it for life. How it will affect her in the future is as yet unknown.
My son is non verbal: he can’t just ‘get over it’. He may be non verbal for the rest of his life. He may not be. We just don’t know.
He also has autism, visual impairment and learning difficulties. You don’t just ‘get over’ any of those either.
My children are both incontinent. Well, guess what, they won’t just ‘get over’ that overnight either!

It is hard to understand. I have hope because I need to have hope. But there is no magical cure. The future is uncertain and I have to live with that.

But one thing I do know is that my children are doing everything they can to make the best of their lives. So when they get upset or struggle or become overwhelmed it isn’t because they have given in, or because they are spoiled or want their own way, or because they want an easy life. It is because they have disabilities; disabilities that may be unseen but are very real. You may look at them and think they are fine. But they are not.

The world is confusing and loud and overwhelming for them. They rely on support networks that others don’t need as much. They see the world in black and white. They take things literally. They overgeneralise. They look at things from a completely different perspective. They have sensory overwhelmed from places that cause others no issues. They have anxiety to a scale many will never be able to imagine. They struggle with simple everyday tasks that we take for granted. Everything is an effort, a big deal, a massive achievement.

My daughter lost her comfort blanket and she was distraught. It was impossible for her to ‘get over it’. She had had the same cloth since she was a new born baby. No other cloth was good enough. Nothing else smelled, felt, looked or could offer her comfort like that cloth. Maybe all children have to grow up at some point. Life has disappointments. Special things get lost. But a child with autism can not ‘get over’ anything just like that. Her whole world turned upside down. Her sense of security and comfort disappeared. Her brain had to process that her cloth was no longer available. The depth of sadness this brought was tangible. It was found again but her faith and security in life remains uneasy. Something of paramount importance to her was lost and now she worries that something like that may one day happen again. That is a huge amount of stress for any 5 year old to carry around all day. She will never just ‘get over’ something like that. Her world changed. And I can never fix that for her.

My daughter is coming home from school in tears. She has a long list of things causing her distress. She isn’t just wanting her own way or demanding she is someone special. She can’t cope with noise or crowds or new unfamiliar routines. She is struggling to keep up with her peers and in the midst of sensory overwhelming in school she is finding listening to a teachers voice a real struggle. This is not made up stories. This is sensory processing difficulties. This is autism.

I took her in the front door of the school this week to avoid the playground. Another parent spoke to me when I came out. In her opinion I am spoiling my daughter. I am babying her. She just needs it get on with it like all the other children do. She just needs to ‘get over it’.

If only….

If only my kids could ‘just get over it’…

They may learn to cope better as they grow. But they will always have nf1, or autism, vision impairment and learning difficulties. The same way others have health conditions, mental health issues, struggle with bereavement or loneliness. Be patient with people. Have compassion. There are very few things in life people ‘just get over’. Most people are trying hard. I know my children are.

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” Eph 4:2
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There is more than meets the eye

 

It is the first day of the new school term here and my daughters first ever day at school. I took the standard parent ‘first day back’ photos and posted them on social media. The usual comments ‘they look so smart’ ‘good luck’ and ‘have a great day’ all touch my heart.

There is so much that has gone into today, way beyond the simple purchasing of new school wear, shoes, washing and ironing uniforms and packing bags. For weeks now I have had to prepare these children for this major change in routine, even though it was previously familiar to Isaac. Seven weeks is a long time in a child’s life to get used to going out with the family, eating lunch at home and playing with toys and technology.

So my autism mummy mode took over and prepared social stories for Naomi, visuals for Isaac and lots of walks to Naomi’s new school even though it was closed. Both of them have books all about their summer to take into school. And we have read about Topsy and Tim, Biff, Chip and Kipper and everyone else you can think of starting school!

Isaac has a photo album full of stories and photos to share with his teacher. He has no other way to share his experiences from the last two months as he can not speak. I sat with him for days going through all the photos we had on his Ipad and having him point to the ones he especially liked. Then I sent them off to get printed. There was no surprises that the majority featured food! But it is his story and if he was able to talk these are the things he would want to tell his new teacher about. As his teacher is brand new to the school and only knows about Isaac from information the school has (assuming this has been read), I so hope someone will sit with him and take a few minutes to allow him to share his summer with them. This is as much about transitioning from home as it is to school. We are all in this together.

Naomi’s new school had given the children a summer scrapbook to do at home. The pages were blank which immediately caused Naomi huge anxiety. She needed guidance and instruction and clear boundaries and pages that could contain ‘anything about your summer’ where far too vague. So I helped her structure her ideas and we had a lovely time together as she drew her family, stuck down photos of some things she enjoyed and cut pictures from magazines. Once again I hope someone takes the time to get to know my daughter and puts no pressure on her to speak if she can not yet overcome her anxiety to do so.

We hit some very real challenges when we found out that transport arrangements for taking Isaac to school were all changing. I sighed. If only the ‘powers that be’ had any idea how change affects my babies. For the sake of saving pennies they change contracts and providers taking no account of the needs of the children. How would they feel to watch their child bite himself, bang his head and run back inside the house when he has to meet a new driver and escort and see a new taxi? I bet their heart would break like mine. But I swallow hard and do what we can. Take photos of the people, the taxi, and his school. But still we have the screaming and the self harming. And all I can do is pray; pray that he might one day understand, pray for patience for these new people in his life and pray for a way to help my baby understand. And then I realise our fatal mistake! We arranged for them to visit at dinner time! It really was that simple. We had been saying ‘see taxi’ and ‘new driver’ and ‘school taxi’ to him and in his mind he never gets in a taxi at that time of day and he certainly doesn’t go to school after his tea! So when it came to the day, the one you all see the photo of, off he went. Because that was right: first taxi, then school! And the promise of a school dinner had him flying right out the house. (was my cooking for the last seven weeks really THAT bad?) Can you tell any of the trauma we went through just from the photo?

There’s more than meets the eye.

As I took Naomi to her school for the first day and finally left her in her classroom sitting at her desk with all the other children I had the same emotions as all the other parents there. What you don’t see is the fact she is the first child to go to that school who isn’t toilet trained. She is the only child in the room wearing a nappy. And she drank her milk that morning from a bottle too. But as all the other parents made their way out of the building a line of adults waited to talk to me. Then I suddenly realise there is more going on: An autism outreach worker, two classroom assistants, the class teacher and the new Head teacher too all waiting to introduce themselves. Though they were not in today there will also be speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and various other professionals involved too. Because I have pushed for as much support as I can get. She may be going to mainstream but she will jolly well be supported.

There will be meetings, reports and iep’s written up within weeks. There are still some unknowns but she went there today, and she held it together. And I am so proud of her for that.

This afternoon and tonight we will have the aftermath of the first school day. The stress doesn’t end for these children at the school gate. Autism, nf1 and developmental delays are 24-7. We will have it today, tomorrow and forever.

The photos are a great memory of one special day. Thank you for liking them, commenting and loving us.

Please remember though that behind those photos there is more going on than meets the eye.

And that will be the same for so many families of special needs children too. 

They just sat there holding hands

The long summer holidays were coming to an end, it was getting ever closer to the children’s bedtimes and they were having a little time on technology while I tidied up. They were quiet so I turned around to check on them to see them engrossed in their own worlds but yet so closely bonded in each other’s worlds they were sitting holding hands. It was one of those moments you just had to be there. It was sweet, intimate and special. It was beautiful:

They didn’t need words (which was perfect since one of them is yet to speak) and they didn’t need to look at each other (even better since they both have autism). A powerful image of two people connected against all odds. A moment of love.

I have had five years and nine months to look at their hands. I remember when their hands were so tiny they could curl round a single finger of mine. I remember holding their tiny hands in a gentle fist while I slipped their arms into little baby grows and cardigans. I remember holding their hands when they needed me to balance them as they took their first steps. I remember gripping their little hands as I showed them how to climb stairs, holding their hands as we walked in shops, climbed up hills or along paths. This week I will take one of those precious hands and hold it as I walk my daughter to school for the first time. Precious moments of love, guidance, bonding and closeness. I know one day she won’t want her mummy holding her hand but until that days comes I treasure that intimacy with her.

One of these little hands will learn to write soon. But while her brother may not do this for a long time to come it doesn’t stop them being close. Summer has brought them so much closer to each other. It has given them more shared experiences together and time in each other’s company. They prefer to be together. Education is separating them but love is joining them.

And while one of these little hands will turn pages in a book, paint pictures, thread beads and cut and stick things the other hand is still be used as an essential means of communicating. It is only in the last year that my son has leant to use his hand to point. I still dream that one day he may use his hand to blow me kisses, or wave, or stroke my face. But right now I rejoice he still uses his hand to take mine to what he wants.

Therapists want my son to take my hand less and use other means of communicating. While I see the advantage to this there is something so special about a little child leading you by the hand to show you what he wants. It connects you physically when there is no language. It tells me he loves me without any words leaving his mouth. And as he uses photos and pointing more I miss those moments when he sought me out, pulled at my hand and led me to what he wanted.

I may not always be around for these children, though I pray God sustains my years on earth for many years to come. But seeing them together, knowing that despite all their challenges they have a deep love for one another, that from the moment they were conceived they have been connected. Seeing my daughter put her hand over her brothers to teach him what to do in a new game, watching how she holds a straw in a glass of juice for him to help him have a drink, observing how she tenderly strokes his arm when he gets upset…I just know that they will always have a friend in each other.

I wanted to kiss them both, explain how special this moment was to them, talk to them about the significance of what they were doing… Instead I smiled at them and took a photograph… While they just sat there holding hands.