Dear Daughter With Autism

Before you were born I would think about your future. 1st boyfriend, kiss, prom date, and even your wedding. 

All the girl time we would have even the late night talks full of gossip and boys. So of course when you were born, I was able to hold you for the 1st time. 

I could not help but cry over how beautiful you were. I loved watching you grow. Every doctor check was an adventure full of tears and laughter.

There was one visit that changed my life forever. That was the day the doctor said I am sorry but your daughter has high functioning autism. 

I couldn’t wrap my head around his words. I did not want to believe it. Then everything clicked. You not talking, the head banging, fits and tantrums.

Were you not being a brat or trying to get your way, but something you had no control over? I felt so helpless. I felt like I had let you down.

This was a boo-boo

This was a boo-boo I could not fix. Even though I know I wanted to with everything in me. That is when I realized the future I imagined for you may not be possible.

Then you slap me with reality and showed me what you were capable of. You were not going to let this hiccup in the road we call life defined your future.  

So even though we may go through some obstacles that we were not expecting we are going to kick their butts. 

You have come so far in the past year. As much as I wanted to be the teacher in your life, you’ve been the teacher in mine. 

Never forget that God did not make us to fit in but to stand out.