Skip to main content

Sharing the Love

A common characteristic among autistic children and adults is impaired social interaction.  Back in August of last year, I wrote about Dominic saying "I love you" to me for the first time ever.  It has taken him this long to say it again.  This past weekend, he wrote this:

 

An hour or so later he said, "I love mommy!"  Wow, it was all I could do to stop myself from crying tears of joy.  Some autistic children and adults never talk, much less show such affection.  We are still so happy for every new word and/or sentence that he says.  Dominic is an affectionate guy - he loves to give hugs and kisses. No one is a stranger to Dominic!  There was a little girl in his class for a few years that has since moved away.  He STILL talks about her.  I think she was Dominic's first "girlfriend."  I asked him if he was talking and thinking about her more because it was close to Valentine's Day and he said, "yes."  I guess they share a special connection.  I love that Dominic still calls me mommy and wants to snuggle close to me.  He shares a special sibling love with Lauren and my stepson.  My hubby and Dominic have a very close bond.  Dominic is very lucky to have many people in his life that accept him and love him for who he is.  He does have some impaired social interaction, but I'm glad that sharing his love with us is not one of those things. I feel blessed that we were chosen to be his family, we are truly the lucky ones :)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Those "Steps" to Independence Can Be Hard

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...

Why We Pursued Guardianship of our Son with Autism

Last Thursday morning, my husband, Dominic and I went to our county's Probate Court and had Dominic's Guardianship Hearing. My husband and I are Co-Guardians, and we were granted "Partial Guardianship," which means Dominic can make some of his own decisions (future educational and vocational placement options, what to wear and how he wants to spend his free time), but my husband and I will make his medical, health care, legal, contractual and major financial decisions. The subject of Guardianship in the disability "world" has been and continues to be a controversial and divisive topic.  I was a panelist for an Autism Conference this past summer and presented on what it's like to have a child with Autism. Towards the end of my presentation, I mentioned that Dominic had just turned 18 and that we were going through the Guardianship process. When the attendees could ask questions, the first person that went up to the microphone started telling me that I was...

Presume Competence

Since we have traveled outside of the United States since Dominic was very small, we have had to get him a Children's Passport every five years. Since his current one expires in February of 2024 and he is now 19, we had to apply for an Adult Passport. I don't know why my husband and I picked Dominic's first day of school and Michigan State University moving in their students, but the appointment was yesterady at 3 p.m. We had gathered all of the documents needed and then went into a special room in the East Lansing Post Office just for Passports. The three of us sat down and the clerk asked Dominic his age. He said, "19." Since we were also getting his picture taken for the Passport, he went into a separate room, where she took a picture of him and then let him look at it to make sure he liked it (it will be his picture for the next 10 years)!  He said he did, so he sat back down with us. The clerk filled out a bit more of the paperwork and then she let Dominic s...