There's never been a better time

I'm immersed in a world of blogs written by amazing people with amazing stories and who are overcoming way greater odds than I am faced with. I was reminded, again, of how lucky I am by spending a couple of hours with Tokoroth this morning where he was trying his best to communicate, flashing a smile at me and holding that eye contact for just a bit longer than the usual fleeting second.

I'm not blind to the challenges we all face nor am I regressing back into the recent phase of denial but reading blogs by people who walk the same road (I'm looking at you Whitterer) make me feel like my son (and his family) are part of a new community. That there are other people out there who share the same offbeat humour and write blogs about their own, or their children's, struggle with autism, that make me giggle like a girl make it all just so much more manageable.

Having shared this diary with some friends on Facebook I have been overwhelmed with the messages sharing stories of friends who have children diagnosed with autism/AS/ASD and also from people facing challenges with their children who have not realised there is an explanation for their children's behaviour.

My friend of many years is a special needs teacher. He teaches science to secondary school children with a variety of developmental disorders. I loved his comment to me today as we talked about how much more is known about the aetiology of autism and ways to manage it:

"You're lucky, really, there's never been a better time to be autistic." =)