That's the number of days that Hunter spent in the Neuropsychiatric Special Care Unit as either an inpatient or day treatment patient. In the last 28 days I have gone through a total transformation in my thinking, reacting and responding to Hunter. Funny thing is everything I learned, I really already knew, but for whatever reason kept trying to act as though I had neurotypical children. Faulty thinking results in faulty handling of the situation.
Tonight at church Hunter had a rough night in the children's group. I ended up bringing him into the main service with me. This was the most rewarding moment I've experienced in the last several months. During the service a video of a song was played (dang I can't remember which one) and he reached over and grabbed my hand and gently swung our hands throughout the song. During the final worship song he was standing on the chair next to me and I began praying for Jesus to continue to give me strength during the difficult days and to help me find a way to help the world better understand these children.
In the last 28 days I have realized, or realized again as I seemed to have fallen into the faulty thinking that Hunter was a typical child and should be able to handle all situations the same as his age or emotional peers. I realize now that he will always and forever have autism. He may learn coping strategies and be able to handle more and more situations as he gets older but there are some things he may never learn how to handle. For those things we will just have to alter the thinking and change the plan. As he learns I will praise God for each little milestone. This may be going in a corner and screaming instead of hitting, biting or kicking. It may be handling getting blood drawn and only screaming for 2 minutes instead of 2 hours. Each of these little milestones means we are on the right track and making progress.
To finish this off today I'm going to list 28 things I want to Praise God for in the last 28 days.
1) The wonderful caring staff at the NSC, they truly understand and love these wonderful children!
2) My wonderful hubby that is working hard far away from home but by doing so has made the last 28 days possible.
3) My son holding my hand during the song at church!
4) Picture Schedules
5) Iceberg Analogy
6) The parents of the other children in the program, we've laughed, cried and celebrated with each other and we understand each other.
7) The other children in the program, these children are all unique wonderful gifts from God.
8) Less-Preferred Activities (Brushing Teeth) followed by Preferred (Wii)!
9) That my son was not born 30 years ago when no one knew what to do with these kids, not even the doctors.
10) Family that understands and loves my kids.
11) Good hospital food that is actually a preferred activity after a blood draw.
12) Two blood draws with little or no problem (thanks to #11)
13) Puppy stickers at the front desk of the hospital (Hunter has 28 of them)
14) Carlos - the young man that checks you in at the front desk and happily gave Hunter 28 puppy stickers (even extra when he lost some)
15) Social Stories
16) Eye drops going from major tantrum to him being so proud of how well he does when he gets them.
17) Mom Time
18) Finally learning to tie shoes, oh we are not even close, but he tries now without a meltdown (little milestones)
19) Going to the salon with Shana
20) My Pastor taking Hunter for a soda
21) Being an advocate for my kids
22) K-Love for all the right songs at the right times and rockin' out on the way to the hospital with no kids in the car (they don't like the music loud)
23) Everyone at church and everywhere else that prayed for us - I can't even put to words how much this did for me.
24) Being able to finally start summer!
25) Fidget toys
26) Quiet space (for Hunter and Mama)
27) This blog for helping me finally be able to tell everyone what life is really like with twice exceptional kids.
28) All of you that read the blog and encourage me on a regular basis!
I know I am missing so many things, as there were a lot more blessings than 28, but these are what came to mind tonight. Tomorrow is a new day and I know it is going to be full of many more! Praise God!
No comments:
Post a Comment