whatever the actual numbers may be as to the frequency of autism, whatever the cause or causes may be, i'm of the mind that my daughter is one in a million!
she was born to my biological daughter, 6 weeks early and due to an abrupted placenta an emergency C-section was done. she weighed only 4 pounds 7 ounces. her birth mother had threatened to abandon her, and had abandoned a child she'd given birth to years earlier, so i adopted the tiny thing. my life has been enriched, and i have learned so much!
i knew early on, at about 3 months of age that something was really quite wrong. she didn't want to be held but had to be tightly swaddled. she cried if eye contact were maintained. she had other physical disabilities as well due to the birth trauma, a slight spastic diplegia or cerebral palsy, and after her first vaccination at 4 months of age, she began to have horrendous seizures.
she didn't speak until about 3 1/2 years old, instead using movie lines to express herself. she stimmed with her fingers in front of her face and by staring at running water.
now she is 11 years old, and outside of the inability to self-calm and tantrumming, it would be difficult for a stranger to know she has autism. we caught it early. she had speech therapy, and other help to overcome the hardest part of her experience of being a neuro-diverse child.
she's my one in a million miracle! my life is blessed by her every day. raising her and homeschooling her teaches me to think in ways i'd never imagined, it has been an intense journey, some of which was a bit confusing and scary, but worth every minute!
pace, FL
