Dear Noah.......today is World Autism Day....

and I think I may feel slightly different than some about it.

I do not seek a cure for you Noah......I seek acceptance. I cannot imagine you being any other way than you are.....whether you progress further or not. All the things about you....good or bad ....make up who you are today.

I love you just as much now as I did when you were a lot smaller and had many more issues to deal with on a daily basis. I have no regrets about your being diagnosed as having autism....and your other diagnoses....other than most others may find it difficult to just "accept" you as you are and not want to "change" who you are.

I think today should be more about acceptance......and let's not forget "education" about autism; for without that even more would remain ignorant on the subject and tend to put up even more walls around them.

I do not look at you as being locked inside yourself as many say autistic children are. Instead I see others locking you out. Setting you apart from the rest of the world.

I do have a problem with that.

and while I am not promoting their site or anything...there is a wonderful web site that IS all about autism acceptance. You can find it here:

AUTISM ACCEPTANCE PROJECT

and here is a clip from when Noah was a lot younger....playing in a kid's area in a mall when we lived in Colorado. Ignore me blabbing...I had a bad cold at the time and I mainly just wanted to focus on Noah playing...he loved the fake food play stuff and kept trying to taste or eat the bacon. He got super excited towards the end and began spinning a little bit....he had a ball.