Its time to start.....

Hey to all!

I'm Abbey, Justin's mom. I started this blog months ago but never started writing in it. Not sure why really, maybe it was the fear of knowing I'm writing about something that so many people don't understand or dare I say even don't care to understand. Its easy to say that a child is a 'bad' kid, or that the parent needs to discipline the child who's acting out unruly.

But what would happen if that judgmental person stopped and thought about why the child was acting out, or touching everything on the shelf at the store and knocking stuff over. I never thought to stop and think....I was that passer-by that looked at the parent and thought "if i were you, I'd put that kid over my knee and MAKE them behave".

Well, Its not that simple anymore and I don't look at the parent in judgement anymore either, now I ask myself I wonder whats going on inside the child's head. And most importantly, I feel heart broken for the parent, not sure if there is something going on, how the parent must feel...sure sometimes the kid IS being unruly and needs some attention and it is the parents that need to take action against a miss behaving child. But all too often these days, that child actually has something going on and the parent has no clue as what to do.

 Hopeless is how they feel. I know this feeling.

My hopes in this blog is that another parent. like myself, comes across it ( much like I did with another family's blog about their son, who helped me understand I"M NOT ALONE!) and gets some hope or understanding. Maybe just the simple fact that they aren't alone either will bring a little bit of hope back into their chaotic life.

Chaos....what a word! Wikipedia places the English definition of  "a very specific kind of unpredictability; and informally to mean a state of confusion". This is absolutely right for our family, for Justin's state of being. Our life ( a family as a whole) experiences this a lot. I'm not sure if others would express their lives this way, but for us this is the best description.

here's the low-down on Justin. He just turned 9, he loves the color blue, LOVES animals and insects, rides horses for therapy, he can't swim well but loves to be in water, loves music and cartoons, adores singing, Justin loves playing his Wii ( well duh! what 9 yr old boys doesn't love playing video games right?!). Justin is in his own little world most of the time. have heard the song by Matthew West titled
My own little World? That's him, till God sets his mind at ease, then he lets us in for a while. Another song by JJ Heller  Who will love me for me.... is how I see him. The first time I heard her sing this song ( over KLOVE) I cried and thought about Justin....

I thought about Justin...... how different he must feel, knowing he is  different in so many ways. I've seen him try to play with others and they reject him because he's interested in something different than they are. I know they don't understand and how do you get another child to understand that weird guy that talks about bugs during football? Odds are I've tried every thing to get Justin to ask about other kids during play time and not focus on himself, but nothing works really. Now Justin can have a great time with other kids who know and understand him and they can get him to accomplish so many things that I can't get him to do. So he has his friends who care for him and are pacient for the most part with him.

I have a a little cousin who is close in age to Justin who has Aspergers as well, Garrett. Justin met him this past year when the family got together for celebrating our Nanny's birthday. He and Garrett got a long so well! It was through Garrett and his mom ( Melanie) that I was able to see what the doctors had been suggesting, but Garrett and Mel showed me how normal and typical Justin could be with the right treatments and therapies. It was all going to be in what we found worked for him.

Well I'm going to end this post here. I'll probably post again tonight or very soon. Justin has had a few more challenges pop up in his life and has had blood drawn for a full arthritis panel, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. i was diagnosed with it at 17, my mother ( Justin's Nana) has RA as well.....but all this is another blog for later ;-)

God bless you for reading this.....until next time....
May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

~~Abbey