God's Blessings in a Year....

It's been almost a year to the date that Chris, Colton and myself sat in a small room at the University of Alabama Autism Clinic. I can remember that day so clearly... Chris and I sat in a circle with professors and doctors while Colton played on the ground with a student from the University. It was there in that room that we heard the words, "Your child falls on the Autism Spectrum". Right then and there I crumbled.. I held it together on the outside, but inside my life was falling apart before me. I wanted to stay so strong for everyone, yet I just wanted to go in a room and cry because I was so worried, scared, afraid and angry at the same time. As a child of God, I couldn't understand why he had placed Autism in our life. It was something that I had never planned for and never even pictured in my life, but I soon began to realize that it was something that God was blessing our family with.

You see, a little over a year ago, our little boy wasn't even saying a single word besides "mama" and "bye bye". He wasn't making good eye contact and he would get easily frustrated if one single thing went wrong in his day. Some of our days were simple and easy, when other days were extremely difficult. Since Colton wasn't communicating, it was hard to know when he was hurting, what he wanted to eat or drink or if something was wrong. It was soon after we went to the Autism Clinic that we enrolled Colton in speech twice a week. We started to see progress in December and we were thrilled! His speech was improving and we were starting to see a completely different child. It was then in May, when our pastor prayed over our family and for Colton's healing that we started to see daily improvement in our little boy. God began healing our precious child right before our eyes! He began talking, showing better eye contact and adjusting to difficult situations a little bit better than before.

We still have a long road ahead of us, but since last year Colton has overcome obstacles that some people never thought were achievable! He is now talking nonstop and will repeat every word that you tell him. His speech is still jargon at times, but we are undertanding more and more words every week. He knows his ABC's, can count to 20 and can count backwards, he knows all his shapes and colors, he can spell and write his name and he loves to sing. We are also seeing his funny and sweet personality open up more as well. God is working in his life daily and we are so blessed that we get to witness it every day.

Autism to some people may mean the end of the world. However, in our family, it means the beginning of something beautiful! We get to see the miracles of God each day, we've grown closer as a family and we know that our God is forever faithful!

May the Lord be praised, for He has wonderfully shown His faithful love to me in a city under siege. In my alarm I had said, “I am cut off from Your sight.” But You heard the sound of my pleading when I cried to You for help. Love the Lord, all His faithful ones. The Lord protects the loyal, but fully repays the arrogant. Be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31: 21-24)

Update on Colton

Chris and I took Colton to the University of Alabama Autism Clinic on Monday September 27th and Monday, October 4th for an Autism evaluation. We were advised to take him to the clinic because Colton has a delay in speech and has a few symptoms of Autism. (His symptoms include the following: flapping of the hands, repetitive behavior, speech delay and minimum eye contact). The first Monday went great and Colton enjoyed playing with all the toys and he performed all of the tasks very well. However the second Monday was a hard day for him. They pushed him really hard in speech and communication and he wanted nothing to do with either teacher that was in the room. It was a hard day for both Colton and mommy. (It’s so hard as a mommy to sit and watch your little one struggle with something as simple as talking and I wanted him so bad just to say one simple word). The evaluation lasted about 4 hours each day and we were all completely drained by the end of the second day. The worst part was that we had to wait there another hour so that the Autism Evaluation Team could discuss their opinions. After a long hour, we were all brought into a room where they informed us that Colton had a very mild case of Autism. At that very instant, I felt as if all of my dreams had been shattered. I’m so glad that Chris was sitting in that room with me because if he wasn’t there I probably would have crumbled to the ground. At a time when I could barely speak, Chris knew exactly what questions to ask and I could never thank God enough for bringing me such a strong Christian man into my life. When we left the clinic, Chris kept telling me that we would make it through this and that God would be walking with us each step of the way. Now 2 weeks later, I feel as though our family of 3 is stronger than ever! We are trusting God each step of the way and we are praising Him through it all! It’s not the outcome that we had hoped for, but we know that God has an Amazing plan for our family and we are looking forward to experiencing it together.

Since that Monday, Chris and I are doing lots of research, reading books about Autism, and we are hoping to help fight this disorder for Colton. We’re meeting Thursday with a new doctor in Tuscaloosa who actually has a son with Autism, so we’re hoping to walk away from the appointment with a little more knowledge about the disorder. We both know that we have a lot to learn and that it’s not going to be an easy road ahead of us but we are love our little boy so much that we are willing to do anything for him. Thank you all so much for your continuous prayers and support throughout the past few months. Colton is a very blessed boy to have so many people who love and adore him!