Editing Has Begun!

I received an email letting me know my historical romance “The Chadwick Bride” is now being edited! I’m excited to start the finishing touches to finally have my book ready for purchase. This is the beginning of a new life for me and I am thrilled to share it with everyone. As soon as I hear from my editing manager next month I will post more news for everyone. I will also be plugging in with The Autism Society of Indiana and expect to be frequenting many of their events all across Indiana. I am very passionate about my writing projects and my belief in spreading awareness and furthering research for both the individuals on the autism spectrum and their families! I will be donating part of every sale of this book to the before mentioned organization. This is such a wonderful opportunity to make new friends, share ideas on autism/treatment, and seeing new places. I will post dates, times, and locations of all the events I plan to be at. I will also be holding a booth to sign my book and plan to bring my son Christian to as many of the events I possibly can. I hope to see you there!

The Little Woody Doll

I’m not sure there is a worse feeling than when you feel like you let your child down. In my case I should be used to that feeling, but I’m not. My son is autistic I cannot possibly understand him all the time and isn’t that  just that, right? Here I am again walking up and down the isles at my local super store searching in absolute vain to find my wonderful son “The Perfect Gift” for his birthday. It isn’t easy finding a child who doesn’t understand how to play with a toy a toy to play with. I realize he has never opened a single present but that isn’t the point. He probably wouldn’t notice he didn’t get a gift, but I would. So I go up and down every isle than up and down again.

One year on a whim I bought him “The Woody Doll” and after it was free of the wrapping Christian fell instantly in love. I cannot explain his fondness for Woody. Often he carries him about the soft fabric legs bent and pressed tightly to his plastic head. Out of nowhere he drops the head and dangles him by one single foot. It makes Woody rattle and clank as the lone plastic foot and two hands slap insistently against the head. I watch my son close his eyes and just listen and feel the effect of the combined movement and sound. This was a serious aha moment for me!!

My son has it so tough and here I can’t even find a nice gift to celebrate his birthday or for Christmas. That simple doll has been a godsend. We now have little to no trouble at all finding our little guy “the perfect gift”. We find ways of making a toy dangle and click loudly as he twists it within his grasp. I had to think outside the box and that simple toy spawned incredible ideas!! Don’t force yourself to be normal if you are not supposed to be normal. Buying gifts for your children should be fun and I didn’t stop until it became fun for us. Autism is an everyday factor and a special occasion will not ever change that fact for us.

The idea behind this blog is I know there are other people out there struggling to find an autistic person a good gift. I found a solution that really will work for everyone. Try observing what they do with objects they do like. Is it unique in some way? It turns out my son likes things that dangle and feel weighed down as he twists the objects. We now go to the store and find objects with a good weight to them and then we simply make them dangle. A ball with objects inside it like maybe a bell, next we find very thick string or sometimes even rope, and lastly attach it to call the creation “the perfect gift”!! Don’t give up just find a new way of looking at things. Toss normal out the door because normal is a myth and has no place in everyday life for anyone, just my opinion.

I’m in love with my family they complete me as a woman. My hubby is a great guy in everything he does no matter if he is right or wrong. My son Devin even when he refuses to use his head is more than wonderful to me. My son Austin even with his hot temper couldn’t be any more sweeter. My son Christian even with his autism is a bright spot in a dark day. And Logan he’s five and thinks somehow he knows everything already but still reminds me to enjoy everything I do. Life will be what it will be no matter what you think about it, so I suggest taking a new approach. When I stopped trying to buy my autistic son a normal gift I started finding good gifts. The only way I will fail as a parent is by not trying and being closed-minded. Don’t let traditional thinking hold you back when you have to brake all the rules just to raise a child with special needs.

The poster child for autism

The poster child for autism.

Christians love

He grabs me and hugs me was able to snap a pic at the right second!! And great eye contact too

The poster child for autism

Let me start by saying that my son is the poster child for autism spectrum disorder. He has all the stereotypical behaviors such as repetitive noise, swaying/rocking movement, and that corner of the eye watching others so I know all about autism. It’s the first thing you see when you look at my son christian and that isn’t always a bad thing. I realize that autism is a part of my son there is no avoiding that, but I like to think my son has autism and not that autism has my son. I look at him and his autism is much like when your tv is on, but you’re not watching it you can hear it, but you pay it no mind you know it’s there, but it’s not the main focus.

We brought our son home as a newborn thinking he was so precious and perfect we could already picture how many things he would do with his future. By 18 months we knew there was something not quite right, and I told his doctor that either my son was autistic or he was deaf. Four months, and several tests later we had the results my son is most definitely autistic. We now have our diagnosis he has autism so what next do you cry, do you panic, but no we just moved on. Not to say this was cake and we never ever struggled because we did struggle along the way.

The first five years he didnt sleep more than a few hours at a time. We had to sleep in shifts terrified he would get out of the house and be killed. We still some times have nightmares he does something and we can’t get to him in time. Paranoia, well maybe but with good reason christian has pica(the consumption of inedible things), he has no awareness of danger and he is a flight risk. I worry and I fret but every mom does and every dad too.

We have come along way with christian and it wasnt an easy venture. With all the uphill climbs there are so many great things to make it more than worth the effort. He puts his arm around our shoulders and pulls our head to his chest hugging us; man nothing feels as good as that does. He’ll reach over and take our hand and just hold it; again nothing can beat that. My son christian is the most loving and excited kid you could ever meet. Maybe he can’t say to me and my husband or his brothers “I love you” in actual words but he has his own little ways. we talk to him just like anybody else he likes when you say things like “hey christian whats up buddy?” he’ll jump up and down and squeal his excitement. He is just as loving and amazing as my other children are.

I made the decision to donate part of the royalties from all my book sales to the autism society partly for my own son but also for every other “poster child” there is in this big ole world. Its difficult to understand, and it can be so scary in the beginning, and we need the education and references of places such as the autism society. We have adaptive equipment for christian and we use the websites to keep informed about even more adaptive equipment that will help him be more independent and thrive outside the safety net of our home. It’s a worthy cause and one that literally hits home for me! I just wanted to explain why I chose the autism society and to let other people who deal directly with autism know that I truly know and I respect you and all the struggles you face.

My son Christian!

The restless writer

Sooo many story’s to tell and sooo little time to tell them all!! I have picked my genre and I love love love it, but I have this other story trying to barge its way rudely in. What should I do?! Dual write I declared….well it certainly sounded good at the time. Maybe it’s just me but I highly suspect other authors out there suffer my “I can”t sleep because I close my eyes and begin writing a book!” problem. Any ideas on coping with this issue because that I’ll just jot it down for a potential later story isn’t working toward getting more sleep lol. Honestly I had not foreseen this particular detail when I picked up my dusty writing dream and made it my new career in progress. I think I will continue dual writing putting more effort into my first genre love but any/all advice/suggestions on maintaining story ideas and getting some sleep would be great feel free and post away my friends!!!!