A Time of Change

Fall. My favorite season. I love when the leaves start to change and the weather turns cooler...love the smell of firewood burning. There is so much about Fall that I love. Fall goes by so quickly though. It seems like we celebrate Halloween, blink and then it's January. In the past, as much as I love Fall it has been a tough season for Dallas. He gets sick a lot with his asthma in the Fall. There are a ton of schedule changes in the Fall, which if you know someone with autism, you know these are always tough. But I still love the Fall.

This Fall a lot more change is coming to our family. For one, we have decided to change some of our holiday traditions. We are taking a break from the big family get-togethers. We weren't going because we wanted to, we were going because we were expected to. Family should be more than just getting together on a holiday...family should be there for you every day. Family should understand that for someone with autism, 50 or so people in one house along with a whole bunch of food and all the smells that go with it is not an autistic kid's idea of fun. Then you add in moving it from the house it's always been at to someone else's home and it makes for a stressful day, not only for the child but for mom and dad too. Family should understand this. Yes Dallas can go and he can handle it, but he doesn't really ENJOY it. Shouldn't everyone get to enjoy the holidays? Family shouldn't wait until the holidays to see that child anyway. They should invite him into their home on other days when it's not full of people and smells.

Another big change is coming soon. I am going back to work full time in a week. I haven't worked full time since Dallas was born in 1998; I have worked from home and always worked part time. This is a big change but one that we feel we can make for the first time since he was born. We finally have people in our lives who can help me on days when there is no school. A few years ago this wasn't a possibility. I couldn't even walk to the mailbox and leave Dallas without him having a meltdown. Trying to get out of the house alone for anytime at all was very hard, let alone leaving him every day. Seeing him happily leave and go with other people just amazes me. I have always had one sister that I could leave him with, but that was it...and she's a busy working mom with five kids of her own. We needed other options. I feel so blessed to finally have these other options!

So when I look out the windows and see the leaves turning color and feel the cool air and all the changes those colors symbolize it really feels like a metaphor for my life right now. I can see how change is so hard for Dallas...all this change is hard for me too. I just hope I handle it all as well as he is right now.