Luke And Alesia

My friend from Kitsap texted me last night inquiring about my New Year festivity’s. I texted her back a photo exactly what I was doing at 8pm. I was standing in line at McDonald’s! Such excitement with my autistic son Luke, but when I look into his eyes I know exactly this moment here is where I belong.

Ask What They Can Do. Not What They Can Not

This is Luke after walking 3 miles on a trail on the beach with his care provider. Yes. Luke you can do it!!! You walked the whole way!

“Luke, are you there?”
Sitting down next to my son, I gathered the rocks he was moving from one pile to another. Luke has always loved putting things in order. If it was not the rocks in one place all together, he was busily in the home putting all the chairs around the dining room table in perfect order. Pushing as hard as he could at times, he was bound and determined those chairs had to be just right.
“Luke, are you there?”
Moving to the computer room, Luke noticed the closet doors were not shut completely. From the corner of my eye, I watched Luke push the door shut until it was closed to his satisfaction. He pushed his body on the door and felt it to make sure it was exactly how his mind thought it needed to be. He was happy then.
“Luke, are you there?”
Luke looked up this time and he started coming rather rapidly toward my direction. He pressed his face and especially his nose into my hair. He took a deep sniff and inhales my aromas. These sniffs were not one or two times, but rather several until I said, “Luke, I know you are there and you can stop smelling my hair now.” He did.
“Thank you Luke.”
Luke does not seem to remember, but I remind him every time when he pushes too hard on my face or head that he is hurting mama. It takes a lot of reminders. I mean A LOT!!
In bringing these examples of some of Luke’s unusual autistic behaviors, I fail to describe too much of the damage that some of these strange motor movements can do to inanimate objects until he starting hurting me. It is because I want to make it clear that I want to see Luke showing me something HE CAN DO. It may not look pretty. In fact, a chair or table may get scratched up, and a closet door may get broken over and over as Luke believes he can fix it. That does not matter to me. As his mom, I am interested in seeing Luke just do. It is not being afraid to let go and bring a CAN DO spirit in my son. Autism does a lot to our children afflicted with this devastating neurological calamity, but we CAN DO a lot to show how proud we are of them even in the midst of quite possibly not understanding for ourselves what the behavior really means for the autistic mind.
“Thank you Luke for fixing my door and putting the chairs so nicely under the table. Mama is so proud of you. I love what you can do Luke. You are my best guy ever! You gorgeous boy.”

“Mama, Luke is your best guy ever and gorgeous.”

Yes. You are Luke and you can do….

Adult Transition Programs

Luke’s Para Educator!

I spent this afternoon visiting my autistic son’s adult transition program. Any parent with a special needs student know the enormous assistance the school district does to assist families in the special needs arena. Some of us may be more fortunate than others to have a program that goes the extra mile to assist our special kids. I believe our district is one of those here in the greater Seattle area. Thank you North shore School District~! It is with fondness, I share with you the end of an era for Luke. One more month and Luke graduates from this school.
Today I brought cupcakes and ice cream for everyone to enjoy Luke’s extended birthday celebrations~! He wanted to have several birthday parties for his 21st! Luke loves to PARTY!!!

Luke

My handsome son Luke when he took mom out for dinner!

I had to repost this blog with Luke in his vocational class as they tweeked it some so the other link was no longer available. I hope those of you who could not see it are able to with this link. WE have a wonderful public school district here trying very hard to work with our disabled citizens. As a parent of a typical developing young man as well as Luke I get the unique opportunity to see two worlds. I do not take either one for granted. We need the two to become more inclusive though as my heart knows if others see the world through the eyes of the special needs, I believe real progress could be made. OK folks enjoy your day and give lots of hugs to your loved ones as we have no guarantees in this life.

Christmas Goosebumps

A quiet birthday party for Luke and his very good friend that also has autism.

Christmas Eve is our traditional candlelight service at our church. The crowds are always huge. I would say there was over 3000 people this year! Our son Luke who has autism loves this event. This year he had an extra special bonus. As we walked into church, we settled on a seat way in the back which was NOT where we wanted to be. Fortunately I saw some seats closer up that we got to. As we began listening to the Christmas music being sung, I looked behind me and saw a young man with his family. I then realized Luke was saying hi to him and becoming very overjoyed. I then realized the young man was from Luke’s vocational school! We had him over our house last year for Luke’s birthday party.
The service became a brand new experience as we had never seen them at our church before and Luke was just so excited that he started rocking his body back and forth especially forceful from excitement. My husband had to work extra hard to keep Luke calm, and he did for the most part. The only part that worried me was Luke’s overzealous raising of the candle that he had lit at the end of the service~! I could only see the whole church going down in a ball of flames due to an autistic boy’s JOY! I can report NO SPARKS went flying except the sparks in his eyes to see one of his best friends from school at church.
I thanked God quietly for allowing the service to be extra special for him. As we walked out, my other son said, “Mom did you plan that we would sit by them?” and to that I replied, “No, God did.” I think I needed this as much as Luke did. I have prayed to God many times for help and today I saw God’s working hand and I needed that. I am sure Luke is an ANGEL that the Lord has sent me.