Teen Autism

It was like having your favorite storybook characters come to life. That’s the best way I can describe it.

This past weekend I attended a gathering of people, mostly autism bloggers, who had participated in helping to raise funds for a service dog for Riley, Michelle O’Neil‘s daughter. How powerful it was for me, someone who, less than a year ago, did not personally know anyone who had a child on the autism spectrum. To sit at a table with twelve other parents of ASD children, including bestselling author John Elder Robison, was an incredible experience. I could literally feel the strength and solidarity of purpose. We are connected, and not just the people at that table. We are all connected – fellow bloggers and autism advocates, readers of autism blogs, and all parents of ASD children, no matter where they live or if they have Internet access or not. We all have different journeys, but we share the same goal – to help our children.

And so I felt privileged to partake in a lovely meal with some remarkable people. Jess and Matt Wilson and their children, who opened their home to several of us who covered some ground to get there, including Mama Mara (who brought chocolate cow pies), Pixie Mama (who posted beautiful descriptions of everyone), Michelle O’Neil (who posted some photos!), Kyra of This Mom (who posted the play-by-play), and myself. I am also glad to have met Jeneil of Rhemashope, Jenn of Devin’s Journey (who posted my new favorite metaphor), Petra of Our Journey, and Kim Stagliano and her husband. John Elder Robison not only graced us with his presence, he gave each of us two of his stunning, artistic photographs, and I can’t wait to frame mine and hang them in my home.

But I came away from this weekend with even more than some spectacular JER photography and a chocolate cow pie.  I came away with a sense of completion, and belonging. When I started this blog almost a year ago, I felt so alone. I wanted so desperately to connect with other people in my shoes. I knew there had to be plenty of other parents of ASD kids out there (1 in 150, so they tell us!), but for ten years – ten years! – I didn’t know that I was already connected. Now I do. Not just with the ones I broke bread with this weekend – all of you. Those who read this blog, and those who don’t. Those who don’t even have access to computers. Whether we know each other or not, no matter where we live, we are part of this community.

I no longer feel alone. And I hope that in reading my words, all of you out there feel the same way.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 1:06 am and is filed under Milestones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.