How it all began...

    As we have begun this journey it seems that I am asked one question more than any other... "What made you have him tested?" I think that is the hardest question to answer. With Judah it hasn't really been one specific thing; but instead many things all lumped together. The first thing we noticed were his sensory issues, then his lack of some basic fine and gross motor skills and lastly his delays and awkwardness socially. When he was younger we wrote a lot of things off as age or 'he's such a boy"; but the older he has gotten the more his "issues" have been apparent. Unlike children with autism, Judah makes eye contact and does talk to people. It's just very one sided when he talks and he has no understanding of non verbal communication and a very hard time reading facial expressions which makes it hard for him to empathize with whoever he is talking to.

    As anyone with a child knows, you never want anything to be "wrong" with your child or for them to have to go through life with any kind of label on them. We have gone back and forth many times on if we really wanted to pursue testing and therapies for Judah for this very reason; but in the end realized it isn't about what is comfortable for us or how we feel but about what is best for our son and finding out what he needs to succeed in life. It hasn't been an easy road by any means, but what in parenting really is?! I talked to our pediatrician on multiple occasions and she kept telling me to keep an eye on it; but finally referred us for testing when he had a "melt down" in the exam room, just because we were out of his usual routine, crawled into a small space between the counter and the wall and sat crying and refusing to come out. God has blessed us with such favor in the testing process and we were placed with a great doctor for his testing and diagnosis right away. We have also been blessed with great family and friends who have been very supportive of us through this process.
    Although Judah is going to have to live life with some extra hurdles, one of the things we have found living with this syndrome is that it also brings with it some very humorous things too. For starters, he takes everything very literally which makes most conversations pretty funny and his responses to sarcasm even funnier. My favorite times with this are when  we give him a command like "go take your shoes and sweatshirt off." His reply will inevitably be something like "mom, they are flip flops and it's a hoodie." One day I he asked for a snack while we were at our family business and I told him that there was a cheese stick in the refrigerator for him. He responded with "well, there are actually 3 cheese sticks in there." He also has a hard time understanding common sayings like "We are going to run to Nana and Papaws" and has even been upset when we went out to get in the car instead of actually running to their house. The best part of all this is that he doesn't really get humor like everyone else does, so he makes up jokes that are so not funny that they make us all laugh.

    This isn't necessarily the life that I would have chosen for our family, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! Judah is a handsome, intelligent, loving boy with an infectious smile and I wouldn't change a thing about him even if I could. As we travel through this journey of living with Asperger's as a family I hope you will stop by often to share in our adventures and celebrate the life of an amazing little boy with us.