The bright yellow flier arrived in our mailbox............an announcement for Vacation Bible School at our church. It sat on the kitchen counter for about a week, and finally I figured - what the heck. Let's give it a shot.

We are very fortunate to have a church who is very understanding about the Rock. They try to learn things about autism and about him and they are always more than willing to have him join activities. I know a lot of parents who can't even take their autistic kids to church b/c no one knows how to handle them. Yellow flier in hand - called the office - got him a slot. Of course, I was going to go with him every day to make sure he didn't wig out on anyone.

Suprisingly it wasn't that bad. It was a "ranch" theme so everyone was dressed like a cowboy and Rock got his own play horse to ride - which he thought was pretty cool. He said "horsey" and would hold it between his legs and gallup around. We taught him to say "giddy up". Wear the cowboy hat? Not so much.

Good points: He sat for story time, ate his snacks, participated in art projects, sang during music time and walked in line.

Bad points: He smacked himself in the head about 897 times (a new behavior), dumped over every chair he saw, verbally stimmed a ton - randomly shouting his colors for no apparant reason (red! blue! yellow! black!), and pushed a few kids while saying "don't push"! But it definitely could have been worse.

Being his "aide" was completely exhausting. But it was worth it. Maybe the more we take him and expose him to church, a little will sink in here and there and maybe one day he will "get it". But for now, he thinks its just a fun place we go on Sunday with nice people and a cool playground and the occasional plastic horse.

That's ok too. Giddy up.