(I’ll admit I wrote this blog 3 weeks ago, but because of a busy work schedule didn’t have time to finish it until recently)

We thought it impossible.

But it had to be attempted.

Since Mason has had a pretty solid year in school, both in his mainstreamed class and his functional academics class we wanted to reward him. At the same time, we wanted to reward the kids whom, despite Mason’s regular reluctance to play with, have protected him, helped him, and befriended him since day 1.

A couple of months ago Rashele and I struggled with what to do for Mason’s birthday. In the past, we’ve always elected to just celebrate with the extended family in the area. That guaranteed it always being rather low key and comfortable for him. But since he’d made some great progress this year, now spending as much as 80% of his day in the mainstreamed class, we wanted to include those that were partly responsible for his success.

His classmates.

As previously noted in past blogs, Rashele and I were regular fixtures at the lunch table with Mason and his friends. I can honestly say that Rashele and I know every kid in the class on a first name basis. I think that’s been the key into teaching them about Mason. They’ve certainly been inquisitive about him all year.

Since we know the kids so well we knew getting them to come to a party wouldn’t be much of a challenge. We didn’t know the parents very well. Up until the time of the party I had only met a couple of them in the halls at school during the lunch break.

We wanted them to know why this party was special for Mason. In the invitation we included a short note to the parents explaining why this was such a big deal. We let them know that Mason was diagnosed with autism at a young age and had made great progress in many areas. We let them know that this school year was his first in a classroom with typical developing children and that their child had been instrumental in helping Mason progress this year. And because of that, we wanted to not only celebrate Mason’s birthday, but also the contributions of all the other children in the class.

The R.S.V.P.s rolled in. Many parents thanked my wife for the note and commented that their child talks about Mason all the time. We learned that a couple of the children in the class have a cousin or friend with autism as well. Of the 20 kids in class, we had 17 attend. That was far more than we had hoped for.

Our typical rainy April never came this year and May seemed to be picking up the slack. With impending doom of 60% severe thunderstorms predicted for the day of his party we prayed that the rain would stay away long enough. After all bounce houses + rain + thunder + lightning + 17 kids x no Plan B = disaster. Mason had been talking incessantly about the bounce house for days. It HAD to happen.

Thankfully the rain managed to stay away while his party was in full swing. The kids had a great time exhausting themselves in the bounce house. Mason was side by side with all his “friends” literally bouncing off the walls and tumbling down the slide. (we’re still working on friendships..I hope to not use quotations around the word "friends" in the future)

At one point the noise factor did kick in, and as I scanned the crowd of kids, I noticed Mason was absent.

I had a hunch where he was and sure enough I was correct.

His bedroom door was closed.

I quietly opened his door and found him leaning on his bed, blissfully taking in some silence while he read a book with his Tag Reader that we bought him for Christmas. I shut the door behind me and sat next to him on the bed and asked him if he was enjoying his birthday party with his friends.

Yessssss, was his reply.

His search for solitude and decompression was expected. We knew at some point he’d pull a Houdini and vanish to a quite corner of the house to recharge. It worked and after we finished the book he was reading, we ventured back out into the chaos. He covered his ears while the kids sang Happy Birthday and shoveled down copious amounts of cake and juice.

The party eventually came to an end, and Mason gave high fives and hugs to his classmates and walked each of them to the door.

It was a great day, and thanks to whomever kept the rain away.