Beep Beep Beep.
Security Breached.
Mason has never been what many autism parents refer to as “a runner”. He tends to keep close to Rashele and I most of the time. As of late though, he’s had a growing curiosity with the flowers he and his siblings recently planted in the pots that reside on our front porch. His desire to water and observe them daily is a requirement.
Much to our dismay we recently discovered that Mason can now unlock both deadbolts on our front door and make a getaway.

Five years ago today we sat in a doctor’s office, arriving early for a 9am appointment. Mason was fidgety and nervous. Even at a young 19 months of age he didn’t care for doctors, nurses or anyone related with the staff despite how cheerful they were with him.
His defenses were up at all times.
Rashele had long suspected something was amiss in Mason’s progress. I, the clueless husband, shrugged it off assuming all was well and he was just going at his own pace.
He wasn’t.

I've never thought of myself as having a shortage of friends. While I would love to have more friends that I could go hang out with on a moments notice, I know that period in my life is long behind me. I've been blessed with some great lifelong friends that despite changes in our lives, if given the opportunity, could pick right up where we left off.

Every so often I manage to step out from under the shroud of autism, look at Mason and see glimpses of a completely typical 6 year old boy. Those times aren’t as often as I’d like and the dark times are pressing. I'm ashamed to admit that Autism has negatively impacted my faith over the course of the last few years
But then Mason restores it in small bits & pieces.

Mason has a fear of water.
We've been partially thankful for this for a long time. It does make summertime water activities a bit more of a challenge. We never have had to worry about Mason wandering off and heading for a body of water. It simply wasn't in him. It took an act of Congress just to get him into the baby pool. With his anxiety around it, getting him in the water is much like getting my wife on turbulent flight.
Since he's 6 now, we decided it was high time we enrolled him in some sort of lessons and help him overcome, or manage, his fear of water.

(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.

With the birth last year of World Autism Awareness Day, thousands have learned what Autism is all about through our personal stories, FaceBook, media outlets, and community events.
In coming across many news stories from around the world today I felt uplifted. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I feel….. at least today, that we’re finally getting somewhere.
Not everyone in the world knows what Autism is, nor do they know the burden it places on family, friendships, finances, and careers.
But WE do.

Mason has a new love interest.
He shuns us on school days as we wait at the bus stop, leaving us in the dust as he eagerly runs to his new love to whisper his sweet nothings.
The enthusiastic message is always the same.
“ I LIKE YOUR VALENTINES… THANK YOU FOR THE INVITATION “
The message is followed by a hug.
When we see his crush around town, he has to drop what he’s doing to talk, if only for a brief moment.
Today we saw her 4 times.
Once on the corner near our house.
Once in the parking lot near Old Navy.

We noticed a few months ago that Mason despite his disability has a keen sense of humor underneath what some would assume at first glance to be a rather unemotional exterior.
I mentioned last week about our daily Q & A to go over the days events. Most days it’s met with the standard answers, but on occasion, when Mason’s mood is well above average he’ll interject his own series of silliness and humor.
Today for example:
Me: “Mason WHO did you eat lunch with today?”
Mason: Giggling…..”Ducks”

On the way home from therapy.....
Mason recently started a social skills class to assist him in what has proved to be his most challenging area. The class is small, 4 kids I believe. All are on the spectrum and all struggling to learn social skills and how to interact with others.
I picked Mason up from class last night at 6p. It was the first time he had seen me all day since I had to leave for the office before he was up. As usual he tackled me with an enthusiastic “HI DADDY”!
That’s always the highlight of my day.