Having an autistic child, or any special needs child, changes your life. It's not something you can decide to stop doing one day, it's not something you can really pass off to someone else. It's the lottery you won, the gift God chose to give, the lessons specifically designed for you. And when you hear someone talk about their life and the things their child does, sometimes it can give the impression that everything is just total havoc and chaos, or that every single day is a stressful climb ridden with raw-edged nerves and restless sleep.
That's really not how it is. We have Logan, he is who he is, we know him and love him...boundlessly love him, and all our other children. This is just how things are. This is our life. There was a time when we just had our other two children. And we thought we had it rough, having two kids who were seventeen months apart. We didn't. We were ignorant. We didn't know. And with each year that passes, the memory of what it was like B.L. (Before Logan) fades and fades some more.
I have a friend who has an autistic relative. Unlike Logan, this young man does not speak. He is the same one I mentioned earlier who has a photographic memory. He does, however, communicate using a letter board...he can spell out words. Someone once asked him what it felt like to be autistic. He replied, "It feels normal."
Well, of course he had nothing to compare it to. It's like asking someone who is born deaf what it's like to be deaf. They don't know what "deaf" means because they don't know what it means to hear.
Well, I know, distantly now, what it was like to live without this child in my life. But I don't really think about it. And I don't really care. That was then. What is it like to raise an autistic child? It's normal. More so every year.
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