The Diagnosis....Thomas

So we've switched gears here and moved from focusing on myself to focusing solely on my now 4 year old son, Thomas. Before I used no names, but want you to really get a feel for who he is. He is one of my twins (the boy in the set) and from the get go, the sicker of the two. Thomas was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder on March 30. His diagnosis is Aspergers Syndrome. You will find that now I will probably (try) to blog every day because I have a lot to say about Autism. I am on Facebook, but there you can't always express how things are going or what you are feeling. Raising an autistic son is not easy. It's demanding, time consuming and literally sucks the life out of me. He needs me for just about everything right now and I say right now because my main goal is to help him to be able to function normally (whatever that may be) and do the best he can for himself.
Right now in the world Autism affects 1 in every 91 children. That is an astonishing number and it's growing. It affects more boys than girls. For us, I believe that it is genetic.....I'll leave it at that for now. I believe in the theory of developmental instead of behavioral when it comes to Autism. I think that the brain has not developed properly instead of the fact that his behaviors are dictating what is going on.
His twin sister is his biggest advocate. She loves him, even when he hits her. She takes up for him. She speaks for him. She goes and finds him when he leaves the room. She loves him unconditionally...... if we all could be like that.
My oldest son is doing the best that he can. He is learning to cope with having a brother who often must get down from the dinner table to jump up and down or spin in circles. He often doesn't quite get why Thomas must flap in public, or scream out loud, but he's trying to. He loves him and he wants to work with him.
Autism is neurobiological and until just recently was a very rare thing that you just never heard about it. My goal is awareness, my goal is to help Thomas succeed, my goal is to help others see the world a lot like his twin sister sees him.....loving unconditionally!