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My husband and I decided the other night to document all of our struggles in the treatment and understanding of our son's autisitic disorder. He was disagnosed on July, 28, 2009. I was depressed for probably two months afterward. I went through so many different emotions. We all want our children to be healthy and 'normal'. After those two depressing months, I dragged my sad ass out of bed and proceeded to get educated on this disorder. There is so much information about autism out there. One thing that I have noticed is that there are two distinct school of thoughts on how to handle an autistic child. One theory is that we must help them assimilate into the 'normal' world but giving them therapy to basically try to hide the obvious autistic traits. This is to help them function in the world at large and give them the best chance of success in the 'normal' world. Currently Ryan attends a day outpatient program that is working on his behavioral, language and social skills. I've seen him make great strides in the 6 weeks he's been there. The other side of the debate on how autistic children should be treated is that it is cruel and unusual punishment to try and change the beauty that is autism. For example, my son is very bright. He's very involved in himself though, and very shy. Where does autism end and his own little personality begin? No matter how much therapy he receives, he will always be autistic. There is no cure. His intelligence is just different than 'normal' intelligence. Is it cruel to force him through therapy to change his ways? And does that even work? That's where I'm at now. We love our son so much, that the autism doesn't really matter. He's our boy, a bit different, but all ours nonetheless. Both my hubby and I see some of our own personality in Ryan.

I would love to read your blog. I had similar, although probably less difficult struggles with my son's Bipolar diagnosis a few years ago. You might also want to check out the blogger.com site. I found it much more navigable than facebook for blogging and its very easy to use. I love that you can add in photos, follow other blogs and develop a real readership there. I started out with very few web-publishing skills, but they make it really simple to create something that looks great and presents you writing very professionally. Also IT's FREE!

http://www.blogger.com

Hi Kerry, I've just added you on Facebook (so hopefully you're not like, "er, who is this person?"), as I'd be really interested to read what you have to say and what your experiences are. I've talked to several adults who are on the spectrum about their upbringings, etc., but I don't think I've ever had any insight into the other end of it. If you do start an account with Blogger or similar, please let us know, as I'd like to read that also.

I hope you and your family are doing well right now.