The Journey Begins

Welcome to my new blog. :)

I recently decided that I was going to create a new blog - dedicated to our journey in dealing with, learning about, forging forward in Jason's autism.  I continued to put it off, as I wasn't sure anyone would really be interested in hearing what I had to say.  But, today has changed that for me.

Jason is my son.  He is 6, and a bright light in my life.  He's a beautiful child, with a sweet heart, and a cute sense of humor. Jason also has high functioning autism and OCD.  To know him, is to adore him...and I do. 

Today I participated in Oklahoma's 2010 Walk Now for Autism Speaks.  Being there, with so many families who are going through this journey, too, I really felt that it was important to bring more awareness to this issue.  To do SOMEthing.  I found it just crazy that while autism is diagnosed more often in children than AIDS, diabetes, or cancer - it only receives 5%  of all research grants and funds.  Insurances don't cover therapies and treatments for autism.  Autism costs this nation over $90 million dollars a year.  1 in 110 children, and 1 in 70 boys will be diagnosed.  There is a new diagnosis every 20 minutes.  And yet there are still people who believe autism isn't real.  I'm here to say it IS real.  And so many families are affected.

In this blog I hope to raise awareness, share our story, and hopefully share information that might be useful somewhere.  Autism affects the whole family, and can be a great challenge.  We all need support. <3

In the next few months, I am going to be trying to come up with some way to become more of an advocate for my son...for my friend's sons...for all of the children and teens and adults affected by this issue.  I appreciate you reading and being a support system.