Our perspective as Grandparents who have a Grandson who has autism.
(This Grandparent's perspective is from my husband's parents...)
When we make a trip to our kids we would love to be able to just sit down with them and visit like normal, but because of Brandon's autism most of our time is either helping with Brandon or just watching him. He has seizures and is not fully independent in toileting, thus you can see those two things in themselves demand constant watch and care.
(This Grandparent's perspective is from my husband's parents...)
When we make a trip to our kids we would love to be able to just sit down with them and visit like normal, but because of Brandon's autism most of our time is either helping with Brandon or just watching him. He has seizures and is not fully independent in toileting, thus you can see those two things in themselves demand constant watch and care.
We would love to be able to go out and eat or take in a movie with mom and dad and kids, but that's not possible unless on rare occasions they can get a sitter to watch Brandon. So what usually happens is we stay home with Brandon, and let mom and dad have the night out - which is few and far between compared to normal parents. They love the time to themselves, we love being able to do that for them.
From a spiritual viewpoint, Brandon's autism has changed us in a lot of ways.One being early on when Brandon was first diagnosed with autism. We immediately begin to pray for Brandon not knowing what the future really held for him. After some time we began to realize that this was more serious and that even the doctor's did not really know what to do. Our prayer began to be more focused on God doing a miracle in his life. Praying for God's complete healing. As the years went by we still prayed for a miracle, but now more for God's will to be done and not us trying to dictate to Him what we thought He should do. Now after some 16 years of praying one might ask a lot of questions of God concerning this matter, but I believe God is still the same today as he was in the centuries past. I have no doubt about His power to heal Brandon.
For now we gladly accept the many miracles that have come our way and our kids way and praise Him for each as they come. My daughter-in-law has been born again. Their marriage has been strengthened more than one could imagine. My son has been blessed with a good job making the financial challenges less of a burden. My daughter-in-law has become a real advocate for autism in the state of Texas. She is a gifted writer that God has used for giving hope for others who have children with autism and those battling the day to day challenges of raising a child with autism.
Written by Gary & Mary Ann Guppy
