The last day of April, National Autism Awareness month. The last day of this personal project that in many ways exceeded my expectations, but in many ways fell short of what I had hoped I could accomplish. I have to chuckle though, that's how "Life with Autism" sometimes rolls!
So... where do we go from here?
Back.
We go back to the drawing board.
We go back to basics.
We go back to the common sense we have allowed the government to take from us. And we ask ourselves as a society, as a nation, some very hard questions. That even though God gave us the intelligence to create artificial immunity through vaccinations, is it really better than the natural immunity God programmed each of us with? For those of us who are Christian mommies who believe in a perfect God, do we really think if he is indeed perfect, that he would create an infant who needs artificial immunity in the first place? Do we really think that even if some vaccinations in the past were good, that more today are better? It's debatable whether they were good in the past, and unquestionable that they are not good in the present nor will they be any better in the future. We question ourselves in that if we have the knowledge and technology to grow food faster with GMO's and create the perfect meat from cultured animal tissue, is that really what we want to do? Do we really want to potentially sacrifice our children's health for someone's science experiment in doing something just because they could, not because it's needed? For our convenience? In my Cooking Light magazine there is a side-bar of "Food and Nutrition Trends of the Next 25 Years" which says "Tissue Culturing will yield healthier meat" and explains "The flavor, texture, and nutrition of conventional meat products harvested from slaughtered livestock are determined by the animal growth and development processes. Liberated from such processes, production of livestock meat by tissue culture methods will enable a healthier nutritional profile and customization to suit individual consumer tastes." I think the only thing we've been liberated from is our brains if we support that. Another one is "Produce will grow very, very quickly" which is about being able to grow our fruit or vegetables overnight. "It would have to be a genetically modified seed, unfortunately, but wouldn't it be cool to plant a seed, water it, and wake up to delicious produce the next day?"
No. No, in fact it would not and where we go from here had best be realizing that. Back to the basics of clean, healthy, organic living. Living off the land in its time, not ours.
If, that is, we care for our children's health more than our convenience. Which I'm convinced that as a society who has allowed such toxins and poisons into our homes and foods, we don't care for our children's health more. We care for progress more, no matter whose health it hurts. We care for profits more, no matter whose health it costs.
We go back to not valuing a man's ability to play sports professionally more than valuing a person who cares for another human being that God created. We ask ourselves if we really think that professional athletes should be paid more than a caregiver, a teacher, a soldier. And before anyone answers that they best be someone wealthy enough to not ever need the care of anyone in a nursing home nor someone who would ever need the protection of a soldier, a police officer, or a firefighter. And above all you best not be a woman who will have a child one day who might possibly develop autism and need anything from anyone. And when you have that child one day and decide vaccinations are not your choice, you best have some bail money stored up because with the current trend of state's overriding a parent's right of choice, you won't have a choice to vaccinate or not. You'll be arrested if you don't.
As a Christian I have to believe in purpose for all things. I do not for a moment think that God created autism. I'm perplexed as to why he chose to allow it, but that's a sovereignty issue that my humanness does not allow me the capacity to comprehend. But in that purpose of God's sovereignty, I have to think this generation of children, youth, and adults who have an autism spectrum disorder are our Nation's wake-up call. Our Nation's last chance to get it right. Our Nation's chance to go back to the basics of common sense where we should have never left in the first place. Before it's even more too late.
We must go back to before autism exploded to see what occurred during that time to see what we have done wrong. Most of us know that answer, we're just waiting for the government to admit it; and as voting citizens of this nation, we must demand Congressional Hearings on Autism so they are forced to admit it.
Click here to join the Canary Party to demand Congressional Hearings on Autism.
We have to look to this present 1 in 88 and face who we have harmed in the name of progress, profit, and politics. And we as a society must do all we can to make their now, their future, the best it can be despite what has been done to them.
We must learn from past vaccine and environmental mistakes and stop repeating them!
Lighting it up blue won't fix it. Walking for it won't fix it. Changing our values, attitudes, and beliefs will. Going back to basics will. A dining in home grown or home cooked instead of drive thru processed and poisoned way of life will.
Those 1 in 88 are indeed the canaries in this Nation's "more-and-faster-and-easier-is-better" coal mine. This generation of children are growing up coughing, choking, and dying from the fumes of multiple vaccinations, GMO's, and environmental toxins. I believe that with every fiber of my soul. I know that God could have not allowed this epidemic, could stop it and reverse it. But that he did allow it, and didn't stop it or reverse it, and is instead having faith that we will, -- tells me that even he still has hope for us as a society, as a Nation. That we will see what we've done, who we've done it to, stop it, and fix it.
Ahhhh... no matter the odds, I still have Hopeism in that. It's what keeps this stark-raving-mad-laughing-lunatic-who-loves-her-Lord on the edge of crazy yet not too far from sane. It's what keeps me Choosing Happy, Living Joyfully, Following Christ, and Wearing Camo.
Reliving my "Life with Autism" in the span of a month has been draining. But it's been invigorating as well. Again with the black and white that is autism, in how it's both good and bad, joyful and sorrowful. Despite the worse days of autism, the stories of how Brandon has impacted others have been the greatest days of autism. The stories of how others have viewed and been strengthened by our faith as they see it, when we have secretly thought that on the most maddening of days if Brandon turned on one more light switch or left one more faucet running or hummed incessantly for one more second - we would sell our soul to satan if he would in exchange make him stop -- will encourage us when we have more of those kinds of weekends. Despite how maddening autism sometimes is, it is spiritual in how it has taught me about God. Shown me who he is. When you see the blunt of autism, you also at the same time can see the blessing in the child who has that autism.
We've had many "non-recoverables" in our home. A term my husband used when he dried himself off after a shower with a towel he found out a bit too late, was one our dear son who has autism peed on. After he dried his hair with it he noticed the smell then decided that was "non-recoverable" meaning it couldn't be cleaned off, so back in the shower he went.
Laughing about those many "non-recoverables" in our life with autism has kept us going instead of grinding us to a complete halt. It's given us new perspectives on what a crisis truly is. When typical people complain about a typical bad day, we know how when we have seizures and leaky gut on top of autism - how we just long for a day of plain ol' autism! Let alone a "typical" child and typical challenges.
I've tried to be as real as I can possibly be when it comes to allowing you to walk these thirty steps in our shoes. I've tried to share how even in how very difficult life with autism is, how many "non-recoverables" we've had, that autism itself is full of recovery. Hopeism. Healing. My own son who is so very severely affected, has come such a long way. Most of the healing for him has occurred in his teen years, a time when most say if they haven't made progress by then, there's no hope.
Hogwash!
Hopeism has no age limit!
I hope I've encouraged a warrior mom on this journey that despite how hard it is, keep fighting the good fight to reclaim your child. As you saw in the "Autism Mother's" video from a few days ago, you have an entire world of warriors fighting right beside you, there to help you. So keep pursuing, keep believing, keep defying, keep rallying and keep demanding.
Above all, keep laughing.
I know our family will despite the things about autism that aren't funny at all.
These thirty steps began long ago... sixteen years ago to be exact. What began by losing a child to autism ended with gaining a new life, a new passion, a new perspective, a new voice and a new community of some of the most remarkable warrior moms, dads, advocates, physicians, and researchers one could ever know.
What milestones we've missed or might never meet, have been made up in the muchness of the very many life moments that have meant so very very much more.
Some days it's still so very hard to make sense of it all in this crazy, mad, wonderful life that I did not plan for. I guess that's why there's Proverbs 16:9 in that "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps."
I'm so very thankful that the Lord has been, and will be, with us each and every step of the way.
To slaying the Jabberwocky's of autism!
To Never Quitting!
To Hopeism!
HOOYAH!
