Tough day at the Table of the Rock

This weekend we had a Jr prom which our oldest son attended with his GIRLFRIEND!!! So I did not get enough sleep, but that is a normal occurrence for me. I finally was ready to put head to pillow a little after 4 am, after brushing crumbled potato chips off of my side of the bed (thanks Jacob) I fell asleep saying my prayers. Morning came a little too quick but my wonderful wife let me snooze till 9:45 am and I dragged my butt down stairs, kissed who ever was awake at the time and started to get ready for 11 am Mass. As it was I probably cut it too close I arrived at church, and started looking for a parking spot..... 1.5 times around the block finally a parking spot! I swung in, locked the car and hurried the 1/2 block to the entrance. Looking abut it seemed to me that boy there were ALLOT of Catholics at church today.... I got inside and looked for a missalet... none left except for the LARGE PRINT EDITION, which I took and actually felt good. Boy the church was packed this AM, I found a seat in the last row just at the entrance hymn was finishing and I scanned the bulletin.... week 2 of First Communion. This explained the numbers. Now I actually love the First Communion Mass, it is in my top ten Masses. Father and Deacon Tom were processing through the congregation sprinkling the masses with Baptismal water while we were singing the Gloria. About half way through the Gloria it hit me... I should be sitting up front with family & friends as Peter was about to receive his First Communion! Just then Deacon Tom got me with a good broadside of Baptismal water, I blessed myself and then the water works started to leak. I praised God and thanked him for all He has blessed me with, good friends, a Great family, and a multitude of opportunities. I got control of myself and opened to the first reading, the psalm, the second reading, and the Gospel. I was going to be able to do this and hold it together. Father gave a very good Homily, addressing the First Communion class. All was going real well until Father started asking what the kids ate for breakfast, cereal, toast, eggs, popcorn?? oops they meant Poptarts, oatmeal, ( doing good Mark, you CAN do this) then one of the kids said Donuts ( which is what Peter likes for breakfast) and s Emeril say BAM, the water started to flow again, slowly through the creed, and I lost it at the beginning of the offertory. I waited for the ushers to go up for the collection and I ducked out. Tears flowing I made it to the car, I sat there for a minute or two so I could see where I was driving and drove home. I got home to Wow that was a fast Mass and I told Lynn that I could not hold it together due to the fact that Peter was not receiving his First Communion and she understood. Now I know that he will eventually receive First Communion but it still hurt, and we will also have this to face with Jacob & Nathaniel. I would at this time like to offer my congradulations to my brother and his wife and family on their son's reception of First Communion this weekend!

Going to bed soon, need to do some laundry.

Mark

the world

In my last rambling post I was describing a small part of our autistic life. We have further embraced our advocate life by my joining our local ASA's group planning our fundraising walk. It has been a huge deal to me and my family for me to start to "advocate" more for the family and the community. I am not sure where this will lead me but as a little trip to our local Six Flags for a graduation celebration for our now 7 th grader we are on the right path. We of course hit the water park with the"little" guys, all 3 were super excited even with the drizzle coming down. Well Peter our big "little"guy found that he loves, loves, loves water slides. and he spent at least an hour sliding. We then moved to the new "Wiggles" area of the park very bright, very loud Wiggles music playing, over and over and over. All 3 went on a number of the rides with Mom & Dad as well as alone. Very BIG steps for these guys. As aside note we have a very small amusement park in our area also and we used to love taking the boys there, then a switch went in Peter''s & Jacob's head, "no parade" was the mantra we would hear, it was difficult since our oldest actually worked there and if Peter was with us for drop off or pick up a full fledged melt down would begin in the car. NOT FUN!!!!! Back to Six Flags, our oldest needed to leave for work so I was going to stay with the other older three so they could hit some more rides, and Lynn and I were discussing this as we walked to the other new "little" kids area, "Looney Tunes World". In this new area they have a nice small roller coaster, train ride, car ride and other small rides for the medium to big tots. Well thanks to Sponge Bob, Peter wanted to ride a roller coaster, as did Nate our youngest twin. Well we got Peter buckled in and Nate as well, I sat in the car with Nate and pulled the bar back to secure myself and I could not get it past my knees. Big disappointment! I swapped out with Lynn and off they went.To say tears were welling up in my eyes as I watched them go around a realization popped into my head as I watched my 2 autistic kids that went on the ride act as non autistic kids, the beautiful smiles of fear that you get on a good coaster was evident. The ride went around 3 times and as it hit the last turn the operator announced "this is the last time around" and Nate said to Lynn" thank goodness". Needless to say Peter went on that ride 3 more times. Lynn and the oldest had left to make the ride to work and I told Lynn to leave all the other kids with me, they were having too much fun. We made our way around the park, going on nice long train & swan boat rides and we made our way up to "Frontier Town" where they have 2 coasters and a nice little game area. The "Steaming Demon" was closed but the "Canyon Blaster" roller coaster was open so the big kids & Peter went on that one, fortunately the lines were short because Peter was hooked! He went on it at least 4 times and each time he got off he wanted to go again, and again and again!!! Well the park closed and needless to say we will be going back and we will be heading for the "Comet" one of the top rated coasters in the world....... I can't wait.

Into the world of the Autistic

Hi, this is my first blog. I am the 43 yr old father of 7 fantastic kids...... 4 of these are autistic. My kids range from my recently graduated 17 yr old the twins at 3 yrs. As every one has been made aware Autism is the #1 growing "malady" in the pediatric medical world. The numbers from the government reflect that 1 of 150 to 166 kids will be born/diagnosed as autistic. I choose to label them as autistic instead of having autism or ASD (Autism spectrum disorders) because as this is becoming more and more clear that this is not a neurological or an environmental "disorder" but more of a genetic disorder we will need to address the idea that these kids are something special, something beyond the normal plane of consciousness that we as human beings are used to address. Now saying this I am not one of those people that believe in "star children" as an excuse to deflect the reasons that our kids are Autistic. No I am a devout Catholic that at this time realize the blending of creationism and Darwinism as a viable and actual fact. Now this does not help my kids that are Autistic deal with our world but maybe it can help us see into their world a Little bit clearer. When my first child was diagnosed as Autistic after many months I told my older kids that now that he was diagnosed we all had Autism. Not because we are at the level of the Autistic mind but that we would have to be the voice, the advocate for our Autistic family member in a world that they do not live in, or can verbalize any understanding of, our world.

I will add additional thoughts to this blog as they come me. And when I can get on the computer.