Autism Awareness Day

It is April 2nd.  Autism Awareness Day.  So many people coming together to cure autism.  But there is something to consider; do people on the spectrum need to be cured?

So many look at the negative sides of autism without ever seeing the positive.  There are positives, many of them.  These special people will never fit into any box, so they must invent ways of helping them cope.  They are some of our greatest innovators and inventors.  They can see a need in places that others avoid.  When they find a passion, they can achieve a level of focus that "normal" people can only dream of.  And though a great deal of them have difficulty showing their love, their passion runs deep and is integrated into the core of their being.

Why do we want them to be like everyone else?  As I have said before, my oldest son has High Functioning Autism Disorder, or Asperger's.  He amazes me.  He is a great gift from God.  Before he was born I was told that I would NEVER be able to carry a baby to full term.  Why would I want to change what He gave me?  Yes, I try to teach him ways to function in a world that doesn't understand; but, I also show him ways that his differences make him special and unique.

I want to share 3 of the things that make my son so special and unique to me.  I would LOVE to hear how your child is special to you, even if they are not on the spectrum.

1 - Capacity for love.  Expressing his love took years, but it's there.  He is now very verbal about how much he loves his family.

2 - Logic skills.  He does algebra in his head and makes factual connections that would never have occurred to me.

3 - Focus.  There are very few subjects that hold his interest for long, but when he finds something interesting, he learns absorbs every piece of information he can find about it.