My five-year-old son has come an amazingly long way since his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis at the age of two. Early intervention occupational, developmental, physical, speech, and behavioral therapies along with around-the-clock implementation of techniques learned during those sessions were the on-ramp to Seth’s road to recovery. He is now thriving in the regular kindergarten classroom with only a few modifications along with school-provided therapies.

However, no matter what great strides he has made, he still has autism. Despite all of the intervention and years of working hourly to teach him how to operate within the confines of this world, his brain will continue to be “wired” differently than those around him.

He continues to have trouble processing situations that startle or upset him. He often says off-handed or random things that make little sense to anyone but himself during an otherwise normal conversation. He comes unglued at the seams over things that none of us can figure out. He can’t simply jump from one track to another. But the things I choose to focus on are that he is having a conversation; he is speaking instead of screaming; he is now able to process situations at all.

In the big world, he may be delayed, “quirky”, different, sometimes hard to deal with, and high-maintenance. But in our world, he is amazing, unique, and has already accomplished more than we all thought he would.

He is exactly who God made him to be. And for that, I am ever grateful.

Photo by woodleywonderworks