Thank You to Our Village

The old saying, "it takes a village to raise a child" cannot be more true and I want to take a moment to shine a spot light on our village and say thank you.  Our village might look a little different than most parents raising children.  Our village not only includes grandparents, cousins, friends, aunts and uncles, but it also includes therapists, special ed. teachers, social workers and skills workers.  These are our people and we couldn't do it without them. 

We're very lucky to have so much family close by willing to help when they can.  The boys have grandparents and great grandparents that are involved and very helpful.  They spoil them with hugs and kisses, give them an abundance of gifts, take them on fun adventures and often take them overnight or for a weekend to either give Tyler and I a break or just take one or two of them to give the boys a break from autism.  They also are respectful of when we need some space to just be a family or to handle whatever situation is going on at home.  To our parents and grandparents who help, thank you.

The boys are also surrounded by a multitude of aunts and uncles, even great aunts and uncles.  These are the people in their lives who are not afraid to be absolutely silly with them, throw out all daily expectations and just be down right silly, creative, imaginative and fun with them.  They spoil them with more chocolate than they know they're supposed to have, let them take the extra cookie or two, wrestle to get some sensory input or let them get away with murder (ok, well not literally).  These are the people who take the time to just be with them whether it be watch a movie or play frisbee.  To all our brothers and sisters who are involved, these are the "normal" activities they need....thank you.

The friends in our life are making huge differences with our boys.  These are the people Tyler and I choose to associate with because they have made our lives better in one way or another.  For Tyler and I these are the people who lend an ear, a shoulder, pass the kleenex, let us vent, meet for lunch, pedicures, a coffee or a drink or lend me their cable so I can actually watch the hockey playoffs.  And for the boys these are the people who invite them over for playdates, let them be absolutely crazy with them, give them time to do the boys things- even play knee deep in the mud or have unlimited amounts of popsicles- yet still understand they can't have the red ones (it's a dye thing).  These are our church friends, our friends from childhood, our fellow autism friends or friends we've met along the way that have become like family.  To all of our cherished friends, you know who you are, thank you.

And then there are the people in our lives that most people don't have in their village.  Some might argue these are some of the most important people.  And they are.  These are the therapists, the social workers, the special ed teachers and the skills workers.  These are the people that are in our home 3-5 days of the week working tirelessly to teach such important skills for Charlie, and admittedly, the rest of the family as well.  These are the people who help us get the tools Charlie needs to make his life just a little bit easier every day.  These are the people who give us resources we might not know about, who take Charlie out into the community to learn skills to be able to tolerate being in the community- in loud and crowded places, who teach him coping mechanisms that he can lean on for the rest of his life, these are the people who help expose him to different social situations so he can know how to interact appropriately with others.  These are the people who have also been hit and kicked just as we have during those tough days, but refuse to back down, and then show up again the next day.  These are the people who have seen us through thick and thin.  They are the people who let Tyler and I vent and actually know what we're talking about when we say our lives aren't like others'.  They've seen us cry, they've seen us angry and they've seen us at the end of our rope when we're totally and utterly burned out.  These are the people who actually get upset when they hear Tyler and I have not been taking care of ourselves, they've become an extension of our family and we would be completely lost without them.  To Charlie's extensive team, thank you.  Thank you for sticking with us and not giving up.

We definitely couldn't do this life without our village and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.  We are incredibly blessed by the people we have in our lives.  You all make a difference more than you know.