Today our eldest son completed high school! For 19 years he has attended school and today was his last day. It is both a joyous occasion and a little sad. He is moving on to a new life. In two weeks it looks like he will be starting his first job. This was a moment we never dreamed would happen after hearing his diagnosis.
When our oldest son was three years old he was diagnosed with Autism. This rocked our world. We little information about autism in general, and had no idea how to raise a child on the autism spectrum. At that time few resources and services were available and those that were, were very expensive. We were told not to expect much from our child and that he most likely would never be able to communicate successfully with others, graduate high school, or hold a job. We were even told to prepare ourselves for when we’d need to eventually have him institutionalized.
Our motto became “Never give up, never surrender.” We worked on getting him into the school system’s pre-k program, pushed to give him access to every accommodation he was eligible for, and fought the school system to get what he needed even if they didn’t agree.
Over time he started to talk more and was able to enter mainstream classes. In 5th grade he became one of the most popular kids in his class. Then in Middle School we couldn’t get the curriculum he needed and applied for the McKay Scholarship and was able to get him into a special school that was much better suited for him.
A few years later we moved to Tennessee and found a school system with excellent teachers who helped him become the young man he is today. In 2019 he graduated high school and we were all set to put him into the Transition To Work program. Unfortunately Covid hit and changed everything. We continued him in high school as a “super senior” in the hopes of still being able to enter the program when it started up again. During this time he turned 22 and the school system said he had aged out, however his teacher was able to get permission to have him placed into the program anyway.
This school year he entered the Transition To Work program and did amazingly well. He had a set schedule with tasks to complete. He loved going to work and was proud to be working. He was excited and told everyone at church about how he liked working at his job. Everyone who worked with our son liked him and said he did a great job and was a hard worker.
A few weeks ago, the head of the Transition To Work program contacted us and said that the manager of the store our son had been working in would like to hire him. This was a dream come true for us. We have found a place for our son to work, a new life for him after high school where he is happy and appreciated.
So today we celebrate an ending to his old life and the beginning of his new one! As our son would say “To Infinity and Beyond!“
(If you can’t tell, we love our movie quotes and enjoy the internal jokes we can share with our kids who love them as well.)
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