pick you up.

I guess most of the mothers here have a much younger child. My Dale is 18 (adult now), and yes we also went through what you guys are experiencing right now. As each child is different, we cannot compare the progress of every one. I'm contented with the small developments. That's what kept me going. We didn't have long conversations like this one. He started non-verbal. When he started talking, Filipino was a problem, he cannot speak Tagalog until now. We went with it. There's still fleeting eye contact. But, we got him to stop walking on tiptoes. There's still stimming, but we got him to stop self-harming or harming others. We know we couldn't solve every problem. We learned to accept, let go, and let God.

He hates most movies. He hates bad things happening, that's why. We watched a Tagalog movie once, since it's Christmas and we were all going together. Needless to say, he didn't like it. He screamed in the theater. He even said he would like to take a baseball bat and hit the StarCinema people who made the movie. So when they watch a movie in school, this conversation ensues. You can see his frustration, and then there's a sudden realization that he needs to accept things now. I feel sad, proud, and worried all at the same time.

You are and will all go through different trying times. I am sharing this to let you know that not everything will go well, but some things will. It will take time, patience, money... But you'll see progress little by little. Let's be happy with the little things. It adds up to be something big.

God bless us all.