More than Autism

The past few days, it’s been our blessing to share time with Brian, Michelle, and Brayden while visiting Kevin’s mom and dad.  My nephew makes the third of four grandchildren on that side to have been diagnosed with autism.  Brayden reminds me a lot of Adam.  He loves letters and numbers to the point of obsession, and he has strong sensory integration issues that cause him to be extremely picky about food (even more so than Adam, actually).  Recently, Brayden has made significant gains with language.  He has suddenly become every bit as vocal and determined as you’d expect (given the bright, beautiful red hair).  His easy obedience has quickly been replaced with, “No!  I don’t want to do that.”  Brayden has also grown into some imaginary play, but the thing I love is that because he prefers letters and numbers to people and characters, it’s his letters and numbers that have conversations.  I watched him sit in the floor and orchestrate arguments among the letters.  “You say ‘BBBBB!'”  “No I don’t.  I say “TTTTT!”  So, where my brother Tommy used to throw his army men together in wild disagreement, Brayden throws his letters together in massive combat.

There’s a website that Michelle (my sister-in-love) and I love to visit for great t-shirts and “stuff” featuring autism awareness messages and logos called “I Love a Child with Autism.”  One of Riley’s teachers introduced me to it one day when, just out of the kindness of her heart, she gave me a beautiful key chain she’d ordered there.  The business was created by a mother of an autistic child.  Just before my visit to West Virginia, I found a shirt on the site that I really want to order for Adam.

You can imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that Brayden had worn that same shirt for the autism walk in his area.  So, here’s my handsome nephew, wearing that fantastic shirt:

Anyone who loves children with autism knows that they are so much more than the disability:  fun, loving, bright, talented, amazing…I could go on for days.