2RMine

2 years ago, on April 17th, 2008, My son Samuel was diagnosed with autism. 3 months later, my son Myles was diagnosed with autism. I don't like to capitalize that word. It makes it too important. I like to capitalize "Florida" or "Tennessee". I like to capitalize "The Steelers". I like to capitalize "Banana Split" and "The Bible".

I don't capitalize autism.

Don't get me wrong. I know it matters. I know it influences my day to day operations. But it is not the most important quality that identifies "The Boys".


Last week, Sam brought Joy a DVD with no pictures, just words on it. He said "I want Wee-Poo". Yeah, you guessed it...It was a Winnie the Pooh Movie.

Myles asked Joy "Would you like to play with my trains?". It was the first time he has asked her to imagine play with her. Ever.

And when they were in the backyard, Myles hollered out "Sammy, be careful!", then ran to the slide and helped him climb up it backwards (oh, like you never did that as a kid !?)

We recently went on a walk to support autism research. And we saw other families there. And yeah...OK...it is important. Research leads to answers which leads to a cure. We all know that.

But 'The Boys" are not defined by autism. They are defined by smiles, dirt, trains, spaghetti.

The are defined by Love.

One in 110 are diagnosed with autism.