autism is a journey: Jackson's Mom

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Jackson's Mom

I went to CVS to print one last photo for the Talent fair project...actually it was all done, but Jackson decided he didn't want the picture of just his cousin Taylor, but instead the photo with her holding one of his stuffed toys...(ugh!). Nevermind that the one we originally used was of much better quality (centered, focused, etc).

So, I'm just trying to get a photo printed and I say hello to another mom I know. (Her daughter is in Jackson's grade.) As she's leaving she causally says good-bye. They happened to park by me, so as I'm getting in the van, I hear her daughter comment, "that was Jackson's mom, wasn't it?"

That comment shouldn't cause me to think twice, but of course it did. The thing is, being Jackson's mom holds a completely different connotation than being Callahan's mom. Does that make sense?

Alas, the Talent Fair photography project is done!!!!

1 comment:

tylerbritney said...: Your thoughts on this make pefect sense. I feel like that too with Tyler and Britney and all the different people who know Tyler OR Britney kwim?

Glad Jackson's project is done. Can't wait to hear about his "A"!!; February 10, 2008 at 4:11 PM

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from "Metaphor-the puzzle piece symbol"

Ever had one of those "ah-ha" moments? I'm driving down the road today, pondering Jackson's recent successes--boyscout camp and football camp. It occurred to me that each experience gave me back a piece of Jackson. [I'm not doing a very good job explaining this...] When we learned about Jackson's diagnosis, so many dreams were snuffed out. We no longer thought about our son becoming an athlete, a scholar, or even a friend. We thought in much smaller terms:"how many words does he have?""did he learn a new sign""is he reaching out to us?""that's playing pretend, isn't it?"Our perspective as parents permanently changed. It's like we had this complete picture of our child and autism fractured it--into a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.Each day little by little, we get pieces of the puzzle back. It'll never be complete, never the same as we expected, but there will be parts that will come together.Like when he participated in the school music program, enjoyed boyscout camp, rode the roller coaster and attended football camp. Bit by bit, we get pieces of what we expected back.Of course, the flip side of this is all the joys we gain from Jackson that we never expected in spite of the autism, but that's another post my friends....