Spilled Soda

This morning I had a dream. in my dream we were in a hotel room,probably in China. We are in the process of adopting a 4 year old girl from China and hope to travel soon. Juergen had laid some important documents on the coffee table,and under the table. Unfortunately, there was also a bottle of soda on the table. Jessica poured the soda into a glass. I watched her nervously. She did this fine,but when she laid the bottle back on the table it spilled all over the important papers. Then these words came to my mind... In a normal family, if you put soda near important papers that soda will spill 60% of the time. If you put soda near important papers in our family it will spill 100% of the time!
So what could I learn from this dream?
1. We must be careful 100% of the time! We must always lock the front door so Jessica won't just walk out. We must always lock the kitchen so Jessica does not eat stuff she can not eat. We always have to hold her hand near a street. We must be diligent 100% of the time!
2. This being careful or diligent makes a person tired. We need help! We must have good teachers, and good babysitters, friends and family to help us.
3. Finally, we must learn to not kick ourselves when accidents happen (and they will). You can get angry, sad, you can beat yourself up, kick the dog, yell at your kid or your husband. I have learned to pick up a towel, and try to clean up the soda. I also learn not to put soda near important papers!

"Autism Is A World"

Her name is Sue Rubin. She has autism and until the age of 13, she was assumed to be retarded. Now 26, she is in college and lives on her own with assistance from others. "Autism Is A World" is an attempt, she says, "to bring people into my world of autism."
HERE is more information .

Bernard Rimland died

TIME Magazine

December 11, 2006
Milestones section

DIED. Bernard Rimland, 78, psychologist who pioneered modern autism research and advocacy and founded the Autism Society of America; in El Cajon, Calif. In 1958 Rimland diagnosed autism in his 2-year-old-son Mark with the help of a college textbook. The personal discovery led to a professional crusade. "This was war," he later wrote. In 1964, he published Infantile Autism, a landmark book that argued autism had biochemical roots and upended the then conventional wisdom that it was a child's response to 'refrigerator mothers" who didn't show adequate affection. An adviser to the makers of Rain Man - his son was a model for Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning 1988 turn as an autistic savant - Rimland also controversially claimed metals like mercury could trigger autism and vitamins could help treat it.


If it was not for Dr.Rimland, people might think Jessica was autistic because I was a bad mom! I owe him a great deal!

Best day of 2006

I have been thinking about the year 2006. It was a full year...and good year. I had many wonderful moments. I think the best day for me was spent in Thailand. It was our last day in Thailand. It was a little rainy, but warm. We still went to the swimming pool. We were the only ones there. Jessica was so "with us". She laughed with us and interacted with us fully. Her physical coordination was very good. On the way back to our hotel room it began to rain. Jessica ran laughing, giggling across the uneven pavement. I was worried she would fall, but she didn't. She was sure footed, even graceful. At dinner we walked the 5 or more blocks to our favorite restaurant. Again the sidewalks were very uneven. Jessica seemed to master the pavement. It was no problem at all. And days before she would need to be dragged to the restaurant scratching and wining. On this night she walked willingly. Once there she sat contently for an hour...no DVD player! As she returned to the room, over the uneven pavement, I felt like I could cry for joy. I have not seen her so well, so healthy, so all together happy! We are probably traveling soon to China. We are adopting a 4 year old girl. I am sure the airplane ride and first few days in China will be awful! But perhaps we may also see our healthy happy coordinated Jessica too.. Maybe the daily sight seeing,and swimming at the pool brings out the best of Jessica. I can only hope this is true. Getting her to that place of health seems like such allot of work, but once there...it is really something special. I never see her like that at home. At home she is lost. For a brief moment...she was found. She is so amazing when she is found!