For quite a while, I have been attempting to get my art website off the ground. The plans in my head far exceed my abilities to create such a thing on my own. Frustration stifled my creativity and kept me from producing paintings I could really be proud of. Feeling that way usually gets me mad enough that I do something about it; and I did. I put together a book of my best portraits and had it printed. The first copy, although definitely something I am proud of, had some errors. With those now corrected, I am sending it back for a mass printing. It will be available on my new art website www.ArtHelpingHumanity.com within the next few weeks.
The excitement of being published helped those squeaky wheels in my brain start turning a little more smoothly. I remembered something from my days in professional management that has been extremely helpful. It makes more sense to hire someone to do the tasks you either are not good at or don't have time for than it is to try to do it yourself. So, I decided to hire a very talented and qualified friend to design my website and get it going. This is his business. He can do it better than I can and in much less time. I am stoked.
The morning of my meeting with my web designer and the other guy who will be handling the printing and shipping end of the business, I got up early to knock out a few tasks before the rest of the family was awake. An email that has changed me was waiting in my in box. It was from a woman, a single mother of an autistic daughter, a self-taught portrait photographer, and a cancer survivor. She has an amazing spirit of giving. Although we had never met, I knew immediately I wanted her to be a contributing artist on my website. Within the hour we had exchanged about six emails and were both bubbling over with excitement over the project. Autism has once again produced something wonderful in my life.
A few hours later a stumbled across information about a young adult with Asperger's. He is very interesting, well-read, expresses himself extremely well, and is eager to help parents and other Aspies understand the nature of the syndrome and life with it. He was kind enough to let me ask him some questions about how to help my kids achieve the self-confidence they will need to be successful in life. His recommendations gave me hope.
The best thing you can do is to make sure that the school keeps a close eye on bullying, understands AS, introversion/shyness and is supportive and listens to you and your children when speaking. Don't hide the facts from your children, don't sugar coat or whitewash them, and let your children know that there are good things about their uniqueness. Make it clear to them that you want to be informed of anything that they experience which makes them feel bad (school, friends, etc). -J.C.
Taking all of that into consideration, I discussed this with Ian the other night. And every day since, instead of asking him how his day was, I ask "Was it a good day?", "What was good about it?" "Did anything not-so-good happen?" "Were you able to complete your work?" and "Do you feel good about today?" Then at bed time, no matter how difficult dinner or bath time was, I always let him know I am proud of him.
To top everything off in a great way, the new psychiatrist has us decreasing Ian's meds. No kidding. We have taken him completely off one drug that I suspected was causing some violent behavior. Two other meds have been decreased, and one is being left alone for now. Ian says he feels great, he is having terrific days in school, and everyone seems to be getting along at our house.
Peace!
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