Answers 🧩

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave (National Institute of Mental Health)

This is our final diagnosis we got for Charlotte on Tuesday. Our family has been through a lot through the years. If you have been around through even a little bit of it, you know that we are resilient. Our Charlotte has struggled in numerous ways since birth, but mostly with being understood and seen. Now, we have a name to what these challenges are called.

I won’t lie, it broke my heart. Yes, I sought out the testing and I fought to break down doors to get her the services I knew she needed because I knew her needs were not being met. But I don’t think anything can prepare you for being told your child has a disability, officially.

When I called my husband after the call, all I could do is sob. Before even telling him the diagnosis, that was all I could get out. It surprised me, my own reaction. After all, all I wanted was answers; I got them didn’t I?

But no one thinks their child could or will struggle this way when they get pregnant, or when they find out the gender, or when the baby is finally born. All you see are sunshine and rainbows. All you do is daydream and wonder what job they will get, what careers they will pursue, who they might marry and all the happiness that life has to offer. No one thinks about the difficulties that lay waiting behind doors that you think you want to open.

This does not change my baby. Charlotte is still the same spirited, beautiful, intelligent little girl she always has been.

But putting a name to her challenges makes her future look a little scary as her parents. All the help we need to line up for her, the therapies, proper childcare, setting up her kindergarten preparation, the gas that is spent taking her to everything to ensure she gets the early intervention she deserves.

It is a challenging diagnosis to take in, but one that she has the best parents capable of teaching her to harness. Though Autism will stay with her forever, it will not define her. It is just part of understanding her.

If you care for our family and wish to understand our child, please do your research on what Autism is and what it looks like. Most importantly, how to support and love the family and especially child through it. She deserves all the love, social connection and understanding just as much as any other child out there. She’s our Char Char 🧩❤️

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:14