Parent: Autism walk about hope

"How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans."

Autism was definitely not in our plans. When your child is diagnosed with autism, your dreams and realities of who your child was going to be, who your child is, are erased and you are forced to start over and create new dreams and new realities -- both for your child and for your family.

No one gave us hope when our son was diagnosed with autism, just a simple good luck and a pat on the back. We searched high and low for answers, and although we had to dig deep we finally found a community that simply won't take "there is no hope" for an answer.

Autism is a complex brain disorder that often inhibits a person's ability to communicate, respond to surroundings and form relationships with others. An autistic child has to work weeks, months, and in some cases years to learn things other children can learn in a day or even a moment. An autistic child has to learn how to play, how to hug, how to express love.

When your child is diagnosed with autism you start to look at everything you have in your life … and truly appreciate it. Autism comes with so many challenges, both for the individual and for their family.

Through the struggles however, we are blessed to see tiny glimpses of triumph. It is these triumphs that keep us going, keep us walking, keep us fighting … so that one day we might find the ultimate triumph, a cure for the most severe cases of autism.

And if that day never comes, we will know that we have in many small ways made our children's lives better, happier and more fulfilling by the fights we have fought, the walks we have walked and that they in turn have made us better people.

So, with the thousands of others who walk in the same shoes, we walk for hope, for endless possibilities, for every step forward, and even so many steps backward.

We walk together as one united front to give our children with autism the opportunities for the full and happy lives they so deserve.