A New Year

Hi to all

For us, these are special times. Time of balance. Time of looking inside. Time of reflexion. Christmas time. Time for family, and – as Wade (Rankin) presented so well- time of transformation.

And in this Christmas time I realized how much I have to be grateful of, looking behind in my life. And also how much the world must change about how to give disabled people another space of participation and growing up, accommodation and respect, true empathy and consideration of human and civil rights. This is a experience we, parents of autistic people, share internationally.

Therefore I want to say thank you to every person that has been in touch with me in the blogosphere (or by e-mail) during this year, exchanging ideas. Thank you for your time and for sharing your thoughts with me.
To Ian and Wade, thank you very much for honor me with your friendship.
To Jonathan, thank you for your time, your kindness and the possibility of an excellent exchange- and very fruitful- of ideas.
To all the people who is reading this, I wish you a Happy New Year. I hope we can grow up in the serious science bringing us more clues, more understanding of autism to provide life quality to our autistic children/teens/adults.

Even if it is only a desire expression, I consider important another goal. I hope we can construct bridges for understanding between autistic people of all ages, parents of autistic people, doctors and researchers in autism, of empathy and true discussion, based on science and signed by respect- mutual- but focused on the autistic people needs of all ages in all levels (educational, medical, emotional and social), with the wisdom to discuss properly about what/who is serious and helpful and what/who is not. I hope we can give more understanding to our societies of what autism is.

To all the autistic adults, thank you very much for all you teached- and teach- me about what and how is to be autistic during this year.

Beyond any other consideration, recent times have been very powerful to me in terms of what true advocacy for my child is. And I am very touched by what I have read many times and by what many people blogged and posted and I have learned a lot this year, even when we are not in agreement many times. Being a mom of an autistic child involves for me a continuous evolution mental, spiritual and emotional.

My now not so little sweet autistic child is growing up. Even when times were – and are- sometimes difficult, I have a nucleus of joy and hope because he exists that is beyond everything because he is my son. I hope parents can see the soul and the abilities in their autistic children with the heart beyond the disabilities visible to the eyes.

In this Christmas time and waiting for the begining of 2007, I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my husband. I am grateful for all the roads of communication, love and understanding we (my son with my husband, my daughter and me) have, and he (with his peers) has constructed with the help of us, his teachers and his schools. I am grateful for all the shared moments with my children. And I am grateful for Life. And I hope that my son and we- his family- learn together to face the challenges for coming the Next year.

Amen.