My tribe

I finally had my tribe of women over yesterday. The "special" women. The hot mama's. All of us have special needs kids around 5 to 7 years old. A few of these women given more than one child that has "therapy" as a part of their child's weekly schedule. Autism and "autistic like tendencies" is someting all of us understand and live. Five of us women total and 1 who was invited, but was out of town. We all are married and have 2 or more kids.
Thoughts:
I feel so blessed to have found these incredible women on this crazy journey.
They are: intelligent, funny, loving, wordly, international, critical thinkers, passionate, liberal, world changing women.
We are all on a similar journey, even tough our kids may be different there are similarites.
We get each other.
We get being hypervigilant in public.
We get that everyday can be exhausting and long, that patience is hard to keep.
We know the pain of the park and being with children the same age as ours, who behave nothing like ours.
That people don't call for "play dates" often, if ever.
That people stare in public and pierce you with their unspoken words,
"Why don't they just discipline their child!"
That in our hearts a piece will always grieve that our family isn't "typical"
That you don't get to go everywhere you'd like-like out for a simple dinner, b/c your child(ren) can't handle being in a restaurant or has such a restricted diet, it isn't possible.
That tantrums /melt-downs are part of a typical day.
That small gains are big gains for our kids
And we can celebrate them together
Most of all our children are blessed because they have this extended family that gets who they are and loves each of them for the unique and beautiful children they are.