My Faith turned eight last month. It was a sobering thought, my firstborn turning eight. Many thoughts run through your mind when you have a kid with autism.
Like, "If she didn't have autism, she'd be in Primary 2 by now."
You feel a mixed bag of sadness at her slow progress and pride that she has grown so big.
When I got home from my recent trip, she was the first to see me. She had just woken up from her nap and she jumped on me when she saw me, offering me her cheeks immediately when I said, "Give Papa a kiss?"
Today, she gave me something new to be proud about.
I noticed that she had three new favourite books. And she was flipping through them intently. Two were the My First Numbers kind of board books.
When she saw me, she grabbed my finger and made me read out the numbers on the board books. She seemed to know all the numbers from 1 to 10.
One of the three books was not really a numbers book but a book about the alphabet. At the page, N is for Numbers, there were the numbers 1 to 10. That was the only page she liked in that book.
We spent the morning "reading" the three books she took out, until my finger got a little cramped. I found out she really likes the numbers 7 and 3.
I think her Special School teachers have been working on numbers with her recently. I have to thank them when I see them.
Maybe she isn't ready for Primary 2 yet. Maybe she may never be. But she now knows 1 to 10 and loves 7 and 3.
I count these as blessings.
