Ariana's Posts
341 posts
When I was young, our family often watched reruns of The Twilight Zone. Black and white memories of commonplace scenes twisting through sometimes terrifying deviations floating through the time warp of a 43 year old mind- faces and images frozen in grief or compounding horror. We are taught to think there is a firm line
Pastor James and Pastor Susan When I first texted Pastor James for permission to bring Tony in to First Church outside of worship services to help acclimate him to that environment, he had only met me once and Tony not at all. To both Pastors- James and Susan- thank you for so graciously supporting our
If you don’t know our family or work with our son, at some points as you’ve read our story you may have asked yourself “how much of this is real?” While it adds another layer to the height of the emotional cliffs I’m ever scaling, logically I understand the need for that kind of skepticism
For many months now we have been leaning into the blustery fury of one regulation storm after another for Tony. A year- an entire year- where we barely had time to gasp furtive lungfuls of calm before the next significant event plunged us into a wave of behavioral turmoil. Many points I had to fight
About a year ago, Whitney and I were working with Tony in one of our local Target stores shortly before she moved out of state. Another customer approached us and asked me some information about working with an Autistic child in public because she was hoping to encourage her partner to undertake similar outings (her
This is a post I wish to write with as much sensitivity as possible. In choosing to touch upon this topic in any manner, I have been basing my decisions on what I can glean from Tony’s public actions and decided that currently he wouldn’t be concerned about us having this conversation. What he would
To Tony My sweet son, we’ve talked about so many experiences on this blog over the past twenty months. You know I can talk a whole lot, and that even still with all I have written we’ve not even come close to outlining our full story. I know you hear it when people see us
This week’s post is all about tying up a few therapy notes loose ends. I strive to be comprehensive enough in each post to adequately address an issue and be useful to those who may need to try similar strategies or techniques. However, some of this past month’s topics were already long enough on words
For years, I have lived in a state of hypervigilance. So many seemingly simple moments for other families are packed with opportunities for my son to be seriously harmed. Some things Tony does because he either lacks a more complete understanding or currently can’t hold onto what will happen to him if he succeeds in
And no, I’m not talking about the La Usurpadora reboot. Although if I were to be asked, I’d have to confess to thinking that Gabriela Spanic was pretty iconic as the twins in the production she starred in, and therefore no other Paola need apply. Sadly, as much as I’d rather be talking about plot
