4.02.2009

world autism awareness day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day - help spread the word!


In honor of my nephew, Cade, I made a donation to Autism Speaks which will help fund autism research, awareness, advocacy and family services. Please consider making a donation to help children and families affected by this disorder - and all those who will be.

I had the pleasure of seeing Cade a couple of weeks ago and spending some precious time with him. He is now seven years old and is almost up to my nose! Pretty soon he will tower over me and will definitely be able to wrestle more with me (and win!) whenever he asks to be tickled. He is a huge Power Rangers fan and loves to play games on the computer, often utilizing the mouse and the DVD player on his own (sometimes to his parents' dismay!). He may not have a huge vocabulary but it is growing more and more each time I see him.

He may not fully say "I love you" but I know he feels it and he tries really hard by responding with "you" whenever we tell him. He may not be able to fully express his emotions like we do, but I know he feels them. My sister brought all three boys in the car when it came time to drop me off at the airport and he was the only one still awake when we got there. He could see airplanes in the night sky and pointed to one outside the window as we approached and said, "plane". My sister explained to him that they were taking me to the airport and that "Titi has to take an airplane to go home". His eyes got watery and he whispered, "bye bye", which made both of us tear up. I turned around and looked at him and said, "I love you, Cade", and he said, "you".

[sorry, getting all choked up here!]

I love and miss you so much, Cade!




2 comments:

hermione53 said...

Awww, sniffle! Great story!

Anonymous said...

So sweet! I know what you mean about knowing that he's feeling the emotions even though he can't communicate them verbally for now. I even experienced that in the few days that I spent with them for your wedding. He is so sweet and is so lucky to have a family that loves him so much!
Shannon