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    It's Not About Destination
    It's Not About Destination
    It's Not About Destination
    Ebook61 pages52 minutes

    It's Not About Destination

    By Maria Rachel Hooley

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    About this ebook

    Autism can be a formidable challenge to any family. It has a way of draining energy, causing chaos, and putting everyone involved in a tail spin. Anybody who has heard the word autism knows it’s a difficult disorder even if he or she doesn’t have any personal involvement with this condition. That’s the hard part. But what about the flip side? Yes, there is one. The things your child does that other children don’t, the gifts your child alone has, and the love you could never imagine having without your autistic child. Whether you are a parent of a child on the spectrum, a teacher with autistic students, or maybe even someone who just wants different information about autism, It’s Not About Destination invites you to take a time out from the difficult part of autism and celebrate the gift of life that’s been presented. You know you want to. And this book is just waiting for you to see autism from a different point of view.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMaria Rachel Hooley
    Release dateMar 20, 2013
    ISBN9781301713424
    It's Not About Destination
    Author

    Maria Rachel Hooley

    Maria Rachel Hooley is the author of over forty novels, including When Angels Cry and October Breezes. Her first chapbook of poetry was published by Rose Rock Press in 1999. She is an English teacher who lives in Oklahoma with her three children and husband. She loves reading, and if she could live in a novel, it would be Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn.

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      Book preview

      It's Not About Destination - Maria Rachel Hooley

      It’s Not About Destination

      by

      Maria Rachel Hooley

      It’s Not About Destination

      © 2013 Maria Rachel Hooley

      Smashwords Edition

      Cover image © Depositphotos.com / Iryna Tiumentseva

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

      Dedication

      To Taylor Maddison Hooley, my ever my daughter and teacher

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Ice Cream

      I Should’ve Named Her Bartleby

      Swimming in the Deep End

      Yes, We Do Have to Do This Right Now

      It's the End of Sleep as You Knew It

      The Only Life There Is

      The Family Pet

      Are There Cheat Codes for This?

      Roses in December

      If You Ask a Stupid Question

      It Had to Come from Somewhere

      You're Not in Kansas Anymore

      Sleeping with Col. Sanders

      It’s Not About Destination

      Introduction

      A funny thing happened on the way to raising a normal child. I had an autistic one. A lot of teachers complain that college doesn't prepare them for everything. They're right actually. I know this because I am a teacher. But the same can also be true of parenting because having one child who doesn't have special needs, or, in my case, two, doesn't necessarily prepare you for the next child to come.

      I have two textbook kids and one who threw the textbook out. Honest. She went through a throwing stage the way other kids go through speaking stages. You know. They start out babbling. Not Taylor. She would silently pick things up and stare at them. I swear, in hindsight, I was wondering if she were already imagining her tiny hand being able to toss that toy right out there. For most kids, words come next. Taylor was busy learning how to wind her arm back. Next, other kids start using sentences. Taylor made her first toss. From then on out, none of our cats were safe from Little People flying through the air. This was one of the first ways we knew things were vastly different, and we were swimming in uncharted waters. Taylor was speaking to us using her body not language, and it would take us months to get this, months to understand that all the deviations on the normal check sheet for development were telling us something important.

      Normally, I like travel. I really do. But it helps to have a map, brochures, and maybe even a compass. Somehow, two years after my last daughter was born, I found myself in a strange place--no maps, no translation guide, no currency, and no clue where I was going. I was in Autismland. At that time, it wasn't even a dot on the map, and I was pretty much befuddled on how I got there. It wasn't where I was headed. Yet there I was. And here you are. Whether you have a child on the spectrum or have kids you teach who have an autism diagnosis, here's the deal: this book isn't about answers. I don't know what causes autism, and all the statistics in the world aren't going to make you feel better. I do know that with the number of autism cases rising is that Autismland isn't just a dot on the map. It's getting bigger and bigger. More parents are going there. Still, it's not the end of the world.

      I believe that learning to laugh and see the world through my daughter's eyes has helped me understand my world better. It's changed me for the better, and while Autismland wasn't my choice destination, life isn't always about choice, or at least not the choice of whether or not my child has autism. My choice is how I'm going to deal with it, and that's what this book is really about.

      Ice Cream

      When Taylor was smaller, I can remember her silence, which I didn't understand. It was the first thing that led us to believe she was different. I can't tell you how often I prayed she would finally speak. Instead, I can tell you, that prayer became a sort of mantra, almost an affirmation that everything would be all

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