My wife and I have always been big fans of the ‘True Life’ series on MTV. These hour-long documentaries have followed a wide variety of subjects including “I’m Going to Performing Arts Camp,” “I Have Embarrassing Parents,” and “I’m a Jersey Shore Girl.” You name it, they’ve probably covered it by now.

In 2007, they did a show called “I Have Autism.” They follow 3 different young men with autism. One is pretty severe and is learning to use an assistive device to communicate. Another is very talented at art, but is having problems with meltdowns. And another young man has Asperger’s and is trying to launch a stand-up comedy career.

I’ve been wanting to see this for a while. I must have missed it when it first aired and even though MTV airs these things all the time, I’ve never caught a rerun. Now though, you can watch a ton of the full “True Life” episodes on MTV’s website for free. I finally got around to watching “I Have Autism” and I thought it was very interesting. It probably would have been very hard for me to watch when we were first dealing with our son’s diagnosis, but 2 years into this for me, and it’s not as hard. I can look past some of the challenges these families are facing and instead share joy with their triumphs. Plus, our son is 4 and it doesn’t do me a whole lot of good right now to project what his life will be like when he’s in his late teens like the guys who are featured in this show.

So if you’ve got a little under an hour to spare, it’s worth a watch. You’ll laugh at times, and I think you’ll cry at times, especially for the young man who is so excited to plan his first ever birthday party with friends.

I can never seem to figure out how to embed videos here if they’re not on YouTube, so if you want to watch MTV’s True Life: “I Have Autism” then go to this link.

Has it really been almost 2 months since my last post? Trust me, I’ve had plenty of brilliant ideas floating around in my head of things to write about on here, but I never seem to actually get around to doing it. Perhaps in 2010 I will maintain some semblance of activity on here.

Just saw this very inspiring story on CNN’s website and thought I’d share it here. I thought it was a very well-done piece about a family who recovered their son from autism. The main person in this interview, Karen Siff Exkorn, has actually written a book that we’ve (ok my wife read the whole thing, but I looked at it) read called “The Autism Sourcebook.”

I found that our story is fairly similar to this family’s story in the beginning. The reporter notes that not every child will respond as favorably as this one did to early intervention like ABA therapy, but I’m hopeful we’re on the road to the same success the Exkorn’s achieved.

I’ve been trying in vain to embed the clip right here, but I’m not having much success. So just go here and you can watch it.

My son and I have always gotten along well, but since this summer we’ve become quite the pals. There were days in the past I would so long for us to have a closer relationship. He went through the normal stages of being closer to Mommy and I was confused as to how to get closer to him. I think maybe for a while I used autism as an excuse for me to not try to enter his world as much as I should have.

“I don’t know how to play with him!” I would say to my wife. “You just have to get in there and try,” she would say. But it always felt kind of like the whole chicken vs. egg debate. Was he not responding to me as much because I wasn’t playing with him a ton? Or was I not playing with him a ton because he didn’t respond to me?

At some point I guess I made a conscious decision to just meet my little boy where he’s at. Instead of focusing so much on the things I thought he couldn’t do, why not pour my energies into the things he CAN do? What a novel concept!

I felt like we as a family were placing so many demands on how he was supposed to act at all times. We couldn’t enjoy a leisurely trip to the park because he doesn’t play with the equipment there the way ‘typical’ kids do. Well, once I made the decision to enjoy the things he enjoys, we all had a lot more fun. Who sets the rules at the park? If he wants to swing for a half hour at a time and is enjoying it, why don’t I just lighten up and enjoy it too?

Our relationship has just grown by leaps and bounds these last few months. I wake up every morning to hear him calling out “Daddy! Daddy!” If I happen to be at work late, he’ll keep calling my name until I come home. He’s always taking me by the hand to go off on an adventure in the house.

I love that little boy so much and I’m so glad I made the decision to not be so uptight and to spend more of my energy having fun, playing, and encouraging him. Does this mean I’m not still striving to help him succeed in life? Hardly. But I think this approach is going to help him more in the long-run by letting him know I accept and love all his unique gifts and talents and will cheer him on regardless of what all the other kids out there are doing.

A friend just sent me this video produced by Autism Speaks. Very powerful and kind of similar in tone to a blog post my wife wrote a while back. You can watch it below. I promise I’ll actually write a blog post soon that isn’t just somebody else’s video or article. But I guess there’s nothing wrong with showing some videos of hope, is there?

Here’s another inspiring story I just came across about a young man with autism scoring his first touchdown for his school’s football team. I just love reading these!! You can read it at the link below.

Autistic player’s dream comes true as he scores his first touchdown.

I just love seeing hopeful videos like this one! My parents recently forwarded me this CBS News story about a young girl with autism who has found her voice through song. I think this one really resonates with me because our little guy is so into music too. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll be singing the national anthem at a game? I have every confidence that he can. The only thing that might hold him back isn’t autism…it’s the fact that our family is not historically known as being great singers!  :)

Check out this story, it’s only a couple of minutes long.

I need your help! I appreciate those of you who visit this blog even with my not-so-regular posts.  I know this is the lazy route, but I’ve just copied & pasted what my wife wrote recently, so here’s why I need your help….

Josiah has worn glasses since he was two, and they have Transitions lenses. We entered a photo contest sponsored by Transitions lenses to win $10,000, which we would use to help pay for Josiah’s biomedical treatments. They are also giving away $10,000 to the grand prize winner’s chosen charity. Ours would be TACA: Talk About Curing Autism, because they are a parent-led organization that gives grants to families who don’t have the money for treatments and special diets. I think that’s great!

So, here’s what I’m asking you to do:

Go to http://www.transitions.com/liveyourvision/, click on “view entries.” You’ll need to register to vote (it’s lame, but they won’t send you anything if you don’t check the box.) Once you’re in, go to the search box and type in “autism.” Look for the picture of Josiah in the car. We have three of them on there, but thought splitting the vote might actually be a bad thing, so please vote for the car.

Sorry their voting process seems a little clunky, but I appreciate you doing it for us! Also, you could spread the word to your friends on Facebook, etc just by giving them this blog link. Hey, be creative if you like. The contest ends October 15. I’ll let you know if we win! Thanks again, friends.

I recently did an interview for the station I work at which was a preview of the Minnesota Walk Now For Autism put on by Autism Speaks. The event is on Saturday, September 26th at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN for anyone interested. I went last year and was amazed at the turnout. 

Here’s the interview about the walk, autism in general, and Autism Speaks for your viewing pleasure….

So I was fortunate enough to do a bit of traveling earlier this month with my sister. We both visited Ireland for the first time and absolutely loved it. Most of our ancestry comes from there and we both just fell in love with the beautiful countryside and the friendly people there. Going there is definitely one of the highlights of my life thus far.

I certainly thought about my son all the time when I was over there. But I really tried hard to not think about autism a ton. I just thought about the normal things you’d miss when you’re not around your child….how cute he is, his little sayings, the things we do together, etc. I’ve learned though that it’s easier said than done to get some time to yourself and not be reminded of autism. I remember going to a Minnesota Vikings game last year and the first thing I heard over the loudspeakers as I approached the Metrodome was that they were collecting donations for an autism charity. The announcer said, “Did you know that 1 out of every 150 children have autism?” I had to laugh and mutter under my breath, “Yeah, I’m aware of that!”

Well wouldn’t you believe it that one of the first things I saw when stepping into the airport in Dublin was a sign about autism!

They had several donation points throughout their airport for Irish Autism Action. I was glad to see that apparently this was a charity of the year and that so much awareness was being brought to it. By the looks of it many of the collection points had quite a bit of euro in it so hopefully they’ll raise a lot of money.

I don’t know why it surprised me so much to see autism being mentioned in a foreign country. I guess a person can get so isolated here in the US and think that we’re the only ones dealing with autism. But it affects families regardless of what continent you’re on. From reading a bit on the Irish Autism Action website, it seems like there’s a good awareness and decent services in Ireland. But I’m sure like anywhere, things could be better and a lot probably depends on where you live in the country, just like here in the US.

I must be getting more used to this autism thing though, because a year or two ago, I probably would have had a weird reaction to hearing about autism when I’m trying to ‘relax.’ Nowadays though I just think about how much I love my son and how much I hope more people can be aware of autism.

So in keeping with the positive vibes I was trying to get flowing in my last post, I thought I’d give a shout-out to a website that I think has a great idea.

The website is called Autism 151. Their tagline is “150 Stories. One Community of Hope.” They encourage visitors to the site to upload a short video or a picture to tell the story of someone they love with autism. But the goal isn’t to talk about how hard life is for those with autism or their families. Instead they’re focusing on the positive aspects…the great strides these kids & adults are making….the unique and wonderful qualities they have.

A friend of mine pointed me towards this website and I’ve posted a couple of short videos on there. One is an excerpt of our “Surprised by Autism” show. The other is the video we created for the “What Kind of Word Do You Want?” website. It’s been fun to see over the months how many people have been adding their own touching stories to this website.

So if you have a positive story to tell, visit their website. If you’re in the mood for an uplifting story, head over there. We could all use a dose of what Autism 151 is offering.