Alive!

I was in Jonathon's bedroom this morning putting clothes away when he sat up in bed and exclaimed "HEY! I'M ALIVE! And so are you Vickie!" He sounded a little surprised as well as elated!

Ever since the dentist put him to sleep to do some dental work a couple years ago Jonathon thinks the dentist killed him. I'm not sure how he thinks if he was dead that he could come back. That's still a mystery. The dental event plus the deaths in our family have him very aware/afraid of death, but obviously we're still a bit confused! Such a hard concept to teach and to understand!

Affection

The other day Jonathon and I stopped by my brother's house to see how he was doing since he had to work on Thanksgiving and didn't come home to our parent's house the day after. This would be my brother Richard whose daughter, Kimberley died this summer.

As Richard, Alison (Kimberley's sister) and I were visiting, Jonathon came up to his Uncle Richard and started rubbing/scratching his back. I was quite surprised as Jonathon doesn't just touch people. In fact, if people touch him he's worried that they have contaminated him with their germs!

Jonathon doesn't have the verbal skills to say "I'm sorry for the pain you have in your heart" but somehow he fought through his autism that day to reach out to my brother. It was one of those moments when I realized that somewhere in that beautiful autistic mind he can have more understanding than what is apparent.

I love those moments... when he reaches out from his autism and touches our lives with such great impact.