Do you have your book yet???

Evolution of a Revolution

Autism One Picture Post!

Its truely ironic - the thing that I hate the most about life - my son's Autism - has brought me the best, truest friends I've ever had.  We have a bond forged in the fire of recovering our children and its an amazing thing.  We laughed, we cried, we danced, we sang, we had a pajama party (!).  But mostly we celebrated our children getting better.  It is inconceivable to me that I might have never met these women who are such a vital part of my life at this point. We are all committed to recovering our children, and committed to supporting each other through recovery. 

My two roomies and I on the way from the Airport to Hotel

meeting my BFF in real life

Kim and I

G. And I

Goddess and I

Maryann and Doc and I

Moderators!

Kerri Rivera and I

Pat and I 

Fancy Dress Up Dinner

Best PhotoBomb Ever - Right before Kerri's presentation

Autism Moms Gone Wild (seriously, when we let loose, look out)

Last Day

Pajama Party!

synchronized planking.   

The Evolution of a Revolution - From hope to healing

I hope its not too tacky to review a book that I wrote a chapter of, but I just finished reading it cover to cover and I have some things to say.

First - if you have an ereader, please buy it.   If you don't, I'll pester you next week when the hardback is launched.

A little over a year ago, I wrote this review of the original Thinking Moms Revolution book.   And now I'm part of the second generation of Thinking Moms - TeamTMR.  Here's whats remarkable to me on so many levels - there are parts of ALL of our stories that are the same

- Our kids were fine, then they weren't.
- Doctors gave no hope with diagnosis and instead suggested that our kids couldn't recover
- We lost hope, crashing into depression or PTSD, we felt alone.
- We spent every penny and then some that we have to get our kids better.
- We found hope in each other over the internet and in person as we heard each others stories and realized that we are walking this path together.

 

I have no idea how long it will take the rest of the world to realize that we all share a common theme - our kids were INJURED by their vaccines, by toxins in the environment, by interventions when we were pregnant.   And Injuries CAN BE HEALED.

So this book - it will help you realize you're not alone.  It will, like its predecessor, put steel in your spine.  It will be company on your darkest night.  And it will, hopefully, empower you to tell YOUR story.   They cannot silence us all. It may be as simple as sharing with that other mom at speech therapy that your child is getting well.   Or your pregnant neighbor wondering if she should get a rhogam shot.  But they cannot keep us from telling our stories.

Here is a quote from my chapter in The Evolution of a Revolution:

 

Its the End of 3rd grade....

And I had my annual end of the year touch point meeting with Domninic's SPED teacher and Speech therapist. 

Dominic was in the classroom and sat beside me quietly playing angry birds (star wars edition) on my iphone for the entire 45 minutes of our meeting.  His teachers were very impressed - with the calmness and the focus.  They'd never seen him sit still for so long, so now they know he can.    They also were *floored* when i told him it was time to go, could he please give me back my phone - and he DID with no drama.   Our SPED teacher is astonished.

So, highlights -  His best academic year yet.  Most of the improvements have come since we got back from our HBOT trip on January.  He can rote count and gets the concept of quantity.  He really enjoys ST Math (and i'm not precisely sure what that is to be honest)   He can, when asked to spell a simple CVC word (like Man, or Cat) spell it from a verbal command.  He has memorized a list of sight words (which they will be sending home with me so we can make sure he doesn't lose that practice over the summer).   He can answer questions when he wants.  He has grown infinitely more independent - they no longer shadow him when he goes to other rooms in the school or to get his backpack or at recess (which makes me heart clutch a little bit, but he has had zero incidences of elopement this year so maybe we're past that).  He goes to specials now without a shadow. 

We got to meet next year's academic teacher - so he will be in her room about 70% of the time, with an aide in the room if needed.  She's got a SPED background and is totally on board with Dominic being in her class. He's going to do well in there. 

We talked about some of his challenges with speaking longer sentances perhaps being related to his lung capacity - as in he doesn't seem to push out a lot of air with each breath.  It came up in context of music in the fifth grade being an instrument - the recorder - and his ST doesn't think he's got the airflow to sustain it.  So thats interesting and i think I need to buy him a harmonica or kazoo or something (much to my chagrin).  And start practicing sustained blowing.    Alternative suggestions GLADLY accepted.

For the summer, we are to practice games that require turn taking like candy land.  And maybe memory.   We are also to count anywhere we can count, and work on his reading sight words.  And probably spelling.

So I've been keeping a secret...

If you recall, back at the beginning of Autism Awareness Action month this year, I suggested that if you wanted to take Action, to really do something, that perhaps you should make a donation to TeamTMR, the new non profit arm of The Thinking Moms Revolution that gives grants to families strugging to treat their sick children.   I told you that I was personally going to find a way to be a part of it.  I reached out to their board, and volunteered.  It was that simple.  The next thing I knew, I was the coordinator for fundraising for Team TMR.   This means I get to organize people - which is kind of what I do professionally.

As part of that, I was invited to write a chapter in the new ebook, "Evolution of a Revolution:  From Hope to Helaing".  I wrote Dominic's story.   They gave me a nickname and everything (I'm sure you can figure out which one is me, if you go look).

Our book has released in E-Book form on Amazon today (its coming soon in Nook form).  And we plan to have hard copies at the AutismOne Conference next weekend.   All proceeds are going to go to TeamTMR's grant fund, so i would be very grateful if you would consider purchasing it.  This grant fund - its what we never qualified for (either we made too much money or we had too few kids or we were already started treating... or we were this or that... whatever.  We tried for a lot of grants, and none came in), and with the numbers of sick / injured children skyrcocketing ... well, the program is very needed.

You can purchase a copy for your Kindle here.  The Nook version is coming soon.

Its hard to believe I went from volunteering to help a cool group to published author in roughly a month.  *Wow*.

And I should tell you - If you're interested in doing a fundraiser for TeamTMR - organizing a bake sale or a car wash or a 5K - Let me know!!