Autism Awareness Month Day 29

I woke up bright and early as usual. The sun was shining and it just looked like a beautiful day, although it was due to rain too. I received a message from one of my sisters with the words from the song “This is the day that the Lord has made.” This really made me smile. I knew it would be a good day. A start of something new and definitely great.

As its Friday Nae-Nae comes with us on the school run as I usually work from home that day or I’m local so it’s the only day I get to take her to school and give MrJK a rest. Well I say it is the only day but as its my last day of work today, I suppose I can pick any day to take her from the time being, however Fridays are good because of the clear roads.
I needed to do the school run and be back quickly as my company car was being collected. It’s a sad day saying goodbye to it as we have travelled many a good day together however it’s time for my other baby to take me on new journeys.
Before I left I nearly had heart failure. MrJK brought me the spare key for the car from the special place he had kept it. He has a special place for everything. For some reason the key had a label with a different registration on it. It had the reg for a car I had in 2010. OMG!!! I panicked and panicked. I thought I’d given the wrong key to the last people that collected the last car and the spare key I had wasn’t for this car. I could have cried. I just didn’t want anything to go wrong.
MrJK and I searched the house thinking maybe I didn’t return the spare key for the last car and there could be the right spare key in the house just in a different place. It’s funny because I felt angry towards MrJK at that moment because in my head it must be his fault lol. Then something just told me to go outside and try the ‘wrong’ key anyway. It didn’t make any sense but I just went to the car to try it. As I clicked the button to unlock the car it worked. I’ve never been so happy to see the lights flash on. Just to double check it was not a fluke, I got into the car put the key in the ignition, turned the key and YES, it started up. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. I had prepared myself for the car to go and if there wasn’t a spare key they could refuse to take it away and charge me and I just didn’t want that at all.
So what must have happened was the wrong label was attached to the key. Only one person in my house would do such a thing… However I didn’t make a big thing of it, playing the blaming game. I was just happy the keys were there.
By this time the children had bathed and were dressed ready to go so JJ texted his friend to remind him it’s the early day (as he forgot to do it last night) and we got ready to go out the door. JJ can send a text in one second but he has a strategy… He has texts saved with the information he wants and he just copies and pastes the same text. I wonder if his friend notices that he receives the exact same text every week with the exact same wording? It’s such a clever way to reduce thinking time. He doesn’t have to think about what to say. It’s so bad for his communication skills though. He isn’t developing his skills through texting because he’s pretty much writing the same thing. When he does receive texts from family members, a lot of the time he brings the phone to me to help him draft a reply as he really doesn’t know what to say and he gets anxious about it. He is the same with phone calls. He hates them! Even with his friends it’s a bit awkward to listen to as he will just reel off what he needs to say like he has rehearsed it and doesn’t leave them much room for niceties. When he’s on Skype though it’s so much different but then the conversations are often related to the game they are playing so it’s communication on his terms.
I drove them to school in the other car as I didn’t want anything to happen to the company car on the day of collection. Nae-Nae had to check with me whether I had transferred her CD to that car before she got in it. She goes through particular stages whereby she can only listen to one CD and until she is bored of it she can’t hear anything else, not in my car anyway. So when she’s travelling with us the boys have to endure it too. She gets into the car blocking her ears just in case I have left it on the radio setting, I don’t dare change the CD though. Sometimes I put it to the radio or listen to music via my phone because when she’s not in the car we listen to whatever we want. Although I had transferred her CD from one car to the other I hadn’t put it in the CD player so when I started the car it was on the radio for a split second, she moaned, I ignored and put the CD in as I knew she would be quiet once it’s in. She really needs to exercise patience because it was literally a couple of seconds of radio play.

Nae-Nae asked me to put it to volume 6. Well in the other car things need to be at volume 10 or 11 for her but she’s worked out that each car plays the exact volume she wants to hear at a different number. She’s isn’t wrong as I noticed the similarities. The speakers in that car are better and it has more of a surround sound effect so it doesn’t need to be turned up too loud for it to be the exact volume Nae-Nae is used to. I think it’s absolutely incredible. Her ear for sound waves is astonishing. I don’t know how she does it but she is always on point. She knows if the volume is up or down one number too. To the average ear there is not much difference but she knows and she will tell me to adjust it up or down one. The first time she did it I was like how did she know it wasn’t on 11 because it was on 10 and there’s nothing much in it but she just knew. Please try it at home and see if you can notice the difference. If you do then you have an amazing ear too.
We dropped off the boys and headed for Nae-Nae’s school. As it was a bit cold we sat in the foyer. When the teaching staff come by and say hello, Nae-Nae often forgets her manners so I have to remind her to respond and say “good morning.” However it’s really funny but no matter how many times we go through this, if her 1:1 TA walks by and says hello, Nae-Nae never responds she actually can’t look at her either so she usually turns her back to her when she’s coming. The TA is used to it and now laughs every time because Nae-Nae isn’t discreet about it either. She likes her but until they are in the classroom, Nae-Nae just won’t communicate with her.
Nae-Nae used to do it with other people that worked with her too so it’s a running theme. Until the bell goes she must think in her head that she doesn’t need to talk to them but other people that don’t work with her, she will happily respond after my reminder. We were in a supermarket one day and we saw a lady that worked in her class. The lady asked Nae-Nae about her day and Nae-Nae just starred right through her like she couldn’t hear. Her lips didn’t move and she had a blank expression on her face. I had to speak on her behalf as she just wouldn’t budge. This lady understood and said her goodbyes. I asked Nae-Nae after why she couldn’t speak and she told me that she wasn’t at school so she didn’t need to talk to her or give her a response… If she was at school she would have but outside school she’s a stranger. I was like wow! I completely understood where she was going with that though. I told her if she is in my company then it is ok to respond to people that ask her questions as I’m there to keep her safe. She still looked at me like nope not doing it. That was a couple of years ago so she has moved a little more since then and will give them a “Hello” and ask them the questions she wants them to answer but she is reluctant to have a conversation that is not on her terms. I find it very interesting.
The caretaker came on cue so we went through the gates and onto the playground. I sat on a bench reflecting about the day ahead and a call came through from those collecting the car stating they will be at my house in 30 minutes. This was good for me as I had time to wait for Nae-Nae to get into class and then go home with minutes to spare. I thought the sooner they collect the better so it doesn’t prolong the torture. I hate goodbyes so I didn’t want to sit and wait all day for that to happen.
When I got home, I sat by the door so as soon as I saw someone walking to my gate I got up to meet them. The lady said she just needed the keys and that’s it she will do what she needs to and drive away. I gave her the keys waved goodbye to my baby boy and I didn’t look back. A few minutes later I went to my bedroom window and there was a space where he was parked so that was it, he’d gone. New season!
I sent my thank you emails and worked my fingers to the bone completing every task so much so I forgot to have lunch. As I was owed it I decided I would keep working and take a late lunch and surprise the children by picking both of them from school. I texted JJ’s phone so he would know what the arrangements were as soon as he switched the phone on at the end of the day. They were both happy to see me and I was happy because I knew I could do this more and more at least until the end of the summer term when I will possibly step into another phase. All in God’s hands.
I picked up a takeaway for the children on the way back and I finished all the tasks I had. I put my out of office reply on. I’ve always wanted to write “I have left the building.” You know with that dramatic feel to it, so I thought why not, what’s the worse that can happen? Hopefully those emailing me will see the humour and IT can change it when they shut down my account. I can see all my work colleagues reading this sending me an email now to test it out lol. Go for it!
After work I went to pay something that was due and I was told that it had already been paid for. I was like “huh by who?” The lady didn’t know but her system stated that. I told her it must be some sort mistake because no one would even know to pay it, even MrJK because that’s something I sort out. The lady was adamant that’s what her system stated so she told me to run along. I just laughed my head off. It’s another favour of God moment and truly believe there was a message there to confirm that God has got us so we mustn’t worry about money or what’s going to happen next. I’m truly at peace anyway. I just know, as I have finally stepped out bigger doors will begin to open. They have already started and this is really encouraging.
It was swimming lesson day for Nae-Nae so we were at the pool early as usual. Nae-Nae gets ready and watches the clock. If her instructor isn’t at poolside ready to start at 6pm on the dot Nae-Nae is not pleased and sometimes really panics. So at 5.56pm Nae-Nae starts getting the instructor’s attention to hurry up. She’s so bossy with it too. This instructor is made for us. I’m not sure anyone else would have it or understand it as much. She has a child on the spectrum so she completely gets it.
Nae-Nae had a lovely swim and I had a lovely few minutes to just sit and watch. A few of us made a joke with Nae-Nae about putting her face down when she is swimming. She will never do it but she’s mastered the strokes without her head going under which is hard to do apparently. We’ve offered her every incentive under the sun to get her to try it but several years later nope she’s too clever for us. She will probably do it one day and we’ll all miss it. She doesn’t like the thought of being under water but she loves swimming and she has a great floating ability. One day maybe?!
On the way home I dropped my work equipment to a colleague who lives near me so they can return it all for me next week. I just wanted it out of my house today so I could have complete closure. They gave me a personal card too with lovely words in it that made me want to cry. Sometime I forget the impact I have had on others. God has used me to do some amazing things which have helped transform lives. It’s such an honour and a blessing.
When I got home I just sat down for a little bit just to breathe. That’s it! A new season is about to begin. I also reflected on my favour of God moment and all the other recent favour of God moments. I would be writing all day if I told you about some of them. This made me even more confident that no matter what happens from here I just know we have got through harder stuff and there is nothing we can’t get through when we trust. So that’s what I’m going to do. Trust in the Lord.
Peace and Love

MrsJK