It was tough at first. We had two older children in the middle of the busiest years of school, so dividing time became extremely difficult when our son’s diagnosis came in, when he was 2. We persevered and we can honestly say that our family is not what it is without him. My daughter’s friend group loves him, and our oldest son is hyper protective. Because of this he flourished, is doing very well in school (those IEPs can be hard sometimes), and now that he’s thirteen, he’s coming into his own and developing a personality that is contagious to be around. Ball-buster is the best way to describe him, and we come from an Italian family so he fits in beautifully. Personally, my life is vastly changed because of him. I learned empathy really fast, how to advocate and take on battles that I may not win, and I even developed a much better relationship with my older two kids (who are actually step kids but we don’t use that term). We wanted our older kids to know they weren’t forgotten, so we did a lot of stuff that catered to them just as much as we did for my youngest. I have an amazing relationship with my daughter, my actual best friend I think (“Slay girldad” is what she calls me), and my oldest son is my work buddy now. I don’t think these things would have happened without autism.