As a mother, I will never give up on my child. As a mother of a child who has autism, I will never give up hope.
I look into his eyes and I see all the potential that he has to offer to this beautiful world and I just know that one day the world can see what I see.

Follow my blog as I share my life and my experiences as a person who loves someone with autism.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Hope. Love. Courage. Strength. Dream. Create. Live. Inspire.

These are the words I created out of the Children’s Miracle Network balloons to display at the Walmart I work at. Every year Walmart sells these balloons to help raise funds for the Children’s Hospital and this year I had the honour of attending the fundraising kick-off event and learning more about this organization. During the meeting they mentioned that their would be a friendly competition of how each Walmart displayed their balloons, and that the children from the hospital would get to pick their favourite. Traditionally, these balloons are hung like garland all over the store, and while that is a great way to show how many donations the store had accumulated, I wanted our local community to be a part of something bigger, something more!

Hope.
Love.
Courage.
Strength.
Dream.
Create.
Live.
Inspire.

I wanted words that were motivating and encouraging, that would mean something to each person who read them, even if it just made them smile. I was very thrilled when my idea was approved and my vision could come to life!

I’d like to thank all my fellow co-workers who bravely climbed the extremely tall ladder to staples these up for me! Without you, this definitely would not of been able to be shared with everyone!

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Learn more about the Children’s Miracle Network.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Organic Acid Profile Test

We’d like to thank everyone who donated to the Bubbles Make Him Smile Therapy Fund to help raise money for Bryce’s Organic Acid Profile Test.

This test provides an accurate evaluation of intestinal yeast and bacteria. Abnormally high levels of these microorganisms can cause or worsen behavior disorders, hyperactivity, movement disorders, fatigue and immune function. It was a test that our naturopathic doctor, Dr. Tasreen Alibhai, highly suggested we get done for Bryce.

The test is very simple. It involves collecting a very pure urine sample, free of any products that could disrupt the test, like no oranges for 24 hours prior to, etc. We hope to get the test done sometime this week, and will get the results a few weeks following that. Will keep you posted!

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Monday, May 7, 2012

“Not on my watch.”

Today I attended a special round table discussion with the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, alongside 16 other B.C. moms about the challenges and concerns that parents in this province face so the government could see what they could do to make life easier and better for B.C. families.

Let me start off by saying that I am not a political person at all. I don’t usually follow the campaigns as I find it all very boring and full of broken promises and high expectations. No matter what the people say the government never listens and it’s all about who has the most money to spend on advertising and hiring really, really great PR. That being said, I do know that my vote counts, so I do vote regardless. So you can only imagine my initial reaction when I received the email from Pamela Martin, the Director of Outreach for the Premier, inviting me to be a part of this group. “Is this real? Did I accidently get CC’d? Will my opinion even matter?” After everything checked out, and it was really me being invited, I knew I had to go, for the sake of my family, for the sake of my son. It didn’t even matter if we just sat their for an hour and a half and nothing but broken promises came from it. I had to be heard. Besides, how often do you get to say you met your Premier, let alone sit down with them to discuss what your concerns were?

I was impressed to say the least!!

Premier Christy Clark may of sat at the head of the table, but it was everyone else sitting around her that had the floor. Each woman had an opportunity to tell the Premier a little about themselves, about the contents of their blog, what their personal concerns were, and even give some suggestions. Topics were about what anyone could of easily of expected from a group of moms: daycare expenses, housing, the cost of living, employment, and education.

My concerns were a tad less generalized and more specific to the autism community in British Columbia.

The government provides more than $165 million annually for programs and services that support approximately 7,500 children and youth with ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] and their families – including assessments, funding for early intervention and education funding for students.

For children under age six, families receive access to funding of up to $22,000 per year to help with the cost of autism intervention services. For children and youth aged six to 18, families receive access to funding of up to $6,000 per year to help with the cost of out-of-school intervention services. This is in addition to the $18,300 in per-pupil funding for educational program and special education services provided through school boards.

Source: B.C. wraps up Autism Awareness Month, British Columbia’s Ministry of Children and Family Developments website

I brought up how British Columbia’s autism funding program amount drops significantly when the child enters the school system expecting the school district to take over where the consultants, therapists, and everything in-between left off. Let me just quickly add that the “$18,300 in per-pupil funding for educational program and special education services provided through school boards” doesn’t benefit my child solely. That funding is divided up within the multiple schools that have children with special needs that are under that particular school district. The money doesn’t directly benefit my son at all, and when my son only gets one 20 minute session a couple times a month from a school district provided Speech and Language Pathologist at his school, when he has a communication impacted disorder, well, that just doesn’t make any sense at all.

I also mentioned how ‘out of the norm’ therapy treatments like the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) that Bryce had, wasn’t covered in the approved expenses of using the autism funding and it was ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) or nothing at all. The original reason we even created BubblesMakeHimSmile.com was to help raise funds for HBOT because our government wasn’t helping. It took us just over a year to raise the money ourselves. A year is a very, very long time.

I felt like Christy really listened. I don’t think it was a topic she really knew a lot about, or even how to answer, but she responded very honestly and made some valid points. It wasn’t even a typical scripted and political answer. It may of not been what I wanted to hear, or even make it any less upsetting that there will never be enough government provided funds to help make my son be as successful as he can possible be, but it was real. I was heard. That’s all I wanted.

To me, the whole event illustrated the difference one person can actually make. I was very honoured that I could be a part of such an incredibly inspirational event, and hopefully make a difference to the future of British Columbia families.

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Progress makes perfect.

Here is Bryce’s most recent Skill Development Progress Report from his Learning Assistance Teacher at school. (April 2012)

  • is using more three or four word phrases when speaking. For example: “Nikola has brown hair.”
  • understands the prepositional concepts of in, on, and under.
  • knows and understands the terms smallest and biggest.
  • is learning to say his first and last name when prompted.
  • can say his address when prompted.
  • can write his first name and the first 4 letters of his last name.
  • can write the first few numbers of his telephone number.
  • can print all the letters of the alphabet when prompted. The letters are a mixture of lower and upper case letters.
  • can print the numbers 1-10 when prompted.
  • can count up to 10.

We are so proud of you, Bryce!

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya and Daniel