If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that Moose has autism. Five years ago, when he started school in the early childhood special education program, he couldn’t talk. At all. Even four years ago, he was still primarily non-verbal, and we wondered if he’d ever begin speaking. Slowly, he did, and we’ve reached the point where we have to (gladly) tell him to stop talking on a regular basis.

Today, I got a letter from the school informing me that he is the alternate representative for his grade in the district-wide spelling bee. My son. The child who couldn’t talk to us for the longest time, whose intelligence couldn’t even be accurately measured when he started school, because he wouldn’t speak or make eye contact, is speaking well enough to be understood, and is proving how smart he is daily.

He has worked so hard since he began school almost five years ago. And his teachers and therapists have worked so hard to teach him and encourage him and bring out the best in him.

This is a reward I couldn’t have even imagined in his future five years ago. Now, however, I know that I can expect anything and everything from him, because he is willing to work to do his best!