It's all in a name

What to name this thing? That was my excuse for not starting a blog for the past few years. Then it happened. The air conditioner broke this week.

Elijah, my sweet almost 10 year old who has labels like autistic (ASD), deaf, and cognitively impaired, was having a really rough day.

The windows were open to let the cooler breeze come in. I jumped in the shower (a rarity which is gross, but true). While I was shampooing I heard Elijah start to get vocal, then more vocal. His voice, which is a crazy mixture of deaf sounds and nonverbal ASD stims/grunts, was getting louder and louder. The screams of annoyance  were turning into screams of anger and crying.

I know when the windows are open, people who walk by the house peer in. I can only imagine their thoughts: What's wrong with that kid? Is he hurt? What are they doing to him? The neighbors avert eye contact. So we keep the windows shut, keeping our world away from the rest.

That's when the name popped into my shampoo-filled head: living with the windows shut. It is a true statement at it's core, but also a great metaphor.  I think there is a lot that ASD has held us back from in life and this blog will touch on how we have mourned that and figured out to live within those new, and ever-changing, boundaries. But in conjunction with the bummer stuff comes the amazing. The victories, the joys, the lessons being taught and learned, and the craziness of living in our family.

Welcome to Living With The Windows Shut.