Dear Addie,
Hurricane Idalia blew through this week, bringing heavy flooding rains and treacherous winds across our great state. As dramatic as this sounds, these storms are not a new occurrence here as this is the time of year often coined hurricane season, where even the most prepared of people can still be on edge at the predictable unpredictability a storm such as this can bring.
Hmm, why does that sound familiar?
Addie, here's the thing: so often in our lives, we are given a forecast that looks anything but clear and predictable. We will listen to all the experts telling us where and when the storm will hit, but no one can say with 100% certainty at the end of the day. We will watch the clouds roll in and only hope we have done our best to prepare for the unknown. In the thick of the storm, we may start to question if we had done enough or what we could have done differently to have better prepared for such an event - An event, mind you, that was ever just as unpredictable as what color gumball you would get in a gumball machine. The gum is all the same, but what color you'd get was anyone's guess. Wind and rain are a given, but how much and when? You have autism, but everyone is different. But I digress.
Hurricane Idalia continued through the night, and the next day brought VERY welcomed cooler temperatures than those flirting with the triple digits around here and a beautiful blue sky. With this welcomed weather, we wasted no time heading outside to play, soaking up all the beauty of being unscathed from storm damage. Addie, one of the most beautiful parts of weathering such a storm is often the rainbow that appears when it's over. It's the light we seek in the darkness and often the sign of what many see as a new beginning. Not having seen the rainbow this time as the storm passed through during nightfall, I thought it would be fun to see if you could draw one as we were playing with sidewalk chalk, and just like that, without any prompting of what colors to use, you drew a perfect rainbow. It was our sign that the storm was over and a reminder that even in all the unknowns of this journey, you are still learning and moving forward, weathering any storm that comes your way.
Addie, we have weathered many unpredictable storms within our autism journey. Storms that so often held little to no certainty of how it would blow through, leaving our preparedness only to be what we thought would or could happen, much like any significant weather storm. If I'm being honest, there have been autism storms I was sure would never end and would now only be part of some daily storm in our lives. But then, without any warning, we would wake up to blue skies, cooler temps, and rainbows as if it was congratulating us on making it through the darkness and welcoming us to a new chapter on our life's journey.
Addie, You are one of the strongest and most resilient kiddos I know. We may not know when or how our life's storms will roll through or if we will batten down the hatches or dance in the rain. But there's always a rainbow, a new beginning, even if we must make one ;)
Keep being amazing.
Love,
Mom
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