Happy New Year! Bring on 2018!

As I sit here waiting for O to fall asleep, I'm taking the opportunity to do a little self reflection. O was desperate to stay awake for as long as she could, but alas tiredness won out. L on the other hand is still going strong!

2017 has been a huge year at Superhero Headquarters with the year culminating in us relocating back to sunny Queensland to be closer to family. It is a move that has always been on the cards for us but we certainly didn't anticipate that the time would arrive as soon as it did. Sometimes the little hiccups in life really do come as a blessing in disguise.

We received O's official diagnosis of ASD mid year. The diagnosis didn't take us by surprise  however her level of severity was somewhat of a surprise to everyone, us included. O's level of severity highlighted to everyone involved that girls are very capable of masking their traits so as not to stand out from the crowd.

Throughout this year L has kept us well and truly on our toes with his numerous visits to the Accident and Emergency department of the Children's Hospital in Perth. We rounded out 2017 with a trip to the Accident and Emergency department of our NEW local hospital this morning. We located yet another foreign object in L's ear yesterday afternoon. The third time that this has happened this year! The verdict from Luke, the legend of a nurse who removed said foreign object, was a seed! So L now has TWO favourite nurses at TWO hospitals in TWO states of Australia! Mmm, maybe we could start reviewing how efficient Accident and Emergency Departments are!!!!!

L has continued to move forward in leaps and bounds in every facet of his development. His therapists, Katie, Nathara, Sameera, Lauren, Jess, Bianca and all the girls at Little Stars in Perth are just amazing. Attending Little Stars is one of the best decisions that we have made for L. He misses all of the staff at Little Stars terribly but from watching his interactions with his new therapists here in Queensland, we're fairly sure that he is going to make new bonds with them. Although the name "Tara"s School" has stuck, sorry Autism Queensland!

O began her therapy journey shortly before we made the decision to move back to Queensland. In the six short weeks that O participated in some very intensive therapy sessions with her therapist, Leticia, she also made the most amazing progress. O has become so much more confident and is able to verbalize to us how she is feeling. This makes my heart sing. We know that she too is on her way to smash her goals.

Both O and L have had some wonderful teachers and teacher aides at school and carers at the after school care facility that they attended this year. All of these individuals have assisted in some way in guiding O and L on their educational and social journey. From the bottom of my heart, thank you Tracey, Bernadette, Leanne, Kirrily, Bec, Kate, Nicola, Kayla, Dan, Beth, Emily, Nadia and everyone else who has had an impact on both O and L. Your support has been wonderful and we appreciate everything that you have all done to assist O, L and us.

The cliche "it takes a village to raise a child" couldn't be more true. We well and truly found our village this year in the form of therapists, teachers, teacher aides and carers, and you have all become part of our family! Welcome to our slightly crazy, never dull, full of laughs and tears autism journey! Hang on tight because it can be one hell of a ride at times!

We also had the pleasure of welcoming an amazing Support Worker, Zaim, into our family this year. The bond that he and L created in a few shorts weeks was truly wonderful to watch. Zaim was instrumental in assisting L to practice the skills that he was learning on a weekly basis at Little Stars. Having to say goodbye to Zaim before we left Perth realy was a bittersweet moment. L still doesn't quite understand why he can't see Zaim anymore, he certainly misses his big buddy.

So onto 2018 ....

My one and only wish for 2018 is NO MORE VISITS TO ANY HOSPITALS. Please!!!

I know that both O and L will continue to smash their goals out of the ball park.

So raise a glass and let's welcome in the new year. From our family to yours,  Happy New Year, stay safe and we'll see you all on the flip side xx