Jason was four months old when he began to have strange seizures which were later diagnosed as "Infantile Spasms."  The treatment was mega doses of Klonopin which eventually stopped the seizures but left me with a child that was no longer rolling over, sitting up or cooing.  Prior to that he seemed to be developing normally, and since he is my fourth child I knew what to look for.  I was breastfeeding him, and had just introduced rice cereal into his diet.  In 1994 there was not much for the doctor to tell me.  One doctor basically said to us (while still in the hospital with our child hooked up to all sorts of machines) "your child will be severely retarded and will most likely need to be institutionalized."

Well, obviously we didn't listen to that guy!  There is much more to Jason's story, but it is more of the same that so many of you have experienced or heard.  At this point the past doesn't have much effect on where we go from here.  Jason is rapidly outgrowing everyone in the family, although he is a gentle giant.  He only harms himself when frustrated.  Jason loves water, jumping and swinging.  He likes all types of music and has perfect pitch.  He is great at video games and can program his electronic keyboard to do things I didn't even know it could do.  Yet he cannot tie his shoes or understand what tomorrow means.

We see him as differently abled in a world that is foreign to him.  Foreign only in that we expect him to conform to what we know as normal.  This is why we call him our little alien.  He loves us and shows it, but he will always be a square peg desperately trying to fit into a round hole.  If we could magically change him I don't know that any of us would want to because then he would not be Jason.