A Mother's Open Letter to Her Daughter with Autism On Her Twelfth Birthday

Dear Debbie,  I can’t believe that you are almost twelve. I remember when I was pregnant with you and I would daydream about our relationship, our conversations – even our arguments and squabbles. I always knew that you had autism, even before I was ready to admit it. You didn’t move around in my stomach as much as your brother and I worried that there might be something wrong with you. When you were a baby you “failed to thrive” at the age of six weeks; you had colic and then you started missing milestone after milestone. I watched my dreams of a “normal” mother-daughter relationship