The Dodgers

August 23, 2009. The Dodger game—the perfect place to take your autistic family member or friend. Why? Adults were concentrating on tossing giant beach balls, kids were screaming for cotton candy, everyone was screaming for peanuts, and people were drunk off of 13 dollar beers. Everyone was so loud, obnoxious, and crazy that no one even noticed my brother’s tendencies of head banging, finger snapping, humming, and yelling gibberish. He practically blended in. Daniel had just turned 19. He calmed down a lot after his aggressive and energetic teenage years. However, he still had his moments of random noise making and awkward hand motions in the air.

My family is big on their sports teams. Vikings, Lakers, Dodgers. I remember when I was in the 6^th grade I wanted to buy an AI jersey and my dad screeched at me and said, “What do you know about the 6ers??? We like the LAKERS.”…so I had to put the jersey back…With that said, my parents were serious about the game. Dodger-dogs, the required attire (see below), they even had their head phones on to listen to the game on 570AM radio so they could listen to the game AND watch the game at the same time (nothing new, they do this when they are watching the game at home, too)…

So, Danny gets a little antsy sometimes. He is not very patient and he cannot be in one place for a long period. If he does not want to be somewhere, he will let you know. That day, by the top of 8^th inning, he was ready to leave. He stood up, turned to the side where my mom and I were sitting, rushed his way past us, up the stairs, and out of the park. (See my brother is smart…he responds to my dad’s voice and will not act out in front of him since my dad is stronger. With my mom and I, he ignores us and brushes us off when we try to grab his hand…with my mom and I, Dan the Man wins.) But I guess my brother is a mind reader. As we all were running after my brother, my dad snickered and said, “I wanted to leave anyways”…he was livid.

Final score [[Cubs – 3]]…[[Dodgers – 1]]

No free ½ dozen box of Krispy Kreme donuts for each of us that day. =P

God's Angel for Autism

It was April of 1995 when we found out that Danny had an angel watching over him. My brother was 4 1/2 years old and was quite curious—curious enough as to climb on his bed, push the screen off the window, and jump out. He had fallen out of the window of our two-story house. Something detrimental could have happened…he could have fractured his arm or leg, cracked open his skull, paralyzed himself, or he could have died…not only could my brother have suffered tragically from the impact of the fall but he could have landed in the pool in the backyard. At that time, Danny did not know how to swim. The pool stayed gated so that if he walked outside he would not have been able to wander off into it. Dan the Man could have fell in the pool and drowned that day. Or once he fell, he could have climbed into the pool and drowned himself that way.

The result: A laceration to his chin that only needed a couple of stitches. My dad spotted my brother walking around the pool back and forth with blood dripping from his chin. My dad, mom, and I rushed my brother to the hospital.

Confused? I once read that children with autism have sensory trouble. The autistic child will either be extremely sensitive to pain or feel no pain at all. Dan the Man probably did not know what was happening during the time of his fall. My dad had to put the puzzle pieces together: His window wide open, the window screen in the pool, Danny on side of the pool that was gated-off, and the blood on the floor in order for him to realize what had happened. It was after that that my brother started crying when they used my blanket to put pressure on his chin for him to stop bleeding.

We are thankful that Daniel is alive today. The scar on his chin represents the distress and misunderstanding he goes through in this world…that all autistic people go through in this world…It also represents assurance that these folks are the Lord’s children. The Lord works in mysterious ways…on this very day, we learned that He is always watching over Dan the Man.

To begin...

My brother, Daniel, is diagnosed with classic autism. He cannot talk or communicate. He is low functioning on the spectrum...He is a 20 year old that still needs his diaper changed. Imagine the work it takes to take care of Dan the Man—the patience, creativity, courage, and faith…Danny will need to be taken care of for the rest of his life.

When I was young I wanted so much to talk to my brother, to play legos with him, to play hide-and-seek with him, to make him wear girl clothes and make-up, to pick fights with him so that we can get in trouble by mom…to be mean and rude to his little girlfriends, to make fun of each others’ acne, to give him advice, to tell him he needs to go to college, to school him on his jump-shot…to tease each other, to bully each other, to tattle on each other, to laugh with each other…..

But I couldn’t…I watched him sit in a corner and line up cars…or surround himself in a circle of shoes. Or get annoyed hearing the same music book button sound that he would press over and over and over and over again. And then the next day, same music book button sound heard over and over and over and over again…instead of running around outside to play tag, he paced back and forth in the house in the same spot for hours…

Although my brother was not the typical younger brother you would expect, he is still my brother…who pushes me away when I try to smother him, who giggles when I tickle him, and ignores me when I tell him to shut-up from making eccentric noises. He takes my things and they come back to me ruined. He eats my food and drinks my drink when I’m not looking. And I get blamed for everything because, “what could your brother have done? He doesn’t know any better.”…now is this sounding more like your typical younger brother? God has given me the gift of Daniel, my brother with autism…and my attempt is to increase awareness of autism, to be the support for those who know of someone with autism, and to give hope to the families who are now bringing a child into the world with autism…