baby you're a firework

Yes. I know what you are thinking, "did she really just titled this post after a Katy Perry song?"

Yes. Yes I did.

But I have a good reason. Every time I hear the song 'Firework' by Katy Perry, I think of Fisher. It makes me smile. It makes me believe that he is truly a firework just waiting to ignite and shine. It may sound cheesy and corny, but I really think that this little boy has a ton of potential just waiting to get out.

And I love the part of the song where she sings, "maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed so you can open one that leads you to the perfect road".

I like to believe that we are finally getting to open some pretty amazing doors that are going to help Fisher grow and shine even more.

After being on a waiting list for a wonderful school for autistic kids, we finally got the phone call telling us that Fisher was being offered an amazing scholarship!

This school is nationally known for it's amazing program in helping kids who are on the spectrum getting developmentally caught up and integrated back into neo-typical schools. And being offered a scholarship to help him(an us) get into this program was truly one of the best Christmas gifts we could of asked for! This is finally a door we were ready to open. This is finally an answer that we truly needed.

Even though we were offered this wonderful scholarship, we still had to go to the school and meet with their psychologist, social worker and potential teachers to make sure Fisher was a good fit for the program. Kind of like an interview, only longer, and more nerve racking, and there are tears involved. Because we really, really wanted this for our son.

We met with the most amazing psychologist, Dr. Petersen, who just answered so many of our questions and fears and denials we had. I have never met someone who is so welcoming and passionate about helping not only these kids, but the parents as well. When the time came to give us the official diagnosis for Fisher, his eyes filled up with tears. He began by telling us what amazing parents we are, how wonderful Fisher is and that no matter what, our family is going do great and continue to be great.

He told us that Fisher has autism spectrum disorder. He does not have asperger, but that he has high functioning autism. With his limited speech and social skills, we kind of figured this. But it is real now. It's official. And it didn't really hit me until we were meeting with the social worker and she was discussing some great support groups and communities we could look into and I just kind of lost it. I could feel it coming. My eyes began to fill up and I was trying so hard to fight them back, looking away, looking up, till all of a sudden I couldn't stop it. I was bawling and I probably freaked out this social worker because I am pretty sure she didn't know what to do at that point. But she was kind and understanding and just kept talking to us about how amazing Fisher is and is going to be.

He is going to be amazing. He is going to do amazing things. He is going to be one amazing firework when it comes time for him to shine! And I can't wait!

I should also note, that Fisher is already going to a pretty awesome school. They took this quite, non-talking, limited eye contact boy to a boy who will repeat words you say, look you in the eye and sing "twinkle, twinkle little star" with you.

They are pretty amazing teachers. They are just too far away(we are talking 30 minutes one way) and we don't have a scholarship there.

But I wanted to let them know how amazing they are. All 16 of them. So I made these.

Thank you Katie for suggesting her creative friends blog. Seriously, if you need a gift idea you should check it out!

I know 16 sounds like a lot, but these teachers are the best and we just had to let them know that they were. Plus, we are going to miss them and their generosity and love that they had for our son. They do amazing things with kids who are stuck in their own little worlds. They did amazing things for our little Fisher.

Hope your holiday season full of happiness and blessings!