Christopher

Born in March, 2001, Christopher was placed in our home as a foster child at the age of three weeks. Once he was with us, we knew there was no letting go. We officially adopted him in September, 2003. He has added so much to our lives, including that of our 16 yr old daughter, Abby. Christopher had global delays and has been in early intervention since he was six months old. Low muscle tone was one of these challenges. We weren't sure he would ever be able to sit up, much less walk or run. Christopher finally learned to walk at 19 months. Not long after that he started to run, one of his favorite activities! In April, 2003, at the age of 25 months, he was diagnosed with autism by Dr. Nancy Roizen, a developmental pediatrician at Upstate in Syracuse. We had been noticing several things Christopher was or was not doing that alerted us that he may be autistic even before we had the official diagnosis. He would run in circles, lacked eye contact, rocked incessantly, and seemed oblivious to those around him. Even though we suspected he may be autistic, hearing the confirmation of our fears was extremely difficult. It has gotten easier over time. Following the diagnosis, we started to educate ourselves about autism and developmental disorders. We felt that Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) was the route we wanted to take for Christopher. He has a wonderful team of people working with him, including a special ed teacher, speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and paraprofessional. He has been making great strides since the start of the ABA program, due in no small part to his very dedicated team. He has lots of eye contact now and does interact with those around him. His language is starting to develop and he is able to string some words together. Christopher has been taught how to play with toys. He now runs less and plays more. We are involved in a group of families with autistic children. Our interaction and friendship with these families has been very helpful because this is a rough journey at times. No matter how difficult this journey may be, we know we have been blessed by the addition of this very special little boy to our family.