Aid For Abby

I ran accost this shop Aid for Abby while I was scanning some treasury's this last week. After visiting the shop and reading the profile my heart really went out to Abby and her Mom and I wanted to do more for them than buy a couple Abby's piece's. I am so fortunate for what I have and for my children I wanted to help. I don't really know but I empathize with Abby's mom. I have family members and dear friends that are raising Autistic children and I can see the pain and the hope and want in their eyes for their children. Here is Abby and her Moms story.

Abby suffers from Autism, Expressive/Receptive Language Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I made the ultimate sacrifice, I gave up all material possessions so that my child could continue receiving medical treatment and therapies. I was just informed by one of her specialists that they suspect scoliosis and Abby will need a scan performed. Abby’s care for her autism, speech and OCD are not covered under her insurance policy. Medicaid has denied her as well stating I should obtain services for her conditions through the public school system. I complete applications for assistance on a weekly basis to various organizations but to no avail. Since her diagnosis at the age of 2 1/2 years until now at the age of 11, her cost of care has been my sole responsibility. I do not have any credit cards so I cannot charge her care. Lately, we have been selling Abby’s original artwork on Etsy (AidforAbby). I cannot work outside of the home due to a disability for which I receive a small amount of money each month. It's not easy, I will tell you that. I have the same hopes, dreams and plans for her as I do my other children. Along with the financial burden of medical bills, we want to get back on our feet and replace what we have lost. I’m hoping to raise funds first and foremost for Abby’s continued medical treatments, house down payment and vehicle to purchase.

We (myself, Abby and her brother Nathan) are what they call a “displaced family”. We do not have a home of our own in which to live, I do not own a vehicle, and I have no other possessions of my own with the exception of the clothing, family photographs and artwork of my children. A neighbor knew of our plight and I firmly believe that God intervened on our behalf. He provides us with a place to stay and I can use his vehicle for transportation. We also have Abby’s therapy dog Buster, who is a beagle. He needs more help than Abby does on certain days! It is not easy to live with a child that has autism as any parent who has a child like mine will attest to.

I have learned so much from my daughter that it would be hard to sum it up in one word. Each day I experience the joy of learning something new from her. I have had the honor of watching her make such tremendous progress in school even with Autism. I take her to all of her other therapy appointments outside of school. My daughter, like other children who have Autism have an inner sense of self. They know who they are and what makes them happy. They don’t seem to be affected by the same time constraints, worries, and anxieties about the future. I have come to appreciate more just living in the moment. After all, the now is really all we have! The past is in our minds and the future is not guaranteed with an outcome that may or may not ever occur.

became concerned around the time that Abby turned 18 months old that she did not have the vocabulary of other children her age. A visit to her pediatrician confirmed that she needed to be referred to a developmental specialist as she only had 5 words at a time where she should have had hundreds. Upon the pediatrician’s recommendation of two physicians, one a neurologist and the other a developmental pediatrician, we made the appointments. When tested, Abby had an IQ of 70, a score that, coupled with the fact that she showed significant deficits in communication skills, social skills and everyday adaptive behavior, Abby was ultimately give a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder.

he has mastered the basic techniques of doing things for her age group, like putting on her shoes, clothes (have trouble sometimes with her pants buttons) although she still does not pick out her own clothes to wear, using the potty, (had fully mastered the potty at age 5), and trying to brush her hair.

Abby does obsess about certain topics such as trains, horses and wheel or circles to the point where nothing or no one else seems to exist. She has a tendency to fixate on specific routine or ritual, have stereotyped or repetitive actions or movements or fixate on parts of objects (e.g. wheels of a train). Abby also has a heightened sensitivity to certain sounds, sights, smells, tastes or textures. Thus, a lot of her artwork is done in circles or wheels.

Abby also has self-stimulating behaviors called stims. These are self-stimulatory behaviors. Repetitive behaviors, like spinning in circles or twirling hair, they are common in autistic people. They are not unique to those with autism, but the difference between the autistic stims is that they have a way of shutting off the brain to other stimuli. This can be a good thing when the brain is over stimulated and just needs a break. Don’t we wish we all had a way to shut out the world sometimes? But, if a person is in an autistic stim, it is near impossible to get their attention.
o to my daughter who suffers from autism, I love you exactly as you are, today, in this moment. I accept you for who you are. You are not broken. You do not need to be fixed. You are all a mother could ask for. I will love you no matter where this journey in life takes us. All you have to do is keep being yourself. That is what I truly love about you. You are just yourself!

Thank you for being you. Thank you for accepting me with all my faults. You bring so many wonderful things to my life each and every day. Thank you for inspiring me to become a better person and mom to you and others. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for trusting that everything is working out exactly as it’s supposed to. I'm trying the best that I can and someday, yes, we will have a home again to call our own.

I feel really fortunate to have met Abby's mom by way of ETSY. Please check out Abby's ETSY shop. Favorite, add them to your Circle and lets help them out.



Camille.