Today marks the end of the first stage of a new season in our life. After a very long and dreary last few months full of assessments and visits to various specialists, our son has now firmly been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. He specifically presents traits of Asperger’s Syndrome which is now widely known as Highly Functioning Autism. In other words, this describes a child who has a mild form of Autism and is able to function relatively well despite their language and social interaction difficulties.
The second milestone in this process is that having been refused Statutory Assessment by the Local Authority, which stops our son from receiving the individualised and specialised help he needs at school in order to make satisfactory progress, we have today lodged our appeal to the SENDIS Tribunal, and so feel that though we may be unsuccessful, we have done the best we could to ensure our son’s needs are met at school.
You have probably been wondering why I have not written much in these last few weeks. Well, now you know the reason.
Despite the fact that this process is proving to be one of the hardest things I have had to deal with yet, it is easy to see God’s hand in it all, and how He has been equipping me and my husband from childhood with interests and skills which have been paramount in being able to face the challenges posed by the news of our son’s diagnosis, as well as the battle to ensure his learning difficulties are identified and provided for in the future.
I thank God that though the process has been extremely stressful and very upsetting at times, He has equipped our family well to withstand the challenges met so far and those ahead too. On my way to posting the appeal this morning as I prayed quietly, I was reminded once again of Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you”.
If you are a regular visitor to this site, may I ask for your prayers as we enter the appeal process? Please pray that we continue to trust in God’s hand throughout these new challenges in our life, and that above all, we keep our focus on the kingdom of God and not our circumstances; that we continue to labour in the harvest and are not content or satisfied with reaping what others have sown.
God bless you
Mercedes
