Jacob's Parents

April is Autism Awareness Month. Today starts 30 days of Autism. I will share fun little stories & factoids about Jacob and raising a son with Autism Spectrum Disorders. He has been our greatest teacher.

Jacob was born during a thunderstorm in lower Alabama which knocked out the power at the hospital mid-delivery. Under backup generator power Jacob entered the world 13 months behind his brother.

His older brother and younger sister were early talkers. Jacob was very quiet. At 8 months old, and before he could stand, he would stack Campbell Soup cans (all labels facing the same direction) as high as he could balancing himself against the cupboard. He would fall on his seat and laugh. As he looked away, I would spin a can or turn one upside down. He would look back and instantly observe it was wrong and spend all of his energy fixing my mistakes.

Patti and I were by no means experts on Autism and only knew of it from Tom Cruise's movie Rain Man. We had to start learning about Autism on the fly when he was 27 months old.

Patti spent many hours with Jacob learning to use ABA. She is a remarkable mother, leader, and continues to provide support to many local families. In 2002, she was asked to do a news story about our family for the Family section of the Fayetteville Observer. It is poetic to appear next to James Dobson from Focus on the Family. Read the title of his column.

He is now 23 and a Rock-star in our small town. Everywhere we go, people know Jacob. We are simply known as Jacob’s Parents.

#30DaysofAutism #JacobsWorld #JacobsParents #AprilAutismAwarenessMonth #Iwouldntchangeanything