My son William was a gift from God. He was born on Christmas Day in 2009. Ever since that day I have been blessed with this child. As months went by the bigger he got, little did I know what was happening to my baby. Between 8-9 months he was unable to finish easy tasks for as a normal child of his age, he didn't say a word other than momma or papa up until 13 months. Things began to start worrying me. Hearing my closed minded Hispanic family comparing my son with other relatives was frustrating for me. I went days crying and thinking I was not a good mother. It was then when I finally decided to take him to a specialist to find out what was going on with my son. Even though at that time he was 16 months I still needed to hear that my son was perfectly fine. Shocking was to me when the specialist told me he had Austin spectrum disorder which we still had to do several test to confirm it. I was scared and didn't want to believe at first but I did my research. I got more involved with his activities, I enrolled him in Leaps and bounds, I read what I could to help him out. He changed my way of thinking completely. I became more aware of people with special needs which before I didn't really acknowledge them. My son is so smart and with his love makes everyone put a smile on their face. My Hispanic family started to accept my son just the way he is and notice his ability of accomplishing tasks that normal kids won't be able to do at this age. My son has Autism and I learned to accept him with love.

Alejandra Sanchez
compton, CA