The purpose and mission of this blog and how my Journey began .....

This picture was taken just a couple months before our Journey began in December of 2004 ......

Our Little Richie was a typical little boy and I would even say his speech was pretty advanced for a 3.9 year old. He was beginning to learn to sound out words , talked in paragraphs and new the name of every construction vehicle known to man . He was obsessed with them to the point of us having 100's all shapes and sizes not to mention tons of books about them . He would line them up all perfectly ( a couple of clues something was off but nothing "so we thought" that was a big deal ) 
One day on the highway while driving he even pointed out the landscapers truck and said "that's the Tromboli's truck" , so I looked and it was ! One of my most vivid memories I hold in my mind so tightly is a morning I was lying in bed and he came up and asked me "Mommy are you feeling ok? Do you need some water ? " I miss that little voice ...  
Life was pretty normal back then .... 
It was noticed in preschool he was behind in some things ... no one ever mentioned the word autism probably because of his speech and he played with the other kids etc ... I knew very little about Autism back then .. The Autism rate at the time was one in every 365 children ... 
In February 2005 he began talking funny , so hard to explain, wasn't a studder  but more like he was forgetting how to say words ... Within a few weeks our little boy was completely gone and in his own little world .. He wouldn't look at us , talk to us , nothing , he was just gone . During the process there was a day he sat on the back steps crying and said "I can't do anything anymore " he knew .... he knew ... That was the most heartbreaking day of my life .....

I will end here for today to honor my grief while composing this........ 

The Ultimate Mission of this Blog

With the staggering numbers of children being diagnosed we are headed down a very long road to recovery . Families are being torn apart because it is impossible to deal with the stress on their own . The stress of loosing your child, The stress of getting the school system to educate the child , Unbelievable financial stress, The loss of friends and family due to the lack of understanding , Not being accepted in society , The fear of the unknown , The fear of something happening to you and wondering what will happen to your child (every second of the day relentlessly) , The Intense grief, The loss of everything that you are , The loss of everything your family once was , The stress of how to figure out how to navigate life in this new world , Depression , Anxiety , Intense unimaginable fear that you live with and have to function through somehow everyday , The loss of your health , and I could keep going on and and on and on .......... this is barely the icing on cake for these families and my family .. 

I have said I will find a way to create the help for the woman who are enduring this in their life ... There is no kind of help that I know of that is specific to take take of the mom , the glue . If she falls apart everything crumbles . I have seen a case where a mom went to jail because she tried to commit suicide with her child in the car , in the garage . ( she had begged for help and no one listened , she was at the bottom of the well ) she survived , her child did not .. These things I guarantee will become the norm if we keep ignoring this .... TRAGIC! 


I want this Blog to be a place where I begin to tell my story and then open it up to a place where other moms can tell their stories . The most difficult part for us is that no one understands therefore they do not have the ability to help . It will be a place for society and I hope world wide to learn not facts, figures, treatment , and studies etc ...but so that families can support each other and create family support plans . It is going to take the entire world to step up while we are waiting for release of the facts about what is doing this to our children (most of us Autism moms know ) 
 We have 2 decades of injured children who are not going to be able to care for themselves and some that are so severe and self-injurious that each day they are alive is a miracle . (my little man) 
Right now his behaviors are so bad they are worried that he will give himself more brain damage , a detached retina , and go blind , try getting through the day living with that . 
I know this is my mission and that's why God chose me for this Journey and why Richie is the strongest most amazing boy on this planet. 
I don't want this to be a sad place . The stories will be but they are real and we must face them as a society and reach out to help . We have the power in our hands to make this better ..... These children are here for a huge reason .... God is speaking so loudly through them and still we are not listening ! 
I want bring a positive love energy here , to travel to the moms who need to tell their stories . Through these stories we can all find ways to help .... They cannot ask for help when they are "In it " its just not possible no matter how bad they need it ... We need to be conscious and not just walking around in our daily lives anyone ignorant to everything that is going on . 
I will have more tomorrow ! 
But that being said I desperately need your help to do this ! 
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 Please share and ask your friends to sign up for the blog ! Feel free to email me at Maria@MariaAnnMartin.com 
donations can be sent via paypal @ mariaamartin1@verizon.net 
If you know an autism mom with a story that needs to be told , please please contact me as well ! 
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting this mission ! 

Here is a picture of what I want the end goal to look like , An entire place of healing and retreat .....

All my love and gratitude ,
Maria 
xoxoxoxoxoxo