Autism Awareness
Pablo is about education. And while helping David learn, Pablo, is hopefully educating many more and creating an early understanding about what life may be like for some children. Children who may be in your kids class, or in the playground, or just like in Pablo's first appearance, at a wedding.
I can honestly say that I've lost count of the number of times I have changed my son Brody's nappy in our car boot. Trying to shield him from passers-by, some of whom almost tut at the fact that I'm doing it. Like I want to be doing it.



That's not easy to come to terms with. I love Brody with all my heart and I know that everything happens for a reason. But sometimes I wish I knew what that reason was. No diagnosis means no prognosis after all. Still, having others to talk to who can relate really helps. It can make you feel less isolated in a world of unknowns.
It's a known fact that most parents love to brag about their kids and since the inception of social media, that task has proved easier to do and reaches a far wider audience than a text or heaven forbid, a face to face conversation.
There are so many people, like Naoki and myself, who are struggling to find a way to live with enormous challenges. Together, I hoped we might be able to help and guide people in today's world, because disability, disease, accident and bereavement are life-changing events that we all have to face.
My daughter, Ava, was just shy of three years old when she received her autism diagnosis. I remember sitting in our developmental pediatrician's office and hearing the word "autism" leave her mouth with a sense of unforgettable finality. As a mother, I was at a loss. But three years later, that early diagnosis has changed everything for the better.
If you're walking a similar parenting path to mine, you've quite possibly heard the saying: "you meet one person with autism; you meet one person with autism". Sometimes I think that only those who really know someone with autism get how little others understand this.