Mother's Day Post

It is Mother's Day, and I want to say, if nothing else,that I am happy for all that I have gotten from my mother, Kitzi Dingley, including food, home, rides to school, work, friend's house, the various stamps, coins, musical instruments, and bottle caps I collect, art supplies, classes, time behind the wheel, notebooks, books, and getting help from her dad so I was able to attend the right school. Moreover, I remember her making suggestions that led me to volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages, start the JCCC Autism Spectrum Support Group, which later led me to start the Autistic Student and Peer Organization at UCM, going to UCM's THRIVE program, speaking at the Kansas Legislature for my fellow autistic, the JCCC Autism Beyond the Diagnosis Conference, going to UMKC's Disability Studies program, and her learning what it was I needed in life. I'm glad I didn't have to figure out everything in my life. I am also grateful for various mothers of autistic children, who don't feel the need to fix their children, accept their stress-related habits, communication, don't feel the need to portray them as an expressway for stress in their lives, and respect their right to be on this earth. I also want to give thanks to the various autistic mothers out there who led groups like the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, the Autism Women's Network, blog to inform the world about autistic people, and teach disabled children in schools. Happy Mother's Day!