Over the weekend, my wife Tiffany was talking to the woman who was Jack’s special ed teacher for close to two years back in California until we moved out here to Colorado. Real quick, if you don’t know who Jack is or why this site is called Operation Jack, click here. In a nutshell, he’s my son, six weeks shy of turning 9, and still in diapers and not talking due to the severe autism he struggles with.
Anywayws, Tiff was talking to the teacher and catching up on a whole host of things. To know Jack is to love him — he’s one of the sweetest kids you’ll ever meet. He struggles a lot, which is pretty painful from a parent’s perspective. It can be pretty frustrating, too — he has constant meltdowns and as much as you want to help him, you don’t necessarily know what’s bothering him. When you can’t solve it or get him to understand that you’re trying to help him, his frustration grows and his only way to express himself often becomes self-injuring behavior. We never go anywhere without his padded helmet.
Back to the original point, though — he’s a very, very sweet and lovable little boy. Everybody who gets to know him falls in love. He’s the most pure 8-year-old I’ve ever met and just about everybody who meets him feels the same. So Tiff and the teacher were catching up, talking about Jack’s progress and how he’s adjusting to Colorado. Like everybody who had a part in his life in California, she really misses him. [Read more…]
