This past weekend, we celebrated Sawyer’s 10th birthday. We had a small group of mostly family come together to bowl and play games, and then we finished the day with a trip to the movies to see “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (which was super cute!). Sawyer had an awesome day, with lots of fun and laughter. ♥
It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Sawyer has been here with us now for ten whole years. In some ways, it’s hard to imagine life without him here! Sawyer was definitely the missing piece we didn’t know our little family needed.
When I think about how much our lives have changed in the decade that Sawyer has been alive, it’s kind of crazy. So much has happened in what feels like such a short time span! Ten years sounds like a long time, but honestly, it has flown by so fast that it feels like it went by in the blink of an eye.
When Sawyer was born in 2013, our little family lived on post at Fort Campbell, KY. We were a proud Army family, and it was in 2014 while my ex-husband was gone on his second deployment as a soldier that I began to notice signs of autism in my sweet baby boy. Sawyer was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and sensory processing disorder in the end of 2015. Our lives changed drastically as we learned how to navigate life as an autism family, and how to help Sawyer adapt to the world around him. Our life became centered around Sawyer’s therapy schedule as he entered into extensive ABA, physical, and occupational therapy. In early 2016, we took Sawyer to Disney World for the first time (the girls’ second time), and later that year, my ex-husband and I split up and the kids and I moved to my home state of Missouri. As we adjusted to life as a divorced family, 2017 was rough on all of us. We struggled through much of the next few years, but somehow Sawyer has continued to thrive and has blossomed into a happy, goofy little boy.
Life does not look the way I thought it would as I held that tiny baby in my arms 10 years ago. I pictured a rowdy little boy who loved baseball as much as his Pawpaws did, and I dreamed of being able to watch him wrestle and play with his daddy at night before bedtime. Neither of those things turned out to be true but it’s ok; Sawyer is a happy, funny, intelligent little boy who loves video games and swimming, and has a heart big enough to love the whole world. He amazes me every single day with his incredibly loving and caring personality, and I love watching him laugh and play with his sisters.
Today, despite Sawyer’s autism diagnosis, I have a lot of hope for his future. He talks about going to college to be a math teacher, and he dreams of getting married and “being a great daddy” someday to his kids. He does, however, say he wants to live with me forever so we’ll see about all that, but no matter what, I hope the next 10 years passes by just a little bit slower so I can enjoy my “baby boy” as long as I can.
