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Anniversary lunch

In conjunction with April Awareness Month, I submitted an article to The Star newspaper. I emailed the editor a hastily written piece and explained that I would like to share our recovery journey. I had little hope it would be accepted, they receive hundreds of submissions daily. However, you’ll never know until you try it right? Not only did they print it, but it appeared in The Star’s Sunday edition in the Health section.

You can read it here at http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2011/4/10/health/8436303&sec=health

The article was published on 10th April 2011, which also coincided with my 7th wedding anniversary. Flashback to 3 years ago, we couldn’t celebrate our anniversary as we were pretty much isolated from the outside world. Maya was deep in Autism though she hadn’t been diagnosed yet then, Yasmin was a young toddler and we were absolutely miserable not knowing what was wrong with our child and how to help her.

Last anniversary, I was in Baltimore, USA to attend my 2nd ARI/DAN Conference. I travelled halfway across the world alone to learn more about biomedical treatments. I remember being exhausted, jet lagged, overwhelmed and lonely. I remember crashing to bed at 1am after wolfing down Maryland crab cakes from room service for dinner at midnight, craving for rice and spicy curry.  Having to wake up at 7am for the morning workshop, needing lots of coffee to get me through all the intense lectures. I recall the 23 hour flight because of the many many transits as that was the cheapest flight option. I remember the toll from the travelling as well as the 12 hour time difference. I was missing my children and wishing I was with my husband to celebrate our anniversary. I remember crying alone in my hotel room……

Busted by the GFCF police!

This year, my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with our 2 lovely girls. We watched Rio the movie, our 2nd time taking the girls to the cinema. Note the big bag of Cheezels, the first time we ever served such a snack to the girls. It’s made of gluten, preservatives, artificial flavourings and artificial colours, as far removed from a healthy organic GFCF diet as could be. Maya ate 2 pieces, Yasmin nibbled on half a Cheezel and hubby polished off the rest!

Maya was totally engrossed with the movie and followed the entire plot. She gasped at the dramatic moments and laughed at the jokes. She wiggled to the beat when the samba music played and she felt sad when the birds got captured. Yasmin fell asleep halfway…..

We then had a lovely lunch together, the girls were well behaved and hubby and I actually managed to eat our food leisurely. Afterwards, we spotted a fashion show about to start in the mall. Maya insisted we watched it, and so we did. We sat in the 2nd row with clubby dance music thumping super loud. When the models came out, Maya clapped and watched the graceful models glide along. She waved at the models each time they posed in front of us.

We spent the rest of the day hanging in a cafe watching the world go by. Me with a decaf latte, hubby with a frozen yoghurt and the girls with soy babycinnos with a generous sprinkling of chocolate on top. That was the best anniversary ever. Who knows what we’ll be doing next year…..

Sometime back, I was also approached by a freelance columnist from the United Daily News. It is a Mandarin publication with a circulation based in Sarawak, my home state. A lovely friend of mine took the time to translate it into English. She writes a health blog, please visit http://healthbitesonline.blogspot.com/.

You can read the English translation here
http://healthbitesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/recovered-from-autism-maya-viktoria.html

If you wish to read the original articles in Mandarin, please see the links below;
Angel Wings to Fly Again: Maya’s Autism Recovery Journey (Part 1)
Angel Wings to Fly Again: Maya’s Autism Recovery Journey (Part 2)

It was an honour to be published, the feedback I received from it was amazing to say the least. Thank you to all the readers who reached out to me, I appreciate your feedback and I was touched to hear all the many different stories of families affected by Autism. I sense the sadness in your voice, I notice the tears caught in your throat, I feel the despair, frustration and hope in your emails. I hear you. I hold your children dear in my heart.

We have been blessed with an amazing and supportive family and the wonderful friends, therapists, doctors and many others who brought us to where we are today. Recovering a child from Autism is a team effort, it takes tons of courage and an immense amount of hard work. A huge thank you and our eternal gratitude to all our guardian angels.