About us!

This is us.  We are a family of six.  Brett and I were married in 1996, and Duncan was born in 1999.  We found out we were pregnant again with Tori eight months later and she was born in 2000.  We then used common sense and waited to have Samantha in 2003.  We decided our family wasn't finished and had Jason in 2007.  My youngest three have Sticklers Syndrome which is a genetic disorder.  My girls have been affected by having issues with their eyes, so I thought we had the problems figured out.  Jason was born with a soft cleft palate and a hearing loss.  He was always moving and shaking.  I called him my energizer devil.  He was the energizer bunny and Tasmanian devil all rolled into one.  I remember asking my sister how she handled her boys.  I wasn't sure if it was the fact that it had been so long since I had a baby boy, or that I was just older, but he was a hard one to deal with.  When he was eighteen months old he stopped sleeping.  He went from about 13-14 hours of sleep a day to 4 or 5.  It was a really tough time in our life.  As he withdrew into his own head I knew I was losing him.  For a few weeks my husband just thought it was the lack of sleep that was upsetting me.  We had services with early intervention due to his hearing loss so we had set up an evaluation with a speech therapist.  As she watch him the fear and terror was evident.  She knew something had happened and so did I.  The same day we had a well check for him, and she immediately started giving us referrals.  That's when we truly knew we were in for a long ride. 

 Jason was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2 years.  His severity has grown more and more apparent as he has gotten older.  He doesn't talk, or sign.  He has some pretty intense sensory issues, and has started having some aggression problems.  We have him on medicines that help but we are looking to start some more intensive therapy's as soon as Utah decides that they want to mandate insurance company's to pay for ABA therapy.  I have a feeling that this isn't going to happen anytime soon.  This is our story, and I hope it helps you.  Hang on for the roller coaster that is our lives!