Ben's a Small Angel

Ben has adjusted to his Summer School classroom and seems to like it very much. Except for the whole bus fiasco, which he absolutely refuses to ride. His teacher told me that there is a teacher's aide in his classroom whom Ben likes tremendously. She is also a bus driver and comes to help out in the classroom after she finishes her morning driving. Anyway, this lady had an autistic son so she understands autism first hand. She lost her husband and autistic son in an house fire and was severely burned herself. Ben's teacher told me that Ben loves to sit on her lap and snuggle against her while they read stories, and it occured to me that God is using Ben! He's using my little boy to give someone else comfort and I think that's a great thing. I like to hold positive things like that in my heart because in some ways, Ben has again grown increasingly challenging. Since Busch Gardens, Ben has developed a fear of a whole heck of a lot of things. Elevators, escalators, haircuts, baths, running water, vacuums, pools, buses, wagons, tricycles, rides of any kind. Casey says we have to tackle one fear at a time, desensitizing him by exposing and rewarding him often. It's challanging because avoiding these things would be the easiet, but not the most prudent course of action. He must learn to function as these things are part of our society. It's a trying time, and we're going to the beach for the next week. I can only hope he hasn't developed a fear of the ocean, but time will tell.