It was 6 years ago on January 30th that Maggie was diagnosed with Autism. From that day forward, life was a whirl of navigating the system, making appointments and getting on endless waitlists. I was working full-time while the kids were in daycare. At the beginning there weren’t actually that many appointments to attend, because she either didn’t qualify for services or the waitlist was 3 years long. That’s not an exaggeration by the way. My “free time” was taken up with mountains of paperwork, phone calls, and parent-training classes.
I remember being overwhelmed, but also just wanting help. No more waiting lists. We had 2 private therapists working with Maggie while we waited.
Just as we were beginning to feel like we could breathe again, the new teacher at the daycare dropped a bomb on us when she said that Molly wasn’t doing anything at daycare. She and Maggie’s therapist were worried that Molly might be autistic as well.