Mafe Maria: Personal stories by autism parent mentor, Maria Stultz

Healing Journey: June 2010

From the trenches of our Son-Rise bubble, here are the highlights shared with friends and family during June 2010, our second month into the program.

12. Happy

That laugh!… It happens every day now.

Happy

14. Son-Rise Start Up

During her intro speech, Bryn Hogan (our teacher and sister to the first Son-Rise child ever) said Each of you are here today because you love a child. They had all of their photos on these walls surrounding us in our training auditorium.

Wall of Fame

20. Belonging

Back home after an amazing week in MA. I didn’t get what I expected… Instead, I got exactly what I needed. Much thanks to everyone at the Option Institute, and to all the beautiful people that shared their personal stories with me. You all made a HUGE difference in my life. I hope I don’t forget. I LOVE being part of this wonderful community. And that (belonging) was something I always thought I didn’t need.

Our "suite" occupants

21. First Day

First day with Kiki alone at home was interesting. From the airport and all through Sunday, Joaquin acted with me as if I was a stranger. So rather than take it personally and dwell on the pain, I did a little dialogue with myself, digested and discarded all the negative feelings, chose to stay with the beliefs that helped me, and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to build back our relationship as if I was in fact a stranger. This is what volunteers of our program will have to do with him, so my experience today should be helpful. (I took videos of it which I plan to use when training).

24. Son-Rise on Myself

Daily goals are pretty powerful. Today I went in with a specific intention, and I asked an old buddy of mine (my guardian angel) to come with me and celebrate all my attempts. Like, do Son-Rise for me while I do it for Joaquin. Ahhhh… What a good day.

3Es in action

25. Good Mom; Bad Mom

Throwing to the trash one more hidden belief getting on my way to happiness. This one relates to people from whom I was unconsciously expecting to get my “good mommy” seal of approval. Turns out, JOAQUIN will be the only one in real capacity to evaluate whether I deserve golden stars. Ahhhh! Emotional freedom feels so good! Now off to a great day…

30. Quitting Playgroup

He never gets on the slides of this park anymore. He loves coming here, but all he does is inspect the back of the slides, and then hit the picinic tables. He usually ends the trip within minutes, but this day he knew we were going to playgroup afterwards, and so he stayed at the park for a looooong time. So long, it was pretty evident he didn’t want to go to playgroup…

Tras bambalinas

… So we didn’t.

Don Joaquin (less "don" every day)

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