Light it up Blue for Autism Awareness

Did you know that April is Autism Awareness Month?  Or that Autism Speaks runs a "Light it up Blue for Autism" campaign on April 2 of every year.

The past few years, I've meant to do April big, to do it in style, and to do April 2 especially big.  Being who I am, I don't usually remember to start looking for a blue porch light until March 31, though--and we have yet to find one that fits our porch light.  This year it hit me--blue Christmas lights!  Duh.  I not only found string lights, but replacement bulbs that fit our porch light.  Go me!

I also paid a visit to the online Autism Speaks store, and I bought a 'few' more things for this special day, and the entire month, including a yard sign, should our neighbors think we have gone completely off our rockers, putting up Christmas lights in April.

Then I realized--I forgot to ask Noah if this was all okay with him.  We live on a street with several of his (not so nice) classmates.  Our neighborhood is full of kids he goes to school with, and rides the bus with.  We've talked about how to tell people, what to say, and when to say it--but I don't really know how many of his schoolmates know about his Aspergers.

What I learned from Noah made me very proud of my little blue light special (family joke!).  He said to me, "Mom, they need to deal with it.  I am who I am, and I'm not going to be embarrassed, or let them make me feel bad about it.  It's up to me and our family to raise awareness for the kids who can't."

And with that, folks, we are LIGHTING IT UP BLUE FOR AUTISM!