Josh and I have been pouring over information on Asperger's these last few days. It seems like every conversation starts with "One thing I read..." Though it may be a little while before we have a formal diagnosis we both know in our hearts that this is Jonah. Over breakfast this morning I was telling Josh this is an interesting lesson for me in accepting that sometimes good and bad have to come together to have value. Though hopefully AS won't define every part of Jonah, the parts of him that we've always been amazed by are caused by the same thing that brings out the parts of him that we've seen as problems. Somehow it gives even more value to who he is. We are both glad that we didn't know about this until now. Had he been born and was diagnosed right away we may have taken for granted things that we love about him. When he learned all the shapes and could tell you how many sides each one had at 2 1/2 we might have overlooked it, saying oh it's just because of Asperger's. And when he acted out it may have felt like an affliction. Instead we still hold onto the pride and amazement for what he knows and can do, but are also finding a patience we never had before for the struggles.

What's happening as far as getting a diagnosis...We have an appointment scheduled with a psychologist for November 22nd to go over an extensive history of behaviors and to fill out some questionaires. After that we'll schedule a second appointment to bring Jonah in to be evaluated by the doctor. I'm also going to call his pediatrician on Monday. We're undecided yet about contacting our local Autism support group, we sort of feel like we should wait for confirmation.