ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

So it wasn't just Sensory Integration Dysfunction (though that was surely a part of it). It wasn't Asperger's Syndrome. It was Autism. Plain old Autism. Real Autism.

I allowed myself exactly that one night to panic and mourn. When I got up the next morning, I was all business. Ok, so Jacob has Autism. Time to get to work and figure out what to do about it.

First thing I did, of course, was get on good ol' google and googled back up all those Autism Spectrum Disorder sites that I had previously scanned and just picked out the Asperger's info from. Sure enough, there it was in black and white (and all sorts of colors) -- kids that were JUST like Jacob (well, with variations of course, but the stories were strikingly similar). I had been in the right place, I just was looking in the wrong direction. I found it surprisingly soothing to read story after story of families struggling with the same issues. I felt an instant bond with those mothers, an instant affinity with the families, and an instant attachment to those kids.

And I put my head down and started to learn all I could about Autism.