Dallas has Autism. He was adopted shortly after birth by my children's paternal grandparents. This couple has adopted several children after raising their own children into adulthood. They have taken in so many children over the years, any race, any health conditions, given them loving homes, teaching them to become the best that they can be and I am so proud. Their strength gives all who know them the strength to endure anything that might come their way in life.

Dallas was born to crack parents, and suffered greatly due to his parent's actions. Genes most likely caused the autism but being born addicted to crack did not help. I watched him cry and his pain was great. After watching his torment as a baby, I have zero tolderance of women who do drugs and drink while pregnant.

After being removed from his crack-addicted parents many years ago and placed with his new parents, he began the slow, hard journey that was a head of him.

I am convinced that Dallas would have died long ago had it not been for my former in-laws love and attention. In fact, Each day may well be his last day here on this earth and believe me when I say that each day is heaven sent with Dallas. He has progressed so much but he still needs constant supervision. His parents are not young but retired and getting on in years, yet I watch his father give this large teen a piggy-back ride several times a day. I want to cry each time I watch them together, not out of sadness but of happiness and gratitude.

It was said of Dallas when he was a small baby that he would be profoundly retarded all his life with the inability to do anything short of laying in a bed. Little did they know.

Autism strikes more boys than girls and with no known cure. There are different levels of Autism, meaning different degrees of how strong the condition effects the person. He was in a really bad way in his first years here on Earth but one would find it hard to know it just by looking at him today. Only until you look hard or he begins to some of the movements that he does, do you realize something is odd. He loves to give kisses, loves his Barney and Wiggles playing on his personal DVD player and also enjoys swiping cans of soft drinks from others. It cracks me up that he will walk up next to you, waiting for you to "forget" and put your can down, so he can swiftly capture it and be off to another room to enjoy his bounty. I think that tickles me more than anything for I see him plotting, planning and with great patience, which is often more than the "normal" folk usually do, if you stop to think about it. He is welcome to become part of whatever the family is partaking in at the time and I have never seen anyone mind that he is there. He fits in. No matter the age group. He knows how to fit in. That alone makes my heart sing.

For years he has had trouble looking into your eyes, and he still does at times, but as the years passed, and with love, he no longer pulls his eyes away for long. He tries very hard without prompting to correct himself and that too is remarkable. When he does look into your eyes, he looks deeply and I feel "soul searched". I know what he is doing, he is looking deep into your being, to see if you might be someone he wants to know. Only the pure of heart is what he looks for, in other words. I relate to that 100 percent.

He has epilepsy which worries me the most, as his is severe and life threatening. Daily he is tormented by the thrashing of his body and I believe he feels embarrassment afterwards. His parents sleep lightly out of fear of not hearing him thrashing about, but they do, always. Baby monitor by their bedside but I know they need that not, for their sleep is light and I am sure they hear him sigh but do not react as their bodies have taught them what to listen for and what not to. I know that feeling, I had it myself when Amanda was born and for the first year of her life when she was so sick and stopped breathing daily.

Dallas loves his parents with a love that I know most people long for. It is a pure love, clean and sweet. The kind of love most everyone longs for.

He has always attended school and is so loved by his teacher that she has chosen to follow him as he ages and moves upwards with him through his grades. I find her willingness to do this for him remarkable and we are all very thankful for her kindness and love. Not many people in this world who devote themselves to a child not of their own.

In this shot, I chose to remove the color. I like how it shows him in a more mature manner and the lowering of the lid's of his eyes is not as apparent this way, which to me, makes me see him as he would have been if he could have been. I had little time for focus in between his movements and I did not want to take but one shot of him at any time out of fear of inducing a seizure due to camera flash.

Once upon a time I felt sorry for Dallas, but not any more. I am the one who is the lucky one, lucky to have him in our life, lucky to know him and he still has so much to teach me. I am so ready to learn.

Please support Autism charities as we need a cure, more and more children are effected yearly. My family has been effected twice by it on both sides of my family. If anyone knows how to make a stamp, I would appreciate a stamp for the support of Autism as well as Cancer. Thank you for reading this and please donate and help us cure Autism!

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