In March of this year, our middle child (Noella aka Ella) was diagnosed with Autism. I’ve posted and shared my feelings on my instagram Accio_ali, and also on hers _unicorndiaries, but I never shared why I stopped the posts on her account so abruptly.

Aside from what I feel is the most obvious, Ella in our eyes is perfect, and a diagnosis doesn’t change how much we love her, or how we see her. She isn’t given special treatment. (Depends on who you ask though LOL) The reason is something that one of her therapists said.

Backstory; Ella has been in speech therapy going on 1 year now! We would set goals for her, and she accomplished anything, and everything. Not to say it was easy because it wasn’t. She went from a practically nonverbal child to talking a mile a minute in a matter of months. It was and still is such an awesome thing to see! Now she’s constantly singing, and being dramatic when her older brother pokes her. (Which when she tells the story poking is pushing lol)

Currently, because Ella was doing so well developmentally she was no longer showing a “delay” and we were given a 6 week hiatus from speech. (GO ELLA!) I just felt that although we were getting so much good feedback from everyone that I wanted to keep some of these moments private. So that we could process, and appreciate them as a family.

I’m sharing this now because as the date creeps up I’ve been a little angry about the diagnosis. I’ll explain, Noella goes back to see her developmental therapist in March of 2020. She’s going to be reassessed, and at that point the therapist will decide whether, or not she’s on the spectrum. You following me here? She so easily diagnosed Ella with something that could affect the rest of her LIFE, and she could just take a diagnosis away like it was nothing?

We will love Ella Autistic or not, but can you see my frustration? It literally makes me question everything, not just with Ella, but with the medical industry in general. How many people are misdiagnosed? How many who aren’t diagnosed at all? UGH.

Frustrated or not I’m forever thankful for what speech, and occupational has done for Ella. She is thriving and when we see Erin (her speech therapist) in a few weeks we’re hoping for the best possible outcome, and excited for new beginnings!

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