A Book Written From My Heart To Yours

The idea of writing this book came early on when Joseph was in elementary school. The original idea was to write a children's book to offer parents and teachers a tool to help classmates understand autism. 

This was in the 90s when people in our community would refer to the movie Rain Man as their reference to understanding what autism was all about. 

I moved forward on my autism parenting journey without writing the book and going through what I refer to as life tsunamis (difficult life events) but through the past few decades, the idea of writing a book was always living inside of me.

In recent years, I was coaching moms, had a podcast, and offered group coaching but felt like I was not reaching the number of moms that I wanted to reach to help them navigate this autism parenting journey. 

So, through several conversations with my friends, family, and my work team, I decided it was time to write. 

I pitched the idea to Joseph and although he had some questions about the process, he too wanted to get our message out into the world. 

I was so happy when he agreed because I knew my son could offer what I could not…the perspective of living with autism as an autistic person. 

So, we agreed that we would work together and write this book. One of the essential pieces of this book was to show that although Joseph and I were on this journey together, we were experiencing autism completely differently. 

There were times when I was in deep pain and Joseph was enjoying that same experience. Watching and observing Joseph on the playground was a painful experience for me but a joyful time for him. 

I felt like this would give others so much hope and that perhaps it would offer healing and joy in their own personal lives. 

With all this in mind and many coffee talks later, how cool is it to have 2 book covers as a physical metaphor for our book? 

One half of the book Mother’s Guide Through Autism that I wrote would be a book cover but then when you flipped it over to the other half of the book that Joseph wrote, Through The Eyes Of The Guided, you would gain our 2 perspectives. 

Literally, the readers would experience the deeper message of our book. A mother and child on the same journey but with completely different life experiences that offer knowledge, hope, and inspiration. 

Once we decided we were going to turn these ideas into reality and write our book, I needed to figure out how I would be able to make this project a priority. 

I was already spread pretty thin with our podcast, blog, and coaching clients. I had heart-to-heart conversations with my team, close friends, and family and we were all on the same page. The consensus was to put everything else on hold while writing this book if I could handle this commitment financially.

I spent several days calculating and meeting with the team and also our publisher. I had worked for the next few weeks on finalizing all the steps to make Mother’s Guide Through Autism book a reality. 

I began writing and didn’t look up until it was completed. Were there challenges? Yes. 

Behind the scenes while writing this book, I had water damage in my home which required a lot of attention. I stuck to our book commitment and kept moving forward. 

Next, as Joseph's mother guide, I began to guide my son through the process of writing Through The Eyes Of The Guided. 

I loved watching my son who seemingly needed very little guidance to take off on his own and finish his part of the book. 

I have had many conversations with a variety of people about how when you find your true calling, the process of getting to the end in mind falls into place. 

Even with all the personal challenges that popped up out of nowhere, it all worked out. The book was completed and we moved on to taking the next steps to complete our project.

This “calling” of writing Mother’s Guide Through Autism has been one of the most extraordinary experiences of our autism journey. 

When a calling knocks on your door, I personally recommend answering it. 

I hope you find healing and comfort in Mother’s Guide Through Autism and Through The Eyes Of The Guided. 

It has been written from my heart to reach your heart.

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