“Without faith and the hope that I know everything happens for a reason, I don’t know where I would be right now,” Brown said. “It takes a lot of work but in the end it’s all worth it.”
Brown said each family with an autistic child experiences has to go through some modifications.
“Enormous changes need to be made when you have a child with a disability,” Brown said. “We have to modify the environment to make sure he is always comfortable.
She also said it was important for each family member to understand the disorder so they will know how to deal with it in the proper manner.
“My other kids didn’t really understand why my youngest son was doing some of the things he does, but now they are starting to figure everything out,” Brown said. “When they know what’s going on it is a lot easier on me as a mother.”
(Photo Courtest of billarnold.typepad.com)
Brown said sacrifices happen all the time in her family because of her son’s autism,
“My other children have to survive,” Brown said. “My kids have learned to take less attention from their mom.”
Brown said that the event was a big success. Walk Now for Autism was hoping to raise between $1.5 million to $2 million. They are still about $300,000 short of reaching their goal.
“We are not really worried too much about falling short of the goal right now because we still will be collecting donations for the next three to four months,” Brown said. “We are hoping that will be an ample amount of time to get into the range we were expecting to be in.”
Nonetheless, Brown said that the proceeds will be greatly appreciated.
“No matter what way you look at it, success or failure or whatever, we raised over $1.2 million towards promoting research for autism,” Brown said. “That money will go a long way towards helping families be able to deal with the vast needs of raising an autistic child.”
