To give some context to what I’m going to explain we need to go back a few years.  Like most stories this starts with a boy and a girl. I met my wonderful wife in 2007 and we got married in 2008.  We were both 21 years old and too young and stupid to know any better. We had a grand plan of being married for a year and then start having children.

Just like the saying goes, “life happens when you make other plans”.  We did not expect to have infertility issues, I don’t know if anyone does, but they happened and we had to deal with that emotional rollercoaster.  That is a different story altogether. For four years we tried and tried to have our baby.

In 2013 after trying and giving up on fertility treatments, we found out my wife was expecting.  We took 7 pregnancy tests and ran to medical center that would do a blood test on a Friday evening just to make sure.  We were beyond excited and the pregnancy went perfect. Well, it always goes perfect for the guy right? In my mind it went perfect.  My wife may tell you otherwise.

On a December morning in 2013 my wife and I went into the Riverton Hospital in Utah to have our baby.  My wife was being induced, which was nice because I could plan everything. I took the whole month of December off for this.  It was the biggest event of my life.

I remember so many things from that day, but the thing I remember most is the first time I saw her, my little Haven.  She was a perfect baby girl. here were no defects or health problems. I had been waiting to meet her for 4 years at this point.  I even remember asking her where she had been. She was a beautiful curly-haired, blue-eyed little baby. I immediately felt more love for her than I thought I had the capacity to feel someone.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife and the rest of my family, but this was different. This was fatherly love, it was unconditional and I felt an immediate connection with her. She was my little girl, my little buddy, and my purpose in life changed that day.

Haven grew like most children.  She crawled at the normal time. She was perfectly healthy and walked at 11 months.  She started saying “Da Da” and “Ma Ma” when she saw us. She was perfect. For the first 15 months no one suspected any delays or anything close to Autism.

My wife was always on the lookout for it because she had worked with children on the Autism Spectrum for over 15 years.  First in a school for Autism and then doing in home respite care for some children. She knew way more about the subject, but we will get to that in another post.