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It's the Little Moments in Life...

That Make Your Heart Smile

By Millicent FrancoPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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(Julian being his normal, happy self)

Growing up I have always heard the phrase “it’s the little moments in life that matter.” It wasn’t until I had Julian that I realized the utter truth of what those moments would mean to my soul.

Julian is an amazing little boy who will be four-years-old in April. Julian was diagnosed about two years ago with Autism Spectrum Disorder. When he was diagnosed, he had in an instant gone from a child with few words to a child who was non-verbal with limited means of communication. When we first began therapy, we had to teach him to point to the things he wanted and from there to shake his head yes, and no. After about one and a half years of therapy, he is now verbal but communication is still limited at times, but he continues to amaze me every day when he says words that I had no idea he knew.

Being a mom of a child with a disability and a single parent has many stressors that come hand-in-hand. Sometimes as parents we get so lost in the stress of the day-to-day that we forget to take these little moments in.

I, myself, am guilty of this so lately I am just trying my best to go with Julian’s flow and follow his lead. When I get upset he looks at me, places my face in both his hands, and tells me “no screaming, Mommy, be happy” and I instantly calm down and hug him. He does this because when he is upset, it is my way of comforting him. He has learned to comfort me by me comforting him. We have a check and balance going, he reminds me that he is just a child exploring as he should be, and he reminds me to take a second to breathe.

Every day he gives me these amazing moments where I am left in awe of him. One of these moments for me was yesterday; I had bought new clothes and was trying them on and I looked to him and said “do I look pretty”? I don’t know what I expected his response to be or even if I expected him to even have a response, but he surprised me. He looked at me and smiled and said “beautiful mommy” and I instantly busted into tears and hugged him, and with a sad face he put both his hands on my face and said “happy mommy.” I looked and him and told him that I was happy and that he made me “the happiest mommy in the world.” We hugged for a minute after and he had the biggest smile on his face. In this little moment unknowingly he had made my heart smile and my soul felt at peace. I didn’t even know that he knew the word beautiful or that he knew the two words were related.

This moment for us was a milestone, because he often has a hard time understanding the meaning of words. This moment was a humbling experience because Julian taught his “mommy” that all of the hard work we were putting in via therapy was working. This moment taught this "mommy" the importance of appreciating the little moments in life and how these little moments would strengthen our bond even more. This moment will stay etched in my heart forever and give me a reason to smile.

After this moment, he, of course, wanted to try on my shirt and decided to burst into song and dance for me while in it. I laughed and joined in along with him. Parenting is hard and full of obstacles, but in these little moments, everything is okay and you remember what a beautiful mark your child brings to the world.

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About the Creator

Millicent Franco

Everything you have been through has lead you to where you are now. Within every obstacle there have been blessings of awareness. With awareness comes the power to become the creator of your life.

My 2 sons are light and abundance.

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