My Precious Brother Toby--In Honor of Autism Awareness
This is Toby, and he is a blessing to our family. Toby likes phone jacks, wires, and bananas. He likes to ask, "What are you having for dinner tonight?" He has the biggest grin and goofiest laugh when he's excited, the handsomest auburn hair and blue eyes, and is a precious young man made in the image of God. He also has special needs--agenesis of the corpus callosum, autism, and ADHD--although there is so much more to him than that. By this post, I hope to let you all get to know my brother as well as some struggles, at least from the perspective and memory of one older sister, that may be present in families and individuals with autism. I was 11 1/2 when he was born. At first we didn't know that Toby had special needs. He seemed to us like any other baby but met his milestones a little later. I do remember he screamed if we held him facing outwards and that he sometimes hit his head on the table when he was old enough to sit with us. About that time, I actually wro...