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CHAPTER 17
SAVED!
As we started out our long and difficult journey a year and a half ago, none of us knew where it would lead. With each passing day, each new trial, each new frustration, there were many days where Fred, Anika and I all wondered if we would make it just through the next ten minutes. Exhaustion, discouragement and the thought of simply “giving up” were battles we fought almost daily. It was as a result of this that Fred and I began to do something we had not done in probably ten years...we started to read and study the Bible (one with notes at the bottom to help explain some of the passages since given our situation, we did not have time to “try to figure it all out for ourselves”). In its pages, we found strength, encouragement, hope, determination, comfort, understanding, patience, persistence, never-ending love, and life. I now saw how although my son was not perfect right now, one day, he would be, and he would be for all of eternity. I just had to get through this lifetime and that was how I began to live, one day at a time, with the complete knowledge that Zachary would eventually be perfect, forever.
In God’s perfect Word, I found so much I had not seen before, so much in the book of Revelation I had never been taught. Unfortunately, like so many others, I had no relationship with God. From now on, that would be different. God had given me Zachary for a reason, and I saw that now... it was to bring me back to Him.
As our family healed from the scars of autism and the internal death we, as parents, had felt inside upon learning of Zachary’s condition, it would be Fred and I who would experience a re-birth as we worked so hard to “save Zachary”. It was as a result of this new found life and hope that I wanted to share our story with other parents facing autism, to give them hope and help. One night, I had another dream, and with it, I awoke in the morning and felt an intense need to write this book, to share our story...freely. I had no desire to make money from the writing of this book. It was just a voice inside me telling me to “write the book...write the book... write the book... and give it away”. So, I wrote the book and will give it away to help other parents and researchers in the field of autism. God literally waited “until the book had been written” to give me the final piece of the puzzle – the best chapter of all, the chapter that explained everything and put it all together- just as in the Bible – “The Revelation”.
Little did we realize, upon setting out to “Save Zachary” that it would be Zachary who would help “save us” as his condition pushed us toward Christ for answers and strength. Zachary’s favorite movie had always been Pixar/Walt Disney’s Toy Story. In the words of Zachary’s favorite animated character from that movie, Buzz Lightyear, our autistic son would, indirectly, help take us “to infinity and beyond”!
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