MaggieM

Quiet Thinker - I too am a mom of an autistic child. He was born in 1997. We left The Way Int'l in 2000 and our son was diagnosed in 2001. (PDD-NOS) I spent months feeling "guilt" that I had done something wrong to cause my son's disability. Maybe it was related to my leaving TWI?!? It didn't take me long to get over that! I became EXTREMELY thankful that my husband and I did not have to deal with any of what you described - because I knew in my heart that what you described would have been what we experienced. As a former fellowship coordinator who lived close to HQ, I know what it was like for parents of "unruly" children. How much worse would have it been for us? I simply wanted to let you know that you very succinctly described why I am thankful to have gotten out when we did. Our son is pretty high functioning and he is verbal. He has cognitive issues and a lot of sensory issues. He is also one of the most incredible people I will ever meet. My thoughts are with you. Thanks for sharing! - MaggieM

I had the opposite experience with the "babysitting" issue. We had a newborn son around the time there were weekend classes that required overnight stays away from home once a month for several months. (This was the summer of 1998) Although we had a newborn, we were "encouraged" to attend the classes and leave our son with people we barely knew. Of course, we gave in and did it but I still kick myself to this day! Another "unwritten" thing we dealt with was the issue of breastfeeding. After giving birth to a 10# child via emergency c-section and developing severe mastitis in both breasts, I was harangued by my branch coordinator and limb coordinator for "giving up" on breast feeding. I stuck to my guns on this one, though! What about the policy that "stated" that if only one of the spouses could attend a meeting, it should be the husband? Or how about having leadership "insist" that we should continue to hold fellowship in our home even with a newborn AND me being sick?