life before autism

Tom and I both grew up in Nebraska, me in Omaha and him in Columbus. We both came from hard working families that believed respect was # 1. We both came from large families, my Parents raised 5 kids in 3 different generations, his family had 7 kids all very close together. We were married in Omaha and his job transferred us to Kansas while I was pregnant with Michael. Being very young and being away from family was very hard, it did make me stronger. When Michael was 13 months old I found out I was pregnant with John. John was born 8 weeks premature in Manhatten, Ks. It was probably one of the most scariest things I have been through, the Drs told us they had no idea what to expect but they had life flight standing by to take him to Kansas City to the neo-natel intensive care unit if needed. He was born 6lbs 2oz no fat, a lot of extra skin and he lacked sucking muscles in his jaw. Feedings would take forever because we had to move his mouth up and down, they said he would never do things at a normal rate. I would like to talk to those Drs now. John hit every milestone on target and did everything his brother did. When the boys were 2 and 8 months old we were transferred to Ky. Tom was working 70 hours a week and I only saw family maybe once a year so I had to learned to be stronger then I ever thought I could. We decided it was time to set down roots and buy a house, it was not long after we became new homeowners Woolworth closed their stores and once again we found ourselves relocating. But first I had to stay behind and sell a house while Tom lived and worked in Indy. We stayed there for about 2 years. Indy is not a place I would call home, after Tom had a life changing incident he made a phone call to a friend in Cincinnati who had been trying to get him to come work for a new company. We were off again only this time we went back to Ky. The boys walked back into there lives and I went back to mine. When the boys were old enough to drive I went back to work. I really loved my job, and the people I worked with. Both boys graduated high school and started their lives Michael moved out and worked full time, John was in college. We found ourselves working a lot of hours and just crossing paths. This is when we decided we were going to become foster parents, we just were not ready to be empty nesters yet. In the middle of going through classes my company decided they were going to close. I had decided once again I would be a stay at home Mom. In the meantime both of my Parents health was declining and they knew they needed to move close to one of there kids so they would have help. I was the one, what my siblings never realized is how many days I had to leave work for my parents health, my mom would fall, she got a blood clot in her lungs, my Dad had several strokes. So life before autism was very busy, we had a lot of responsibility, and as a Family we pulled together to do what we needed to for each other and for my Parents. Everything we did was out of respect and love. We truly believed that our love would conquer all. I would like to think that our life before autism was pretty much a normal family life we shared the good times and the bad times. We thought this would prepare us for anything that would come our way.