DR. TEMPLE GRANDIN CONFERENCE!!!!!!!

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! Yesterday, my husband, mom & I were all fortunate enough to be able to go to one of Temple Grandin's conferences. It was in Chicago, IL so we drove in the night before, stayed in the hotel where the conference was located, and attended the conference ALL DAY! IT WAS GREAT!!!!!!!

We made our way to the conference room as soon as we could....7am. As we were checking in, my mom was talking to me about "Where do we go?" & that sort of thing.....but I didn't hear a word she was saying. I was momentarily "star struck" because at that very second Temple Grandin was coming our way! I was frozen as I just watched her heading towards us. Then, she walked right past me! You would have thought Temple was Elvis Presley or something the way I was so overcome with awe! I, of course, immediately started to cry! Not only was I about to hear from the woman who has helped me understand my own child, the woman who's books I am absorbing, the woman who's interviews I have practically memorized, but she was shoulder-to-shoulder next to me! It really was a surreal moment for me.

After that we made our way into the conference room. My mom & I immediately went to save our seats. Most people were at the continental breakfast that was provided, but we were more concerned with getting optimum seating. And boy did we get it!!!! Here is a picture of how close we were to the speakers.

I don't have many more pictures because it wasn't allowed during the presentations. Besides, I was busy taking notes, laughing, crying, meeting new friends, buying stuff from the vendors, etc. It was a wonderful day. Temple signed the book that I had brought with me. (A long time ago, before we knew that Ethan had autism, my sister was a big Temple Grandin fan. As a teacher, she has fully embraced her classroom as an inclusion classroom, and has loved every minute of it. In order to help her understand some of her students with autism a little better, she purchased & read several of Temple's books. Well, here we are years later, and she has passed those books to me....so I can understand my child a little better. So, it was one of her books that I took with me to have signed....with my sister's permission of course. She was just as excited about this conference as the rest of us!) But here is something so wonderfully funny. As Temple took the book from me to sign, she looked at my name tag & wrote: To Jessica, Temple Grandin. LOL! So now my sister's book says, "To Jessica, Temple Grandin." HAHAHA! We all LOVE IT!!!! Temple also allowed us to take a picture with her.

Dr. Temple Grandin, me and my husband. Thanks mom for taking this picture!

Well, as you can guess, I will have TONS to talk about from this experience. It was amazing! I met some new friends, we all cried together (actually, I'm not sure if my husband ever cried.....but maybe he got that lumpy thing in his throat), we laughed A LOT, and we got some GREAT new information.

One thing that I took away from the conference is this.......we are already doing what we need to be doing for Ethan. I felt reaffirmed in our parenting, our therapies, our strategies, and so on. Yes, I will be tweaking or adding things, but I didn't leave there thinking, "Wow...we could be doing so much more for him." I felt like, "YES! We are already doing all of those things! We are on the right path for what is best for Ethan."

It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am so grateful that I was able to go WITH my husband and my mom. Ethan stayed with my husband's parents, and it sounds like they had a great day as well....LOTS of memories & bonding. This was the first time that we both simultaneously left Ethan for more than 24 hours. This was a big leap for us to do (REALLY big for my husband), but it was so worth it....for all of us. And, as my friend recently said, maybe someday people will be paying money to hear Ethan & I speak at a conference. You never know what God has in store for this child, but I just KNOW that it's going to be AMAZING! YEAH!!!!!!