Light It Up Blue Treasure Hunt

I can't decide if I'm tired due to Spring Break home projects or if I have cried so much today that I am spent....maybe both. I am so overwhelmed at the amount of support that was displayed today for Light It Up Blue. Even my husband was moved to tears. It was a very emotional & amazing day, and I want to thank you for all who participated. Thanks for your pictures, your texts, your emails, and (most importantly) your talking about autism in your homes, at your jobs, and within your communities. Thank you.

Tonight, Corey decided that we should go on a treasure hunt, so we drove around & looked for homes that were lighting it up blue. We drove by our family & friends homes, but we also saw other homes that had changed out their typical lights for blue ones. It was kind of strange to feel connected to a home that you have never been to or even met the people living inside. It was an indescribable feeling to see other "stranger" homes with blue light bulbs. They too know and love someone with autism. That was powerful. Corey & I mostly drove in silence as we were so overcome with emotion. It was truly amazing.

The only sound was coming from Ethan as he was playing a game on his iPad2. Even though he doesn't fully understand what today is all about, he was excited every time we would see a blue light. And the game he was playing was similar to a Mad Lib. There were blanks in the story & he had choices to fill in the blanks. At one point during the night, I heard the story read back to him after he picked his choices. As the lady's voice read the story, I realized that every single blank had been filled with the word "BLUE".....and I had to search in the darkness of my mini-van for my tissues. :0)

One day, he will understand what this day is all about. And I will be able to show him pictures from today, the first day that we celebrated World Wide Autism Awareness Day. I will proudly be able to show him pictures of today from our friends & family & complete strangers....all who are supporting autism awareness & all that means. He is such a lucky kid.

I took a few pictures of stranger homes in our community. Forgive my camera.....we were trying to get some clean shots but still maintain the blue glow in the dark.

This is our home. Light It Up Blue 2012.

This home used blue rope lights around the windows of their porch. It was VERY blue!

This home was diagonal from the previous home. I'm assuming that they are friends/family & showing support for each other. Wonderful.

This is outside the door of one apartment in an apartment complex. I could see this blue light from 3 blocks away.

One tiny blue bulb lit the entire porch of this home.

For more pictures, check out our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/courageandcoffee. I will post more pictures on this blog tomorrow of what our family & friends did today! What a great day!!!