autism speaks

Oh, and one other thing... I donated to Autism Speaks today through Ali Edwards' site. It's pretty amazing what these scrapbookers are doing. She's doing this through Network for Good in conjunction with Kevin Bacon's Six Degrees site and she is currently in the lead with the greatest number of donations. So what the heck... there are a few days left for Ali to make number one and I think the prize is that Kevin Bacon makes a $10,000 donation to the winning charity.

I donated because John and I have a nephew with autism. Caden is growing by leaps and bounds and making such good progress in school (he's 4). But it is still going to be challenging for him and his parents as he grows up. Here is a photo I took of him last year when he was numbering the stairs. He wasn't speaking much at the time, but he had memorized the order of numbers and alphabet letters and was crazy about putting them all in order. It just breaks your heart to know that there is a brilliant mind and loving heart trapped behind that disease. I'm all about finding finding a cure or new therapies and preventing it in future children.