SRMM Goes to China (Kind Of)

Do any of you guys remember when I got the best email in the whole history of ever? A young woman with an autism spectrum disorder wrote to me to tell me to keep on keepin' on with what I was doing, because her parents made her the success that she is. For the sake of her privacy, I refer to her on my blog as "Kim."

I just wanted you (and by extension, the other moms with non-neurotypical kids) to know that we can be successful.
We can go to college and live away from home.We can go backpacking.We can ace tests.We can write 20 page papers and turn them in on time.We can play sports. (Just usually not the ones involving tackling or balls.)We can learn to talk to people.We can make friends.
What you're doing makes a difference in the lives of your children.

(Her full letter is here.)

Kim and I have kept in touch. She's been incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the one-year course of the Pork Lo Maniac's Asperger evaluation and diagnosis. As a small thank-you, I sent her a stark. raving. mad. mommy. mug.

These days, Kim is travelling the world--literally. And because she is unbelievably awesome, and she knows of the Pork Lo Maniac's love of all things Asian, she took the mug with her to Central Asia.

She emailed me these photos of the SRMM mug on the Great Wall of China, for me to share with the Pork Lo Maniac. She also said I could share them here.

In return, the Pork Lo Maniac sent Kim this photo of her favorite Lego person, next to some miniature pork lo mein made out of Play-Doh:

The PLM also sent Kim a photo of herself up in a tree. Tree-climbing is kind of her thing, and she's awesome at it. Last week, some "popular" girls made a comment about it being "creepy" that she was up in a tree on the playground after school.  Kim told the PLM that it was probably because they were jealous that the PLM was cool enough the climb a tree, and they aren't. She also told the PLM that the popular girl who tormented her in school was later kicked out of her sorority in college.

Today's just one of those days where I'm super-grateful for all the wonderful people this blog has brought me in touch with.

Kim's brilliant, heartfelt and brutally honest blog is Diary of a Non-Neurotypical.