At age 2 1/2 my son still wasn't speaking, but the doctor assured me "boys are slow". By age 3 he was diagnosed with autism. I was told he probably would never speak, never feed himself, never dress himself, a doom and gloom list a mile long. Autism was a strange word to me. I was in shock and disbelief at the same time. I quickly became a one-woman campaign in search of supports for my aging son. The challenges kept coming with each passing year. Entering adult services would prove to be my greatest challenge of all. Autism changed everything.