Givers and Receivers

My step-mom, Marie, and I were having a discussion a few weeks ago. I was lamenting that we have been getting or receiving a lot these past few months and that we haven't been able to give as much as we would like to. She pointed out that we do have a lot to take care of and that our time and especially resources are very limited. True, true I said but it bothers me to be what I call a 'sponge'. Then she said something was very profound:

If there were no receivers... there could be no givers.

Yep, she's right. We give what we can and we want to do more, but there must be both. In fact, a bit over a month ago we were contacted by the Arc of Utah. They had a volunteer group, University Health Care, that wanted to be 'givers'. They wanted to know if we would be the 'receivers' of a yard makeover and a living room painting party. We accepted. The Arc also wanted to know if we would be their speakers for an annual fund raising breakfast that is coming up at the end of this month. Now we could be 'givers' as well.

Yesterday we were part of Utah's first 'Walk Now for Autism'. As we were leaving to go to that, the volunteers from University Health Care were arriving to give our yard a makeover. After we were done with the Autism walk we were told to go to a local indoor play park for children. The ARC had made arrangements for us to play while they fixed up the yard and painted the living room and hallway. They also installed a swing set in the backyard and gave us two brand new bicycles for the children. What GREAT givers!!

Here are pictures of our day:





















Thank you to everyone from The Arc, University Health Care and Lowe's.

Dad

Mayor Daniel Snarr Meets With Dad

Mayor Snarr of Murray, Utah (the city we live in) and I got together to talk about Autism. One of the first questions he asked was: "How do you and your wife do it?" I said with loving each other, being friends, looking at the positive, humor and a whole lot of prayers.

I also wanted to let the Mayor know about the 'Walk Now For Autism' event sponsored by Autism Speaks that is being held in his city on May 3, 2008. (NOTE: if you could support our family team we'd be very thankful).

Mayor Snarr is a very friendly and, I believe, humble man. He asked many questions about the children and how they are doing. When he asked about their school I was surprised to find out that the school Emma and Nephi go to holds a favorite place in his heart. It is a tradition on Valentines Day that Mayor Snarr rides his Harley Davidson motorcycle down the hallways of their school. The children are very excited, he relates, when he stops at each classroom where they sit on the motorcycle and beep the horn.

I asked Emma if she remembers some guy riding down the hallways. She smiled really big, "Yeah, it's cool. One of my friends got to sit on it". "Do you remember who he was? I asked. "He's the mayor" "Does the sound of the motorcycle hurt your ears?" "No" she said, "I like loud sounds. I don't even hold my ears when the fire alarm goes off." I learned something new with that.

I also wanted to let the Mayor know why we are involved in our family mission of media exposure:

1) increase the awareness and understanding of Autism.

2) help people to be more tolerant with Autistic people (i.e. how our AutismBites t-shirts help us with this)

3) jump start our efforts to create our AutismBites Foundation. That goal being to help put funds directly into parents hands for whatever, without a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through.

Why all the pictures? If you don't know by now that I like to be a little goofy, you do now. Plus Mayor Snarr said these are the kind of poses he does all the time. I think he's a little goofy too.

Dad

FYI, we will be joining Jenny McCarthy on CNN's Larry King Live tonight at 7PM MDT. Be sure to watch.