By Susan McCorkindale, contributor to The Huffington Post and author of 500 Acres and No Place to Hide: More Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl
Last week, we celebrated my older son's birthday. As I sat in the restaurant, watching him hold his girlfriend's hand and joke with his friends as they joined us at the table, I thought I'd cry. Not because his 23rd birthday heralds my 53rd (OK, a little bit because his 23rd birthday heralds my 53rd), but because of all the progress he's made.
When Casey was 12, his dad and I took him to The Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina. For a day and a half, a group of doctors, psychologists and educators conducted a variety of tests and evaluations. They were terrific with Casey and us; patient, encouraging and supportive. They also had a sense of humor, thank God, or else this mom might've gotten a not so social call from Social Services.
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