Graduation! Yay for Shawn!!!

This past Sunday my oldest son Shawn graduated from high school.

My first-born son has not had the easiest hand dealt to him in life. He's faced the challenges that come along with having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. As the prevalance of Autism has risen greatly over the years (current statistic is 1 in every 110 children have an ASD) I'm sure that many of you have come into contact with, know of, or even perhaps parent a child with Autism. I'm very proud to say that Shawn has faced those challenges head on - usually with a smile on his face. He has grown to be a very fine young man. He has a huge heart and always wants to make people around him happy and proud of him. (Except for the occasional screaming match with his brother over a video game or the pigsty of a room they share. But hey - isn't that what they call "brotherly love"?)

Shawn knows what he wants and makes every attempt to go for whatever that is.
After graduation on Sunday he posted on facebook "I am happy glad that my years in school are over TIME TO GET A JOB!".
That's the Shawn we know and love. We love his little language quirks and his ambition to meet his goal. This goal is not an easy one. Though Shawn is perfectly capable of learning the skills needed for most jobs, in this economy getting someone to give him that chance may be a real challenge. Even if the goal of getting a job may take a while - we are very proud of him and all the accomplishments he has made in his 18 years so far!

Of course I wouldn't let an celebration opportunity go by without doing some cupcake baking. Even thought the gluten-free diet has made it a bit of a challenge, I'm slowly creating some GF cupcakes that are just as delicious as the regular ones. I made some chocolate espresso cupcakes with chocolate frosting - all from scratch. They were a success!