I'll tell you who I married.  I married the most wonderful wife, who is always loving, kind, rational, supportive and who makes a killer lasagna.

I married the most wonderful wife, who is the best sister, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, aunt, daughter, who will literally drop everything to help with just about anything.

I married the most wonderful wife, who out of the blue, will buy you a jamba juice and surprise you at work and pick up some clothes you had on hold at Gymboree, but never got a chance to pick it up yourself.

I married the most wonderful wife, who throws the best wedding and baby showers.  I'm sure you've been to one, and wanted to hire her for your own events.

Best of all, I married the most wonderful wife, who is the best mother to my 2 crazy kids.  Who love to shuttle them to school, ballet class, tae kwon do, doctors appointments, grammy and grandma's houses, the park, friends and family's houses, showers, movies-- and loves every minute of it.

Happy Anniversary to my "firecracker."  I love you with all my heart.

So I logged on tonight after church and found this article on MSNBC "debunking" vaccines and autism.  This was interesting, because it is a rare article talking about GI (gastrointestinal) problems and autism-- something Ethan is dealing with.  I was steaming mad when I read the article... they claim no MMR commonality to autism because they took samples of intestines and searched for the measles virus and found none.  Viola!  No MMR connection to autism.  What the frak!!!  I work in an industry debugging issues, and if that was the analysis made, I would lose my job.  To me, this is evidence that there is indeed some kind of government-pharmaceutical-media connection to this misleading information. I don't want to call it a conspiracy, but if it walks like a duck...

Well, here's my reply found on newsvine to the article and the comments on it-- most people want the whole debate to just go away... They do call us crazy for thinking that there's a connection between vaccines and autism.  I doubt anybody I know would ever catch that by chance, so I'm re-posting my reply here.  In my effort of being more vocal in life about my thoughts, this is a good example of what goes thru my head sometimes:

"Whoever does not live with autism in their own lives needs to just sit down and shut up. My son is autistic and I watched his entire progression start from the very day he got a vaccine shot. Up to that point, he was very social, would look you in the eye and was completely "normal." That day, after the shot, he became very lethargic and ran a fever. Kids get fevers all the time but this was slightly different-- the look in his eyes was indescribable. I now know exactly what "glassy eyes" means and it makes me sick to think about it even now. I have a picture of him sitting on the couch in his PJs (I could probably cross-reference the date of the picture with his medical records to see exactly what shot(s) he received, but it's too late, I'm tired.)

Since then, he is not social but is very loving. He would not look anybody in the eye for many years. We got him tested about a year ago for food allergies and we thought we hit something-- he was allergic to most foods: gluten/wheat, nuts, dairy products. We also had his stool sampled (quite fun) and found that he had absolutely NO good bacteria in his gut. We're trying out some pro-biotics, vitamins, DHA, cod liver oil, etc. We're also on an organic diet and avoiding most every kind of food we took for granted before-- I feel so bad that for quite a few years, he enjoyed ice cream, breads, etc... He cannot communicate that well, but his gut was never quite right... lots of "toilet" issues that I won't explain here.

The biggest gripe from me with all of this, is that parents of autistic children HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON. Sure-- there's going to be quite a bit of commonalities drawn to vaccines but I don't think that's the entire story. Ask yourself-- why does an adult get the very same dosage that a 2 year old gets for MMR? We have increased the number of vaccines our kids get... back when I was a kid, I got a small handful... now they get about 20, many of them in mega-dose/multiple-vaccine shots. My kids are small... anybody with some knowledge in medicine dissipation might wonder what those chemicals are doing to our kids. If you want us to stop making this such a big issue with pharmaceuticals, then GIVE US SOMETHING TO HELP US FIX OUR KIDS! I love my son. He is what he is and I will always love him for what he is. But if there's any thing we can do to make him enjoy live more, then let me know. In the end, it will be wonderful to see him in heaven for who he truly is, and free from this disease. I'm sure he'll have lots to tell me then, what he can't tell me now because of autism.

We have a loving family. For now, that's what is getting me thru all of this."

Link to newsvine (for my own tracking of replies)