I want to thank each and every one of you that read our blog, offered encouragement, gave me books & websites, or just reached out in support. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. I seriously thought I would get a few obligatory likes on the blog from my closest friends and that would be it. Y'all..... the blog was read THOUSANDS of time. WHAT?!? A little 'ole blog from Winder, Georgia!!! God turned what I thought was a really rough & lonely road for us to haul into a way to reach out and help others as well as give us the opportunity to be encouraged and uplifted. I was especially touched by the Moms or friends who don't have someone with "special abilities" (special abilities is MUCH better than saying special needs...this is my favorite way to describe Dawson's awesomeness). To know that our story helped open their eyes to see more than before, to offer grace & understanding.... That is amazing!! If you didn't read the story about our #awesomeDawson here is the link. I am humbled by your overwhelming response and reminded that we serve a mighty and loving God. A sweet friend helped remind me of this... "We are like clay. Sometimes we need to be dried up and broken so that our Heavenly father can come in with his Potter's hands and water and mold us into who we are meant to be." Let me just say, I am so ready to be molded!!! Isaiah 64:8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. We have been working SOOOO hard over the last 2 weeks with Dawson and he is making AMAZING strides!! I'll share my 2 favorites ;o) First, his favorite food right now is "Fluh-fulls" also pronounced "waffles". He prefers to eat 2-3 for breakfast lunch dinner and even snack time.... We should probably buy stock in waffles, pronto. Next, I taught Dawson the awesomeness that is pretend play, and he LOVES it!!! Until last week, he really didn't do any type of pretend play. But, I showed him how his favorite stuffed animal, Lambie, could "eat" & "drink" and made a crazy slurping sound while pretending (Which he found HILARIOUS), he now does it with another stuffed animal too!!!!   Now, let me fill y'all in on some big big BIG news!! I'm telling y'all, God moves mountains!!! Like I said, after my initial blog I was given SOOOO much information. TONS!! There was so much I didn't know. But, armed with my newly learned information and tons of prayer I applied for an evaluation for diagnosis at the Marcus Autism Center. I was warned of the wait... 6 months was average... Ouch. I also filled out all the information knowing that I didn't have the necessary referral that was required from our Pediatrician. I asked God to fill in the gaps and boy did he ever!!! You see, we haven't been to a well visit for over a year with our pediatrician. Once we saw regression with Dawson, we stopped the well visits. (I don't know if vaccines are the root cause of his delays or Autism in general, but why would I take the chance of things getting worse) Having only seen the doctor when D was super sick, like when he had pneumonia & bad sinus infections with ear infections, I was pretty certain getting a referral was nearly impossible. Well, I got a call today from the Marcus Autism Center. They asked if we would like to participate in a research project where they video Dawson's eyes as he watches an age appropriate 15 minute video, and the location wouldn't be in downtown Atlanta, it would be closer to us. WOW!! I said absolutely!! I had to answer questions for about 10 minutes and turns out he is qualified to participate. THANK YOU JESUS!!! Then she told me that participating in this made it so that Dawson would be evaluated much sooner, bypassing the long wait. "Ok. But, before you tell me the dates available can you tell me how much this will cost. I need to know so I can get the funds ready by then." Come on... surely this was going to be super expensive. The pleasant voice on the phone informed me they were a non profit organization and that they were actually going to pay me $25 as well as do the evaluation that most people have to wait MONTHS for. My eyes filled with tears as I asked her, "Are you serious?" So, the morning of October 7th is what she gave as our appointment, which happens to be my Grandmother, Dad & brother's birthday (Yes, 3 generations have the same birthday... crazy cool, I know). When I called to let my Dad know and break the news that it was on his birthday, he gave me the best response. "That's the best birthday present I could ever ask for. The Lord is so good!!" What perspective. It's a blessing, not a burden, that Dawson will be evaluated on his birthday. And here I was just hoping he wouldn't mind. I need to be clear when I say I don't care what results they give us from the evaluation. I don't care if it's Autism or not (or something in between) as long as they can guide us in the best direction to help Dawson learn and develop to fulfill his potential. Maybe what we are doing now is enough... but, what if there's more that we could do. That is what the evaluation will help us find out. Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. That verse was given great perspective for me a week ago. Train up a child in the way HE should go.... not the way I think he should go. This is my newly adopted motto. Dawson is AWESOME, and our job is to lovingly teach, nurture & guide him to be the best Dawson he can be. Thank you all for joining and encouraging us as #teambritt embarks on our adventure. I would love love LOVE to have Dawson and the doctors we will meet lifted in prayer. Cheers!! Reneé