New Friends

This has been a hard week.

If Ryan doesn't have autism I am going to kill her.  To be honest, even if she has autism I feel like killing her.  Which is why I have sent her to sit in her dad's office twice in the last two weeks.  So I don't kill her.

I have a whole blog written about how great the homeschooling is going, about the great strides we are making academically.  Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

We've had rain.  And illness.  And the routine was thrown.

And, again, if this child doesn't have autism, then I am going to kill her.

So I text a friend whose children are also on the ASD spectrum and ask her if she can talk.  Not only can she talk, but she drops everything, grabs her son and is in my house in less than ten minutes. 

Mind you this is a single mother with two children on the spectrum.

And now she has to wipe up MY meltdown.

Later that afternoon another friend drops by with her two boys.  Just seeing her, calm in the face of any storm, makes me feel better.  And she can laugh at anything.  And drop by at a moment's notice.

Another friend, leaving for England soon, dragged me to those damn homeschooling playgroups I didn't have time for.  Without her I wouldn't have met any of my other friends with children on the ASD spectrum and I wouldn't know what autism really was yet.  Life is hard now but it would have been unbearable without an understanding of why it is the way it is.  Thank you, friend.

There's a brand new friend who not only lets Ryan ride her horses but counsels BOTH of us no charge when we show up looking like we want to kill eachother. 

And another new friend, also from Europe, who totally understands when I whinge about the lacksadaisical Queenslanders.

And my oldest friend here, from Queensland, who guides me through the ins and outs.

The other one reads my tarot cards for me.

And a couple I just get drunk with.  More than a couple in fact.

I ran in my first 5km race with two friends.

I've been to a poetry reading with a friend.

The reality is that most of us are so busy just getting by day to day that we feel truly alone.  And the truth is that a lot of the hurdles in your life you do have to cross alone, they are your hurdles and noone else can take them for you.

But yesterday it was just so nice to know that I have made friends here and that they do care. 

And that they won't judge me and that they will be there when I am losing it.

Wonder if any of them want to adopt a 13 year old daughter with a passion for horses?!