Celebrity...

I do not know if many of you know this, or if any of you know this....I do not go around and tell people we were in USA Today or on Good Morning America last year. It seemed like it did no good.
We were asked to be interviewed for USA Today. The photographer spent 2 days with us. The reporter spent about 3 hours total. When the photographer left our house, he had tears in his eyes. He thanked us for letting him come into our home. He said, and I quote, "He had never seen a family with so much love".
That seemed odd to me. We are just a normal family, in my eyes.
In our neighbors eyes, we are "the weird family"....
Any who, Diane Sawyer had read the USA Today story and wanted our family on for an Amazing Family story...well, they filmed in May of last year. It did not air until August 16, 2005. That was after a 2 month delay . I learned alot about media...more than I wanted.
Please understand that I am not complaining. Good Morning America was wonderful..they totally undersood our family. They showed us in the light that we are. We do not complain, bicker, fight, or beg.
The reason we decided to do it is so people would know that a family can survive and flourish with autism.....
From both stories, the USA Today and GMA, I will tell you what phone calls I received. Yes, we are listed.
I got calls from a group in California who said that if I bought their biomedical formula, I could "cure" all of my children, I got a call from someone who wanted me to send them x amount of dollars to "save" my children, I got a call from the SON RISE Foundation who said they would give me and my husband a seminar that usually costs $2000.00 each. We just had to get airfare (not easy to do, by the way), and the most amazing thing, a doctor in California who wanted to study our family, but we had to pay the way........
I happily declined all.
Obviously, the point of our story did not come across. I guess they do not think that a family with an autistic child, let alone 5, could really be happy and secure. That we came across so pathetic that we need to "cure" our children.
I play back the tape of GMA and re-read the USA Today story and even the local story done about us in THE AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN (yes, a shameless plug). What I read is a family that is so proud and amazed at what God has given us as gifts. That we expect no less from our children than that of any family given "normal" children. That we are a strong unit and no one can break us.
Why could others not see the same thing?