Forever Boy: A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy

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I miss you. Not in some cheesy ‘Let’s hold hands and be together forever’ kind of way. I just miss you, plain and simple. I miss your presence in my life. I miss you always being there for me. I miss you, best friend.” — Unknown Kate is a mother I truly look up to, and her son Cooper is a child I always root for from afar. I’ve seen him achieve so many things with the support of his family and his growth goes to show that our children are lifelong learners and capable of so much more than we give them credit for. And seeing Cooper reach new milestones is a testament to how hard his family fights for him by advocating and educating others about autism. Mary: Yeah, yeah, well, when you think about it too just to point out for the listeners in the show notes, this will be episode 170. I did a show with an expert on Apraxia. We can link in the show notes. I did one on our video blog on intellectual disability, which Lucas also has intellectual disability. I think I even have something on anxiety so we can link those in the show notes just for helpful information for people. But you're right, it does become alphabet soup. So you've had a lot going on in the last two years. I first interviewed you right after we were shut down. And so you had a new addition to your family, first of all.

263 Best Friends Quotes (To Share in Any Situation) - SocialSelf

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.” —Buddha With her popular blog, Finding Cooper's Voice, Kate Swenson has provided hope and comfort for hundreds of thousands of parents of children with Autism. Now, Kate shares her inspiring story in this powerful memoir about motherhood and unconditional loveKate: I'm at 760 now, which blows my mind because I say this all the time. No one ever thinks they're going to have a following on social media. I have a group of men and women who are writers that are part of this blog group that I have, and I might just, do you know you could go viral and you could have a million followers and they're like, No, and I'm like, Yes, it's real.

A fitting revenge TG by Ajonesindy on DeviantArt A fitting revenge TG by Ajonesindy on DeviantArt

Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life, said, “I’m here for you,” and proved it.” —Unknown The world is such a cruel place to anyone who is different. And there is nothing I could do to change that. She turned those frustrations and frights into being a strong supportive mother who wouldn’t change a thing about her son.

Mary: Yeah, yeah. OK. So the big thing that has happened was one of the big things is you wrote a book that is coming out. This episode 170 is going to be aired for the first time on April 5th, which is the launch date for Forever Boy. When? Why? How did you decide to write a book? Mary: Right, right. And I totally agree with that. You know, people, you know, moms. And then in the beginning, I was like, you know, gunning for every treatment and measuring everything and just, you know, and at some point you have to like, go like, wait a second, I have my own life to my own dreams of my own. You know, and I have other children and I have a marriage. I have family and friends. I have a career. I want it. I remember somebody saying once when Lucas was, I don't know, around 10, probably Cooper's age. And like, you know, I was fighting with the school district at the time, I was in due process and one of my behavior analyst friends said, Why don't you just homeschool? I'm like, No, I'm not, you know, I don't expect perfection. I just don't want the bar to be, you know, lowered. And I know what he needs, and I don't personally have to be there doing that. I don't think that's good for either one of us. And so, no, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to throw myself overboard to, yeah, to, you know, have a life that's not good for me. So I love the fact that I mean your, you know, many years behind me and you and you were saying about how nothing falls into your lap. I mean, teen and adult services definitely aren't going to fall into your lap. And then XYZ like this constant fight? Mary: The mom of Cash's Voice on, and I'm going to have Jess on in a few weeks. So. So it really is a great community for networking, for information and for a lot of support, which is great. So would your book Forever Boy? Is it more fiction nonfiction? Is it the same kind of writing that we expect on Finding Cooper's Voice and Coop's Troops?

Forever Boy Audiobook by Kate Swenson | hoopla

Friendship must be built on a solid foundation of alcohol, sarcasm, inappropriateness, and shenanigans.” —Unknown Life isn’t about having a thousand friends; it’s about finding the very few right ones you need.” —A.R. Asher

What is your relationship status?

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” —Oprah Winfrey Sometimes you have to give up on people. Not because you don’t care, but because they don’t.” —Neetu Khatri Kajal Mary: Yes, yes. So I always start out with the same question. Now you are on Podcast 70, which we're going to link in the show, notes MaryBarbera.com/70. And we always start out with, describe your fall into the autism world so you can get the real detailed version in 70. But can you just for people who haven't ever heard of you? Kate Swenson, I don't know where they've been, but can you just tell us how you fell into the autism world very briefly. When you’re in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, ‘Damn, that was fun.’” —Groucho Marx An advocate for autistic children reflects on life with her son, Cooper, who was born with severe autism.

Forever Boy: Original – HarperCollins

I love the friends that you don’t see for days, weeks, even months and the bond is still strong as ever.” —UnknownI hate how we’ve drifted apart, but then again, if you won’t make an effort to keep me in your life, why should I?” —Unknown Mary: It's kind of like having a second. Like, for me two books, it was kind of like having a second baby. It's like, people are like, Oh, are you ready to think about another? It's like, I need some more time. Grief. It comes out of nowhere. I don’t think it ever goes away. It couldn’t possibly. But grief is love. Grief is help. Grief is acceptance. And I will carry the weight of grief with me forever. Kate: And that's something you'll hear a lot about now is that it is the spectrum, and there's a lot of anger around the spectrum and what it is, and that's how it was described to me in the beginning. It was this line, the stark line, and it's like, you know, yeah, where you want to be and this is where you are. And I don't think it's like that. I think it's different. A best friend may not talk to you every day. She might live in another city, or even a different time zone, but she’s the first one you call when something happens that’s really great or really hard.” — Unknown