About

Welcome to When There are No Words, A father speaks out about autism.  My name is Jerry Russell. I am a father, a husband, a writer and professional blogger, but this is not about me. This is about my son, Lil’ B. My son is autistic and has never spoken more than three words. I speak here because he cannot. I will continue to do so until he can tell his own story.

Since when did Dad become the Jungle Gym?

This blog is about hope, not defeat.  It is about taking on a challenge and overcoming the odds.  It’s about life, both the good and the bad.  It’s about my son and what he goes through (and puts us through) on a daily basis. I offer no quick fix or miracle cure.  There isn’t one.  The way to beat this thing is through hard work and patience.  Hopefully I’ll live up to those challenges.  I have to.  My son needs me to.

I don’t take myself too seriously, and this blog isn’t going to be written clinically.  Life is as much about having fun as it is anything else, and that will be reflected here as well. What’s the point of going through life with no laughter?  My son loves to laugh (and to hang upside down from the nearest grumpy adult), so we laugh with him.  Of course, I’m not perfect, so you’ll find me laughing at my own stupidity at times as well.

Some will ask where my wife is in all of this.  She’s right here going through as much of this as she can.  She is an active duty member of the United States Air Force and as such, she does not have the luxury of staying at home with our son.  My work allows me to do this.  In that way, I’m lucky.  Of course, I consider myself lucky to have her in my life as well, and I think our son kind of likes her too!

My wife Jessica with Lil. B. They just finished attempting to read "Where the wild things are".

This is about family, it’s about fun, it’s about laughter and tears. hopefully the words I put down here will reach someone else. Perhaps they will lift someone’s spirits or give a bit of insight to what parents with autistic children go through every day. Perhaps, if I am truly fortunate, some of these words will help someone make it through a trying day. There are a lot of those in the world of the parent, even when autim is not involved. Add a learning disability and there are a few more.

I’ll cut this off at this point. It’s probably obvious that I’m in a bit of a rush to get this written so that I can move on to something else.  I’ll get back to it in due time and make sure that it reads a bit more cohesevely…  And perhaps even says something worth reading.  That is, after all, what an “about” page is supposed to be about, isn’t it?

Yeah, I don’t know either.  Toodles!