The monkey was struggling when my husband arrived from work this past weekend. It was hot outside, 96 degrees, and my husband was all day in the sun at work. I always struggle to ask him for help. Not because he won’t help me. But he’s all day in the sun working, should I burden him with the monkey?

But as my husband arrived from work, he heard the monkey was crying upstairs. He ran upstairs and asked me: “What do you need? How do I help?”

The monkey was very anxious. He was showering and couldn’t calm down. Even with both of us there trying to help him, it was not working.

A while later my daughter arrived from work. I heard her knocking outside our bedroom door. She still had her work uniform on. And as I open the door she asked me: “What do you need? How do I help?”

I told her the monkey was struggling and was very anxious. But we were handling it. She said, “Ok let me change real quick and I can help you guys out.”

It’s hard for me to remember what our life was before the monkey arrived. Before autism came to our lives I don’t remember much the people that we were. But now, I step out of our box and take a peek inside our lives and see the people that we have become. I see that we’ve become a family that’s more understanding, more aware of other struggles, and simply more caring. I can see it in how my husband is with his students and how empathetic he is with their personal struggles. I can see it in my daughter when she tells me the stories of customers that need a little bit of patience when she’s at work. I can see in how they always are willing to help, drop everything in a moments notice when they know there’s a need.

And I can see it when they’ve had very rough day at work, and how they forget all of that and put the monkey as their priority. ❤️

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