New Surroundings

I took Adrian to church on Sunday. I had been wanting to go to church for a long time now. The church we went to is no longer, so I had been putting off finding another. I need a small setting for him. Too many people and he is covering his ears and screaming. We found a new church called Paragon. It is the perfect size. There were maybe 6 other children in the room. Adrian always seems to know when we are at church. He sees a room with pleasant and warm looking woman with little ones running around her feet... and he just knows! He automatically starts to cling. It's the only time we can get a real good hug! He wraps his arms around my husband's neck, and his legs lock on to him as well. We basically have to carry him in there and pry him off while showing him the awesome toys. My husband distracts him with puzzles while he sneaks out. I stay though. A new environment with new people, it would be cruel for me to just drop him off there and leave him. Most children would be ok. Adrian doesn't have your typical separation anxiety though. Once he gets worked up, there is no taking him down. No amount of cuddling or talking or anything will get him to calm down. It will be a long time before he calms to the point where he is just sniffling. Once he found the cars in the room, he was just fine! He no longer looked around at everyone like they were evil. He has this paranoid type look to his face when he is concerned about being around strangers. If I didn't tell the nice nursery lady that my son was different, she sure could tell by the way he played. All the other children were running around, talking, playing with each other. My son sat down in the corner and played with puzzles and cars, alone. Special is the word I used. Not that he's better than other kids kinda special, but special as in a nice way of saying different. I'm hoping to keep going to this church, so that people can get to know my son and that I can feel comfortable leaving him alone in the room. I also got to talk to a friend that works with special needs kids, especially autistic kids. I always feel so inspired and so refreshed when I hear from others who have seen kids who were "gone" come back. I still hope and pray to hear Adrian's first words. I also know there is a possibility that I may never hear him talk, but I still keep that hope that he will talk, one day.