Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, sunlight turn to fog;
but you're never friendless ever, if you have a dog.
Douglas Mallock
today i want to share something personal with you...it's about my youngest son, Luke. our family is taking the first steps on a journey which will hopefully lead us to him getting matched with an autism service dog. the life of an autistic child is no easy road...and i really feel the road for him will be more bearable with a constant companion of man's best friend who is specifically trained for his particular needs.
Step 1: complete!
Luke's application has been accepted and we've been invited to the Assistance Dogs for Autism facility in Harmony, NC to observe how he interacts with the different types of dogs. since highly specialized dog training facilities like this are not on the corner of every street, it was a major blessing to start with that this one is just a few hours away from our home in Asheville.
during our upcoming visit, they will be evaluating if he truly needs an service dog or just a companion. my hope is that they are able to match him with one of their service dogs....the things these dogs can do for autistic children astounds me and i really believe it would be a turning point for Luke.
it would be such an answer to prayer to have one of these dogs that would be able to calm Luke when he is having a meltdown, keep him from running off, redirect repetitive behavior, help improve his quality of sleep and most importantly help him socially. for a child who does not have a friend and is socially awkward, the thought of him having a best friend by his side wherever he goes, would be the greatest thing to me.
our appointment is this week. please join me in praying that this 2 hour drive to Harmony, NC will be the start of the roughly 2 year process of finding the right dog to bond with, train, and befriend our Luke.
if you would like to learn more about the facility we will be visiting this week, please check out their website at http://www.autismassistancedog.com/. There are great written and video testimonials on the site.
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