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Houston, Texas (TX) - Partial trisomy 13 with partial trisomy 11 or 17 mosaic
Autumn is 21 now and a senior in her public high school. Her main issues
have been a motor and speech delay, and general developmental delay. She was
very fortunate not to have been born with heart or other organ problems and
has always been very healthy. In her first 14 months she had five surgeries
to repair a cleft lip and palate and strabismus. At ages 5 and 6 she had
revisions to her lip surgery. (I would have loved for her to have further
revision of her lip and nose but she is content with how she looks.
Whenever I have brought up the subject in the past few years, her
response is always “Nope. I’m fine.” So that, my friends, is that.
Autumn can read at around a 5th grade level (according to her reading
teacher) and is in love with literature in any form. She has accumulated a
large library of books, videos, and DVDs and is a trivia queen when it comes
to writers, actors, composers of musical scores and other aspects of the
entertainment industry. Her dream is to become a librarian. We have been
very fortunate to have good teachers that cooperate with us when we make
requests (or “demands,” depending on how they’re expressed). Throughout her
education she has been in both private and public schools, whichever seemed
best at the time. For the past 7 years she has been in a life skills class
in public high school and will graduate in May 2009.
There is a new residential facility being built 60 miles north of Houston
that we’re very interested in for Autumn’s future, but none of us are ready
yet, so we’ll be taking things a year at a time. Houston Community College
has a special ed. program she can attend indefinitely, so that’s what we
have in mind for next school year.
She has had speech therapy (private and school-related) since she was 12
months old, and we have a music therapist who comes to the house once a
week. Autumn has had riding lessons for 6 or 7 years now, and she competes
with other disabled riders in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every
February. She can do a posting trot now, something I never thought she’d be
able to coordinate.
Janet Troy
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Life with Autumn for 21 years has been a story of God’s love—for her, for
us, and for everyone involved in her life. As many reading this know, having
a child with a trisomy will drive you to your knees, but that’s where we
find the One who is Love, and for Steve and I it is a most wonderful
adventure!
Update: October 2005
Autumn has just turned 18 and is in 12th grade in a public high
school. Her main issues have been a motor and speech delay, and general
developmental delay. She was very fortunate not to have been born with heart
or other organ problems and has always been very healthy. In her first 14
months she had five surgeries to repair a cleft lip and palate and
strabismus. At ages 5 and 6 she had revisions to her lip surgery. (I would
love for her to have further revision of her lip and nose but she’s 18 now
and is content with how she looks. We should all be so lucky!) She has gone
back and forth between private and public schools—whichever seemed best at
the time—and is presently happy in a life skills class at a public high
school. Autumn can read at around a 3rd grade level and is in love with
literature in any form. She has accumulated a large library of books,
videos, and DVDs and is a trivia queen when it comes to writers, actors,
composers of musical scores and other aspects of the entertainment industry.
We have been very fortunate to have excellent teachers that cooperate with
us when we make requests (or “demands,” depending on how they’re expressed).
We insist that Autumn be sent out of the classroom for one-on-one reading,
and I’ve made arrangements with her classroom teacher to assign her spelling
words taken from whatever book she is currently obsessed with. He has been
wonderful to pick 10-15 words that challenge her, and Autumn and I decide
when she’s ready to be tested on them. She has had speech therapy (private
and school-related) since she was 12 months old, receives occupational
therapy twice a week at home, and for awhile had a music therapist at home,
but the therapist accepted a job with a school district and we haven’t found
one to replace her yet. We’re very active in Special Olympics. Autumn’s
sports are equestrian and bowling. She adores horses and her riding skills
are slowly progressing. She can trot for short distances now. Since she has
recently turned 18, we are in the process of establishing legal guardianship
with a court date next week, and we have been looking around for the past
couple of years for a future residential facility that we can be excited
about. I think we’ve found it!
Janet Troy sjat@clearsail.net
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12th Grade
Autumn at 17 in her riding helmet ,/P.
Autumn at 16 months old
Autumn at 10 minutes old
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Translation
