Why We Do it

So Memories Live On

After our son William was born, I was watching my wife become a mother and she was settling into the role quite nicely. All was well until his 9-month checkup when we discovered the circumference of his head had grown too big too fast. While having MRI’s/tests done over the following year William's brain stabilized. We thought we were in the clear until William’s vocabulary of Mama, Dada, baba went silent. Before his second birthday, William was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and our journey began.   

After a good cry, Chrissy, my wife, went to work. Determined to help William the best she could. She started researching all she could about Autism and all the resources around us that could be utilized. She filled his days with numerous types of therapies and programs. You add fighting insurance companies over denied claims, writing foundations that give out grants to help families like ours, and all the other things that go along with being a mother, it was impressive.

Pretty much since the beginning of our relationship I would randomly make Chrissy gifts for her birthday or a holiday. Usually it was something small like a card or a paper rose, but sometimes it was more. With Mother’s Day a couple of months off and all this exceptional mothering going on, I felt it was time to make a great gift. At this point in our journey William would absolutely not make eye contact and this recent development was hitting us pretty hard. So, the picture on our dresser of William at about 6 months old looking deeply into his mother’s eyes became my focus.  

Since I wanted to convey what a great job she was doing, and I'm no wordsmith, I concentrated on quotes about Mothers rocking motherhood. There were several quotes that expressed ideas I resonated with. I looked for ways to fit them nicely together on a picture frame... and I struggled. After a long creative process, a crashed computer, a setback or two, and a much-needed incubation period, my wife finally received her Mother’s Day gift. It was a grey frame that had the picture of our son looking into her eyes with quotes from remarkable people about praising mothers. Since I needed to cite the author of each quote, I made another, smaller line, and filled it with the authors and the personal words from my heart I wanted to say to her.

She loved it!!! Other people we showed it to loved it as well.  They were intrigued by how I put my thoughts and emotions on the frame.  So, I started looking into sharing this with the world and here we are.  Now we have to figure out how we can use this new adventure, in a well-focused way, to help families affected by autism. And that is where the “Affect” in our name comes from.