Breaking Jacqueline's Heart

I LOVE Benefit Cosmetics! They have awesome products with fun names. I love playing with their highlighters! Check out their website at www.BenefitCosmetics.com, we filmed at their Soho store. That was my very first eyebrow threading, and I loved it!  It's fun to have a girls’ night out once in a while. It's good for the soul. I really didn't want to ruin the evening by talking about Teresa. That was still a sensitive subject for me. I just wanted to have fun.

Benefit in Soho is a great spot to stop with your girlfriends to get beautified before you head out for a night out in NYC! Go there for birthdays, a special treat for bridesmaids, for holiday parties, or any special occasion. You will have a lot of fun and leave there looking and feeling fabulous using excellent beauty products! Try it sometime!

I found that scene with Nicholas really hard to watch. It breaks my heart to see him struggle. It wears on me at times. My husband and I are there to support each other and give comfort and strength when the other is feeling weak. We both have our moments from time to time.I have to keep trying to pull language from Nicholas any chance I can. I know that if I can help him to learn how to communicate, it will eliminate a lot of his frustrations and make his life easier for him in the future. Every moment needs to be an opportunity for learning. My efforts, along with his therapists and care givers, are really working. He repeats more and more words as time goes on.

It's really important for me to recover our son and to bring hope to others, just as others have done for us. It is what keeps us going. When I say recover, it's not as if I'm saying to "fix him" as if he's broken. Of COURSE I love him as is, and I let him know that every single day! When I say "recover," I mean that I want him to recover all the skills he lost before he regressed, and I want to give him the tools he needs to make life easier for him in the future. By pushing him to learn new things, we reduce his frustrations.

I have seen Nicholas progress in many areas over the past year, because we do push him to defy expectations. We will never give up on Nicholas because we believe his signs and symptoms can improve with the right interventions. Our goal is to find the right interventions that will work for our child and remember not to get discouraged if something that worked for another child doesn't work for ours. We just have to keep searching. We need to decrease his negative behaviors while increasing his positive ones and teach him how to communicate and socialize with others. He is an amazing child and such a blessing! Nicholas is the best karma my husband and I ever received!To hear more about our Autism journey, and other happenings in our lives, go to www.JacquelineLaurita.com.

Please go sign up on my new beauty website http://altruisticbeauty.com/ to have a chance at winning some of our giveaways until the website launches!

Best wishes to all! XOXO!

Teresa Dares You to Retreat