Welcome to My Life

<p><strong>NEW EDITION - Now includes a bonus chapter from Laurie's newest memoir <em>Selling Vegetables to Drunks</em>.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Heralded by autism advocate Temple Grandin as an honest memoir about perseverance and hope.</em></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Candid Vulnerable Informative Inspirational</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>When Skyler was three years old he was diagnosed with severe non-verbal Autism. When he was 17 his mom wrote a book about his amazing life.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>From page one </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Welcome to My Life</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> delivers on its promise to place you squarely in Skyler's life surrounded by mom and dad Laurie and Josh and superstar sister Kendall. Detailed sensory descriptions take you to doctors' appointments and trick-or-treating to Qdoba and the kitchen table to the bathroom for another pull-ups change to family gatherings to the Autism Center and to conversations and internal dialogue so honest that you'll feel like you're part of the family too.</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Welcome to My Life</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> shares the 14-year journey of a true warrior mom advocating for her non-verbal severely Autistic son from diagnosis through his teenage years. This brutally honest and heartwarming account details the daily struggles and often lack of social understanding that families face when raising a child who relies on parental assistance for every need.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>A memoir like no other -- honest and raw hilarious and unexpected heartbreaking and uplifting. Laurie L. Hellmann's <em>Welcome to My Life</em> is a love letter to her son Skyler and a welcome letter to the masses. It is dose of reassurance to us all and a reminder that the world -- even when it's unpredictable and frightening -- is still shimmering with silver linings and powerful lessons.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Because He Has No Words and Yet So Much to Say</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>For mothers and fathers sister and brothers Autism isn't a personal diagnosis ... it's a family diagnosis. Especially when your Autistic loved one copes with significant development delays suffers from serious chronic medical conditions is an insomniac and exhibits behaviors that disrupt the flow of day-to-day life. Autism turns households inside out cracks hearts wide open and turns daily routines upside down.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Experience the laughter and love unspoken bonds and unflagging devotion of one very special family. And be changed forever by the knowledge that a mother's love knows no bounds and that Autism -- though it presents various challenges -- does not define </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>who</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> a person is nor does it devalue or diminish their contributions to this world.</span></p>