Jordan Ralls was born on August 10, 1990. He was two weeks late and they turned him face down when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. I don’t suggest letting them do that it is very painful. I was a first time mother and didn’t know any better but, I was told by my mother afterwards that baby’s will flip flop, other than that there were no complications with the pregnancy. He weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long. Jordan was a late bloomer. He didn’t walk until he was 19 months old and he never crawled. Most babies will try to put everything in their mouths, but Jordan never did. Kids with Autism do not like certain textures. Sometimes I wonder about him not sticking anything in his mouth as a baby. That maybe it was because of the textures.

Jordan and his Teacher Amy Purcell

He loved all of the Gerber baby foods and his milk in a bottle. I say bottle because once he was taken off the bottle he wouldn’t drink milk. He will only take a couple of sips now. The foods he likes to eat he can make himself. There is a limit to what he will eat without putting up a fight. At home he will eat hot dogs as long as they are Bar S brand, toast, quesadilla as long as it is Kraft cheese, chips, goldfish. He will eat steak, pork chops and corn but he doesn’t really care for it. He loves McDonald’s hamburgers and French fries kid’s meal, Carl’s Jr. chicken stars and french fries, Burger Kings kid’s meal chicken and fries and Taco Bells cheese quesadilla without green sauce. He loves going to eat at Round Table with his dad.

He can take care of himself as far as making the foods I talked about. Taking a shower, going to the restroom and cleaning himself. He will brush his own teeth, but he seems to want to eat the toothpaste before he brushes his teeth.

His favorite place to go is Scandia Fun Center and play video games. Jordan loves to ride on our boat especially when it bounces. He enjoys music. His favorite song is "Bartender" by T Pain and his favorite radio station is 102.5fm. Every night Jordan has to watch Star Wars episode 1 before he goes to bed. Jordan and his dad go to the mall all the time. They have a routine of all the stops they go to in the mall including the restroom. (haha)

Jordan is now 17 years old and is a sophomore in high school. His teacher Mr. Romo takes him and some of the other kids out once a week to work at stores like Michael’s and Office Max. We had to fill out papers for employment, which I never thought would happen. He gets a real paycheck once a month and when he sees money he either wants to go to Scandia Fun Center to play XMen or the gas station for a coke and gum. He has this thing with gum were he chews it for about 2 minutes then wants to throw it out the window to see if a car will run it over and see it stick to the tire. There are certain places on our daily trips were he throws the gum everyday.

When he was in junior high school he was very popular because he would say hi to everyone. He makes friends easily once they get passed the little noises that he makes and hand movements. I remember the first time Jordan lied to me about getting in trouble at school. Most parents would have been upset, but I was so happy. The teacher told him he had got in trouble that day. I asked him if he was bad at school and he paused for a minute then said "no". I was happy because usually I would ask and he would say yes. That’s because he didn’t understand the truth from a lie. At that point I realized he understood if he lied and got away with it he wouldn’t get in trouble. Anything he learned was cause for a celebration for us.

Jordan ’s Autism is not as severe as most children or adults and we are very lucky that he is so loving and likes to be loved (most of the time). He can read at a level of second grade and write at a level of second grade. Conversation is very limited but, he can get his point across to what he is trying to say. Now someone who doesn’t know him would have a harder time trying to understand him or at least the way he puts the words together.

We were a little concerned with his height. He was getting a shot once a month called Lupron Depo to stop him from reaching puberty too quickly so he can have some time to grow and they want to try another shot that he would need to get once a day called (Norditropin) to counter react with the other one to help him grow. I didn’t seem to work for Jordan so we stopped it all together. His dad said when he was growing up that he was short too. When he was sixteen he grew so much in one year that it hurt. I’m only 5’ 2" and his dad is 6’ 1". Jordan is now 17 years old and he is almost as tall as me so I’m glad we didn’t continue with the shots. It seemed to cause him unnecessary stress.

Jordan does not get attached to too many people, but the one he was inseparable from was his grandma Claudian, who this organization is dedicated to because of her dedication to him. She is the one who told me she thought Jordan was Autistic. She had seen something on 60 minutes and he did the same things they did. When I walked into the doctor’s office there were all sorts of books and a lot of them said Autism. That’s when I knew she was right.

They were not just grandson and grandma, they were best friends. Starting from the age he could put more than two words together (around 7 years old) he would ask to go to her house at least ten times a day. Around 80% of the time he did go over for at least a couple of hours. On his summer breaks he practically lived there. This happened for about 7 years. When she was diagnosed with cancer he didn’t get to see her very much the last few months. I went to see her at the hospital the morning she passed away and he wanted to go. I told him I would be right back. He asked, "Wanna take you see grandma?" that was the way he said it. I told him I would be back. She passed away peacefully that morning.

One of my biggest fears I shared with her before she was diagnosed with cancer was when she passed away that Jordan wouldn’t understand why he couldn’t go see her. That he would think I was being mean by not taking him. I now know they were closer than any of us could imagine because on the morning of her death, when I came home from the hospital he never asked for her. I didn’t think much about it the first few days and never said to him that grandma was in heaven. But I realize now that she came to him after her passing and explained it to him for me and he understood. There is no other explanation for someone with his disability to ask for someone for seven years then just stop the day she passes. To this day he has not said "Wanna take you see grandma".