Amaris and her son in England

My journey with parenthood started off differently than many. On the eve of my baby shower, my water broke while I was 29 weeks pregnant. The baby shower continued without my physical presence while my husband attended. I video chatted with everyone who attended while sitting in my hospital bed. Little did I know that this was the beginning.

Our journey continued on this different path. Our son was born the day following our baby shower. We were thrown into NICU life where our son’s machine’s beeped often and we witnessed the grief of other families whose children did not make it. It was an emotional roller coaster. We celebrated milestones such as our child being big enough for clothes, graduating from the ng tube to a bottle, and not needing a CPAP. NICU life was tough for everyone and over two months later we were finally able to take our little guy home.

Walking our son out of the hospital and into the sunshine for the first time was amazing. The future was bright and we were leaving the hardships of NICU life behind us. Little did I know, it is not that simple. Our son already had more specialists than I did, and we spent the next few years parenting our son and bringing him to follow-up appointments. While his milestones weren’t on pace with a typical newborn, he was on pace with his adjusted preemie milestones. He was very curious about the world and as an infant he already showed signs of being pretty brainy. 

Soon enough I was taking my son to play groups and things were starting to feel normal. I noticed some differences between my son and the other children around his age. I initially thought it was the prematurity causing the differences, but time would tell that it was something else. Our child was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and we had a lot to learn.

My knowledge about autism and travel is almost entirely from my personal experiences with my son. At five years old, he has already been on three cruises, three all-inclusive resorts, Disney World, Disneyland, and eight countries. I’ve learned a lot of tricks along the way! I’ve also completed the certification through IBCCES making me a Certified Autism Travel Professional.

While I know about travel and autism, I am by no means an autism expert or an expert on your family situation. My job is to work together with you to come up with a vacation plan for you and your family.