So I was browsing around the other day and I found this excellent topic Weekend Warrior, started by the lovely blogger at Adoption of Jane. The idea is to educate others about special needs. So this is my post from the weekend – better late than never. This is my daughter Ainsley. She’s 6, beautiful, daring and athletic. She says Arm of Woir for Armoire and “No I willn’t” and that still makes me chuckle. She also was adopted at 5 months old and she’d been prenatally exposed to a number of substances, including alcohol and variours drugs. She has several diagnoses that are lasting as a result of choices made before she was born. (I am simply stating facts, not laying blame.) She has sensory processing disorder, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.) And some days are like this. See Ainsley at right. Her SPD lately is apparent whenever a bug flies by. The strange movement and sensory experience somehow triggers the fight or flight response. This was Saturday at our house. She freaked out when playing in the yard over the wasp buzzing nearby and this was her idea. Note hockey helmet on head. In her one hand is a wrench from Dad’s toolkit and in her other hand a half-broken toy shovel, held together with duct tape. This was her idea. Not mine and I love her madly for it. I will protect myself from the wasp with helmet, wrench and toy shovel. Pretty smart adaptive strategy actually. And so I let her play as Warrior Ainsley for about half an hour. Until she was feeling safe again and pulled the helmet off on her own. And well, some days are like that.