Aloha!

Hello everyone! I have been so excited reading through the e-mails for the past few weeks. Of course, I am very much excited to meet everyone again. After all these years..........

Thank you, Patti for creating this wonderful site. I think this will be a very useful link to each and everyone of us to chat and share our memories and pictures. Thank you , Ruth for updating and continously searching for our classmates, Rachel for your spreadsheet and the updates, Veron and Gee2 for the effort of doing the CD/video/scrapbook and to the rest of our classmates that are doing all the other chores.

I still work for the school district ( Los Angeles Unified School District) as a Pre School Intake and Assessment nurse. I am part of a team that assess preschoolers so they can qualify to receive special education, depending on their eligibility. I gave up PICU nursing 14 years ago, when my middle child (son) was diagnosed to have Autism (that was 1990). My whole world crumbled and I was devastated for weeks and months. Again by 1992, 2 years after my third child (girl) was born, she was again , diagnosed to have Autism.
I got lost and nowhere to go. I don't even know if there still a light or another dark tunnel ahead of us. (I am still waiting for a light). Until now, I am still searching for answers. Both of my kids are non-verbal. As my husband and I get older, out lives gets more stickier and complicated, as we navigate through their grim future. We are still intact, though and try to reach out whenever we can, to our family, friends and support groups available. We have more bad moments than good. We try to incorporate a lot of humor in our everyday life, otherwise we will be a basket case. There are times, I feel and act like I am Autistic too. ( Maybe I am one, just a high functioning one).
I dearly love my 3 kids (my eldest is 22 years old and hope to graduate this June). My husband refuses to place my youngest, in the care of others, since she is the aggressive and the worst of the 2. He has more patience than me in dealing with my daugther. We just pray and hope that someday, they both will be better. (Better Autistic I'd say...)
I know there still a lot of room for growth for them and us. We learn from our kids and they learn from us. They are our greatest teachers. They both taught us how to be patient, how to forgive and forget, to be strong in our emotions, to accept criticisms freely, how to survive everyday happy, to be non-judgemental toward others, to accept no matter who you are, to share whatever you have whether small or big, to smile and laugh a lot, not to frown or get mad, not to yell, to give frequent hugs, give kisses and pat on the back, to leave behind yesterday, do whatever you need to do for today and not worry about tomorrow for everyday is different and above all the unconditional love we have for them.
Well I guess, I have told you about my family, nothing fancy, just a simple life we lead and I am happy.
You will meet them all in San Francisco.

Hope to see you all in July and I am sure we will all have a great time.

Chat Sanchez Lazaro