Elijahs Diagnosis

Well, i knew it was coming. The day finally arrived. Elijah has been formally diagnosed with Autism. Its kinda weird writing it. I mean, growing up i never thought i would have a special needs child. You don't think of those things when your fairy tale dreaming..you know??? I mean I was gonna have the house with the white picket fences, 3 girls, and a horse...and..well..you get the idea. I dream big ;) The doctor was very nice. our service coordinator for ei was there. It seemed pretty obvious to her, the doctor. He is well into the spectrum....there was no question. He more than qualifies. It doesn't schock me.i knew what we were up against. But still, she said it was very unlikely for him to be undiagnosed. Only a 10 to 15% chance. We now are going to get genetic testing and test him for celeiacs and caisson and peanut allergies. She was very encouraging that he should be fully functioning as n adult. I was told the worst of it he most likely will not understand sarcasm and some jokes. She commented that he is indeed very smart, he loves to figure out how things work. He was still not feeling well from this horrible tummy bug. She saw him at his absolute worst. By the end he was biting Kris and i screaming and pulling my hair...i think at that time i got overwhelmed. There is no end in site. I don't get any breaks. He is my son and i am responsible for him. But he is getting so much better..i have to remind myself to look at the positive. Elijah does talk some..that is a great sign! He is very loving very intelligent. I started services when he was young..another plus. I need to not look solely at the present..but at his future. Our next step as a family will be interesting. Financially, emotionally this can all be very draining. We had a goal to buy a house in 3 years, that probably wont happen. It is important to stay in this school district now that we have things going for him here. Its an amazing school district. We are blessed beyond measure. We have to figure out now that Elijah's services could be increased to 30 hours a week how our other children will be affected. Simple things like grocery shopping and going to church become almost impossible when Elijah is having a bad day. And now we know this is long term.
 I don't know where we go from here. I have an Autism specialist coming next week and we are going to hash out a game plan for Elijah. I am praying for wisdom. There are so many more factors in this,more than just Elijah.
But i have inherited some things from my father...i am a very hard worker. i am very loyal. if there is anything i can do, i will do it.So even though right now I have no clue what i am doing. I guarantee in a year, i will be a autism expert. because i am like that :)