Kathleen and those three little words

I had to wait a day to post this, but, even thinking about it now, I still get tears in my eyes.

Yesterday the three girls and I were sitting at the table eating dinner. I was feeding Eric so he was next to me.
All of a sudden Katy gets off her chair and comes around the table to me, she climbs up on my lap and indicates that she wants me to put her on the table in front of me which I did.

She looked at me and smiled and I said, "Hi".
She replied "Hi".
Then she leaned forward and put her arms around my neck and hugged me and she said quite clearly "I ove you".
As if that wasn't enough, she squeezed harder and repeated a little louder this time " I ove you".

Wow, it still makes me cry, I have waited 5 yrs to hear those 3 little words from my beautiful, Autistic angel. Kathleen does not speak so this effort was phenomenal.

I hugged her and told her that I loved her and after a few minutes of hugging, she went back to her place at the table.

I got up and went to the kitchen where I promptly burst into tears.
All these years you tell yourself that you will find a way to get through to them and that they will recover from Autism but, there is nothing that prepares you for the stark reality of it.

5 years, I have waited for Kathleen to talk. 5 years to tell me that she loved me.
At least with Nathan, he had already talked before the Autism developed and he had told me many times that he loved me and for that matter, he does now.

I called my mum in Australia after a bit and told her then burst into tears again.
She said, "Aren't you happy?"
Happy?
I don't think there is a strong enough emotion to describe how I am feeling right now.
Later.