Maddy participated in our church Christmas program this year, a play put on a Sebastopol Christian Church! She was just as delightful as can be, as were the other kids who participated.

Maddy also joined me at Spring Hills Church for the Christmas celebration for the Friday night Celebrate Recovery meeting. We sang Christmas carols together, and other parents and their children took turns singing carols, too. I suspect everyone was as blessed as we were!

Yesterday I talked with Madison about volunteering to help other kids on the Autism Spectrum. We talked about how perfect we might be for this kind of volunteer work, since we’ve walked through some very difficult times, like when Maddy couldn’t speak but needed to communicate with us! We’re praying about that now, and my guess is that we might find ourselves helping out in the local Autism support community sometime very soon!

We know what we did which facilitated this miraculous discovery, and I’m not going to withhold anything: My wife switched her to a new vitamin/mineral supplement, started giving her one Revitapop every day, and she started singing with me in church and at Celebrate Recovery meetings. Those three changes and POW! she just came right out of her shell, her Autism symptoms almost all disappeared and our lives were changed in a magnificent and spectacular way!

I’m just checking in right now to let you know that it wasn’t a temporary change; she’s still just fine and gregarious and outgoing 10 months after her miraculous recovery! We had worried that she might regress back into her life-long symptoms, but she hasn’t, not one bit.

Clearly, 2 years of daily prayer, asking the Lord to fill her with His Holy Spirit, give her the power and strength to say and do the things He would have her do in the plans He has for her each day, and for a hedge of protection around her – those prayers have all been answered! The supplements and B12 Revitapops were also notable changes we made just prior to her amazing recovery, but I believe that our faithful prayer played just as important a role in her Autism symptoms disappearing. I mean, seriously – Man cannot do what was done within my little girl’s heart and mind. This was clearly an act of God, who led us to the supplements and vitamins and services afforded us by North Bay Regional. Hallelujah!

If you are a parent of a child on the Autism Spectrum, or if you know of an Autistic child, I hope that you will begin praying daily with those children, and/or for those children, and know that miracles happen! No matter how extreme or severe your child’s symptoms are, they can be overcome. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes! My daughter NEVER has a problem speaking or expressing herself anymore, like she used to. She no longer has a problem asking other kids to play, which she could NEVER do before. She’s no longer overcome with fear and social anxiety – it’s GONE! It was a way of life for her and for us for 11 years and it’s GONE!

Faith played a huge role in my daughter’s recovery. Her faith and our faith, coupled with prayer and with trying everything other parents suggested, leaving no stone unturned has eliminated virtually all of my little girl’s Autism symptoms. I believe the same can happen for all children on the spectrum. I’d love to talk with you about it, for your child’s sake.

Feel free to email me at your discretion and let’s dialogue about this. I would love to prayerfully participate on your child’s behalf and help you find ways to better connect with your child, and to help your child overcome even the most severe or extreme Autism symptoms they might have today.

My email is doncobb@sonomacountyautismsupport.com. I’d love to hear from you, if you’re interested in opening some new doors for your children. I would be happy to share with you my thoughts and prayers for your children and offer any advice and counsel you might allow me.

God bless you! Miracles happen!

The reason there are so many differing opinions about Autism is clear: Autism remains a mystery to the medical community and to parents alike. So when our little girl Madison was born nearly 12 years ago, the world knew even less than it does today. Diagnoses were based upon the opinions of the individual doing the assessment. Because Maddy is clearly what many would call “high functioning”, we were warned that she probably would not even get a diagnosis. Considering the major Autism symptoms which affected our little girl’s life, our family and her ability to function in the world as we know it, on our initial trip to North Bay Regional we (I) drove to the initial assessment prepared to be disappointed.

On our first visit to Kaiser San Francisco’s Autism department I learned another startling bit of information. When talking with the first doctor, I mentioned that in my experience we have learned far more from other parents of children on the Spectrum than we had learned from doctors and the medical community. I was surprised as the doctor nodded her agreement and said politely “I understand. We really don’t know anything yet.” It was at that moment that I realized how valuable the other parents we had begun to network with really are.

Nearly 3 years after Maddy being diagnosed PDD NOS, we are very clear about several things now. One is that people can and do overcome some of their Autism symptoms. We aren’t certain what causes Autism, although we are certain that vaccines either cause or exacerbate Autism and/or Autism symptoms. The recklessness and overt denial offered by our government and the medical community who issue these vaccinations in response to legitimate questions from concerned parents about these vaccines and their contents, which include mercury, which is a potent nerve toxin, as well as aluminum, formaldehyde and monosodium glutamate. The lack of honesty displayed by the U.S. government has convinced us that putting these poisons in our childrens’ bodies is not good, and is indeed likely to cause Autism.

But despite the lack of any real results of research and the lack of any real facts about the cause of Autism or the effectiveness of various treatments of Autistic symptoms, our family has experienced undeniable, documentable and phenomenal – what can only be described as “miraculous”, really – success at overcoming most of the life-long Autism symptoms my daughter and our family have lived with for her entire life. Because there isn’t a lot of documentable research established in this arena, we can only look at what we’ve done, what we’ve tried and we’ve identified several probable actions which faciliated Maddy’s remarkable recovery from most of her symptoms. We have turned over every rock and tried everything we’ve learned from other parents in our effort to help Madison to be, at the least, less affected by her Autism and accompanying symptoms. We also suspect that because every child is different and because the Spectrum includes so many different symptoms that solutions to eliminate or even affect a person’s symptoms will likely vary greatly. Research and networking with other parents of children on the Spectrum are vital, we believe, to finding methods, supplements, and involvement in sports, music, art and/or classes which might help a child or an adult on the Spectrum to overcome some or all of symptoms which typically limit or make difficult communication with those of us who love them.

Being that it was Father’s Day, my wife Dawn suggested we bring “He Knows My Name”, a Tommy Walker song which mentions “I have a Father, He knows my name”. One practice run through this song confirmed our unanimous agreement that this is the song which God would have us bring that morning.

The joy which pours through Madison Cobb when she is praising God and leading a congregation in worship is obvious. He little face lights up in a smile from ear to ear. Her joy is obvious to everyone, and I share that joy every time I am blessed to sing with Madison.

Again, last night at Celebrate Recovery (sonomacountycr.com) Maddy joined me in “He Knows My Name”. I think we were all equally blessed by the experience. I know I was.

My little girl Madison and I were invited to bring the offertory “special music”, and Maddy and my wife Dawn picked out “He Knows My Name”, a Tommy Walker song which mentions “I have a Father…”, perfectly fitting for the Father’s Day theme.

I’ll be posting the video here in the very near future. As always, Maddy’s little face is lit up with joy as she sings her heart out for Jesus! Praise the Lord!

That said, let me tell you about the most amazing transformation I’ve ever witnessed, and working in the recovery field, I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of mind-boggling transformations through 12 Step therapy.

My little girl Madison is 11 now. We didn’t even seek a diagnosis till she was 9, as the public school system convinced us that Maddy simply had a learning disability. She walked late, talked late, seemed to be developmentally about 2 years behind her peers, generally speaking. But there were more symptoms showing up every year, including her inability to answer simple questions much of the time. We could tell from our interaction with her that she is definitely bright and musically gifted. She would hear a song one time at church and come home and plunk the melody out on the piano with hardly a mistake, and no formal piano training! Still, there were many times when I would ask her a simple question and she would stare back at me, as if trapped inside. I would ask her “Do you understand the question?” and she would nod her head “Yes”. I would ask her “Do you know the answer?” and she would again nod “Yes”. I would then ask “What is the answer?” and she would just stare back with a slight frustration in her eyes, as if she just couldn’t say it…and she couldn’t.

There were more symptoms. She was the most patient child I had ever met. She would sit for hours sometimes while we did things like church or visit our friends. One time I went to a book signing for an old friend and there ran into another old friend who used to be my best friend in high school. After the signing, we went out to my car, Maddy sat in the back seat (she was about 8 or 9), my friend sat in the front with me and we talked. Almost 2 hours went by as we reminisced and suddenly I remembered her sitting in the back seat. I turned around and said “Are you alright, honey?” and she nodded to me. She hadn’t made a peep, and has never complained EVER when she has to wait for anything. Totally unusual for a child her age, wouldn’t you agree?

When we got a report from the school that Maddy was spending her entire lunch hour standing next to a tether-ball pole by herself, it broke my heart completely! First I wondered how long that had gone on. I knew she would not initiate play, but when asked she always joined in like any other child. Learning that she was being allowed to just stand there by herself because she was unable to bring herself to ask other kids to play broke my heart and set off an alarm.

Another symptom: When Maddy played league soccer for the first time, her Autism rendered her incapable of just participating in the game. I spent the entire season running alongside the field because when the ball went downfield and all the other players ran down there, she would just stand there where she was. I learned that when I ran out toward her, telling her to run down there, when she saw me coming she would take off too. Finally, the refs told me I had to stay off the field so I figured out how to run alongside the field and that worked, too, to get her to take off. Once she ran down there, she was all in the game until the play stopped. Then she stopped, until I started running again. Totally an Autism thing.

Maddy is the sweetest little girl in the world. Not because she’s mine, but because she’s naturally sweet spirited, has never lied to us (That’s right, I said NEVER lied to us), doesn’t manipulate us or anyone else. She’s not wired that way. She’s sweet and kind, thinks of others a lot and is fun for kids to play with because she’s fairly passive in whatever they want to do much of the time.

When we read that report, along with the other symptoms she had (at 9 still not fully potty-trained successfully despite our best effort and two specialists, for example), I went to the school and asked how long she had been standing by herself alone during lunch time, and asked why I hadn’t been told sooner. I told the school psychiatrist that I had a list of symptoms we had been documenting and that they seemed to point to Autism. The psychiatrist assured me that Maddy simply had a learning disability and that was all I needed to hear.

My wife arranged for us to have Maddy diagnosed at North Bay Regional Center, despite our being warned that she probably wouldn’t get a diagnosis, as she was too high-functioning. She was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, on the Autism spectrum.

From that day forward, Maddy and I have prayed virtually every morning. When she gets up, she comes into my studio and lays across my chest and I pray the same things every day since she was diagnosed 2 ½ years ago, we have prayed EVERY DAY that a) God will fill us with His Holy Spirit, b) that He would fill us with His power and strength to do what He has for us to do (she couldn’t) and say what He would have us say (she couldn’t) in the plans He has for us that day, c) that He would make us more like Him and d) we pray His hedge of protection around us and our friends and family. We have prayed those prayers every day when she comes into my office each morning and lays down across my chest and we just hug and pray. She is also actively praying for Mommy and for me on a daily basis! She recognizes when someone is hurt or had surgery or whatever that THEY NEED PRAYER and she launches joyfully into prayer for them/us!

I can tell you that the services we’ve gotten from North Bay Regional are not completely responsible for her amazing transformation. We’ve taken Social Skills classes but they were always 4 ADD girls (opposite end of the Autism Spectrum from Maddy) and Maddy, so she never got the opportunity to open up. I watched videos of those classes and my heart broke when I saw how shut down she was around girls who were over the top. So it’s not the services from NBR, as much as we appreciated their making them available. We were willing to try anything to help her and NBR offered us a lot of help!

No, it was more than two-fold, this amazing transformation. First, my wife Dawn has poured herself into research around food and supplements and we started Maddy on B-12 Revitapops and supplements about 6 months ago. My wife has tried several different supplements along the way, but she seems to have found some that make a major difference. She’s been diligent about many things since Maddy was diagnosed, including setting up playdates with her friends in order to facilitate overcoming some of her social anxiety. Dawn found a way for Maddy to communicate with us at those times when she simply could not, as well. It’s called “Hangman”, and it’s worked absolute WONDERS to help Maddy communicate what she so badly wants to communicate. Sometimes it might just be “There’s a fly in my room”, as she has experienced some extreme anxiety about flies since she was little, although less so today. “Hangman” has solved those times when Maddy simply cannot voice the words of her concern. It’s been amazing to see her launch into it when we realize she can’t tell us something and ask “Hangman?” Her little face lights up and she lays out the words and it takes but a minute for us to decipher what she so badly wants to communicate with us!

My wife has been stellar, and a wonderful Mom who has devoted uncounted hours researching, reading, communicating with other parents of children with Autism and bringing in supplements and dietary supplies to help our little girl! Madison is as blessed to have Dawn as her Mother as I am to have Dawn for my wife!

Secondly, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in all His glory and power and Love has answered our prayers and set her free from so many symptoms which used to restrict her ability to interact with others! I am absolutely convinced of this. I’ve watched it.

Another major change in the past 6 months that has contributed to her symptoms virtually disappearing (that’s right, I said her Autism symptoms have virtually ALL disappeared!) is that since she first started singing praise songs with me and my band The Message (themessageproject.com) a few months ago, first at Sebastopol Christian Church and then at Celebrate Recovery meetings several times now, she has stepped OUT of her Autism, almost completely! Her social anxiety is GONE! She is a bubbly, fun-loving, gregarious, playful little girl now who responds to people’s hellos and thanks them for their compliments! She NEVER did that before! It’s amazing what change has taken place in her since we began singing. I believe its two things: 1. God inhabits the praises of His people, so He is INHABITING HER like never before, and 2. The power of Jesus Christ through prayer!

I saw an article about another little girl with Autism on Tangle.com/GodTube.com who was singing Opera. She was about Maddy’s age and her mom stated the same thing: When her daughter started singing, her social anxiety melted away!

Another important change that occurred right around the time Maddy experienced her miraculous recovery from most of her Autism symptoms is that we had been involved with Lorna Catford’s CATS (Collaborative Autism Training & Support) program at SSU (Sonoma State University). Lorna has assigned college-age girls in her program to spend 2-3 hours per week hanging out and connecting with these children with Autism. We were assigned this amazing and wonderful girl named Brandi Watts, who showed up faithfully and who Madison totally connected with! She would come over and talk with Maddy, at first Brandi did all the talking due to Maddy’s social anxiety, but soon after this began, Maddy opened right up and this amazing transformation took place.

It’s phenomenal, this change in Maddy in the past 5 or 6 months. She hasn’t hit puberty yet, so it’s not that. I’m convinced that our love and faith and The Lord’s power has set this girl free from those Autism symptoms which she has experienced her whole life! I also know that the Revitapops, the Kirkman supplements (Children’s Chewable Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Wafer with Xylitol) and Lorna Catford’s CATS program all played a part in bringing Maddy out of so many Autistic symptoms.

If you have a child with Autism, I highly recommend you begin praying over your child daily, even if you aren’t a pray-er. Do it. You’ll never know if it might help draw your child out of where Autism has them right now unless you try prayer. Never give up. Try everything. Make it your life. Give up other things so you can spend time with your children, even if they are nonverbal! They hear us. They’re thinking. They want to talk to us. They want to respond. They just need us to help them figure out how to get it done. Never give up.

Please comment so I’ll know how to pray for you, won’t you? God bless you! We love you Jesus!

A year or so ago, Maddy had a staph infection manifest in her thumb. Because of her Autism, she hadn’t said anything to anyone. One morning, we just happened to notice her thumb was swollen on the bottom side to about twice it’s size with a huge yellow (sorry for the graphics) spot of infection in the middle! It was on the inside of her thumb, which, which faces into her palm, so we simply hadn’t seen it yet! We raced her to Kaiser emergency room where the doctor immediately said that we needed to lance it. Maddy’s Autism comes with several different syptoms, one of which being more sensitive than most to sound, and another being an extreme version of fear. When she is afraid, even of a fly or car noises (a couple of things which she struggles with), she is very afraid. She races to the very afraid place. So as she listened to us talking to the doctor, she understood what was being planned, and there was no way on Earth she was going to cooperate. She made that very clear, with her little scared face and her unwillingness to even let the doctor look at her thumb again.

We only saw one viable option, which was to use a drug which takes away a person’s awareness yet they remain awake. The facts were (1) that this needed to be lanced or Maddy could have experienced some very serious consequences and (2) she was not going to let anyone cut her with anything, no way, no how, not in her lifetime! So we opted for this drug that they assured us was safe, and it worked. It was, however, the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced! I hated it! Maddy was awake but she was gone, unable to respond in any way. When she came back around she burst into tears as she regained her awareness and she was as scared as we were, probably more so.

So last night, we noticed some swelling on one of her fingers. She said it had been hurting for 2 days. Again, she hadn’t said anything to us, despite our ongoing teaching and reminding her how important it is for her to let us know if there is anything unusual going on with her body. Her Autism simply comes with a degree of inability to communicate sometimes about some things.

It wasn’t that bad, the swelling, so I called Kaiser and made an appointment for today at 2pm, the earliest appointment they said they had. Upon awakening, however, I saw that it had swollen considerably overnight, and I was praying that we would not ever have to use that drug again EVER under any circumstances. In fact, my wife and I had promised each other we would never let a doctor use that drug on Madison ever again. So my goal last night and this morning was to get her to a doctor and get some antibiotics in her body before any further swelling took place.

I called Kaiser at 6am and told them I need an earlier appointment, and they found one at 9:45am for us. I posted on Facebook, asking my friends to please pray for Madison and explaining my fears and desires. When we got to Kaiser, the doctor looked at it and said she thought we might get away with just using antibiotics, thank God! But she also said we really needed to drain the infection, and assured Maddy and me that it would just be a little prick and it wouldn’t hurt much. I knew Maddy would not go along with it, but to my surprise and with my encouragment and support (she was on my lap), she reached her little hand out and offered it to the doctor! (I’m crying as I type this, it was so awesome!) Madison struggled in a big way to keep her hand out there, as tears poured down her face before the doctor even did anything, but she held her hand out and let the doctor use a scalpel to make a small incision, and then squeeze her little finger to get the puss out! Tears were flowing as Maddy told us “It hurts! It really hurts now!” but she let the doctor finish! It was AWESOME! It was amazing! I couldn’t believe what had just taken place!

I know it was all of our friends prayers that caused the Lord’s power to flow into Madison Cobb this morning. Unexplainable courage that I have never seen before in her! Willing to let a doctor use a scalpel on her finger? She won’t even let us use a needle to get a splinter our of her finger! She won’t let anything pointed come even close to her body! But today, as all of our friends prayed for her, she walked through this ordeal like an adult! She is 11, and anyone who knows anyone with Autism knows that it comes with some difficulties and challenges. Today, however, her Autism was not an issue at all. None of her symptoms showed up. She walked through this in a way that I could not believe!

As we were driving away and I was telling her again how much I admired her courage and how proud of her I am, she said “If I ever have to do that again, I will just do it. Now I know how much it hurts.” I told her we would do ALL WE CAN to insure it doesn’t happen again! LOL But I was just amazed at how our naturally timid and sensitive girl walked through this adventure today with unexplainable courage and determination and willingness. It was unexplainable.

I think that’s because God is unexplainable. My family is so grateful to all of our Facebook friends for their prayers this morning. I believe it facilitated God’s direct and intentional, undeniable intervention in my little girl today. Thank you all, and thank you Lord!

Maddy joined the Kid’s Choir a couple of years ago, but her Autism symptoms cause her to shut down at times, and the KC teacher didn’t know how to draw her back out. So Maddy quit KC and took a break from singing. I have tried to re-engage her many times in the past couple of years, bringing up call-and-response songs that she used to love, but could never get her to do her “response” part.

Finally, when I invited her to come and record with me, she said “Yes”! I brought her in and she laid down several tracks, which I was able to use (http://www.themessage.us/music.html). I was blessed and so was she!

A couple weeks later I was scheduled to sing “Special Music” during offering at church, and I asked Maddy to come with me and sing “You Are Worthy”. She agreed! The video is here: Madison Cobb: “You Are Worthy”. I figured out that I needed to change the key for her to be in her zone, so I did that, despite it being a little low for my voice. Oh well!

Let us know if you take a peek at the video. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

We didn’t stay for the entire event, even though I wanted to so badly! She had sat with me patiently through 4 hours of talking and brainstorming and sharing, and when I asked if she wanted to stay after lunch she said “No, I want to go home” so off we went!

I was impressed with her in another way, as well: She brought her Nintendo DS and a new book in which she writes the story (she loves creative writing), but I asked her several times if she wanted them and she shook her head “no” every time! She was in it with me, paying attention the entire time.

Needless to say, I am one blessed Dad, and got an extra helping of gratitude today by attending this event with my wonderful little girl! God is good, all the time!

The coolest thing that’s transpired since my last blog is that Madison is continuing to open up in some amazing ways! Her little sense of humor has taken off, her confidence at home is just phenomenal now! She’s using words that really beyond her years (remember how I said she was slow to talk? History, that.) and she rocks and rolls while we’re watching both Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud! We DVR those shows and America’s funniest and every night after dinner and homework we all cuddle up together and watch those three shows. What an amazing time we have cuddling and laughing and high-fiving each other when we guess right! LOL

We could use some prayer for our finances right now. My company changed insurance plans last June and it has devastated us financially. We’re not afraid, because we know God has us in His hands, but we’re also not afraid to ask for prayer around this issue, either.

Drop us a note or a call sometime, won’t you? Especially if you have children on the Spectrum! We’d love to hear from you and support you and be supported by you, too!

Blessings and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

Don & Dawn & Maddy