My Son Dominic

I have had a few people ask me about my children and I thought I would share alittle bit of there story with you my readers.
Dominic was our first foster child back in 2000. We got him directly from the hospital at two months of age. He was born addicted to Crack Cocaine and Heroin and had to go through a rough withdrawal. He had almost died and had to be resuscitated. When we got him at 2 months he was pretty much over the withdrawal except for some minor tremors. He had hypertonic muscles especially in his hip region. We got him into early intervention and he started Physical therapy right away.
Dominic has always been a pretty happy child and was developing a little ahead of schedule, which was a blessings despite his challenges at birth. When he was around two he started to show a lot of aggression and a lot of repetitive behaviors. We was obsessed with light switches and shutting cabinet doors and drawers. He also started lining up cars and other toys. He would throw temper tantrums quite often and wanted this his way. At first we had thought it was because we had taken in another child who was younger than him and also the terrible twos. His aggression became very scary because it was all focused on our middle child, Reynaldo. We was hit and bit and almost pushed down the stairs. After going through some evals we were given a diagnosis on PDD-NOS which later was changed to Aspergers. Life was rough with him for a few years but after therapy with Dr.'s and through a preschool disabled program and many meds, he is doing wonderful. He is a lot more social then he was but still prefers to be by himself. He loves for things to be quiet and on his terms. He hates change and it is hard for him to have to change anything. He is an extremely picky eater and for a while there he was living on P,B&J only.
He started Kindergarten last fall in a mainstream class with a fulltime aid. After a few months of that we removed the aide. He was doing wonderful on is own. He is extremely bright and loves school. I am so proud of how far he has come. He also has issues with ADHD & sensory integration disorder and we do a brushing technique on him. I haven't done it that much this summer because he has been going to camp and gets a lot of sensory input from outside play.
I have seen some instances where his social skills are lacking. He has a hard time reading social cues from others and doesn't seem to notice when other children are mad at him. He likes things his way too so I am sure that doesn't help. We really need to work on those things more. My Dominic is now 6 1/2 and getting ready to start 1st grade. We had adopted him in Nov of 2003 along with our other son Reynaldo. His birthmother gave birth to him and walked out of the hospital and was never heard from or seen again. A birthfather was never named. The adoption had taken quite awhile because the caseworker had to keep searching for the birthmother. She never was located.