{"id":439,"date":"2015-11-01T00:22:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T00:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=439"},"modified":"2015-11-01T01:12:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T01:12:43","slug":"onicon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Onicon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watched him as he bounded out of the car to meet up with his friends. \u00a0He had been waiting for this day for six weeks. \u00a0He was on his way to Onicon.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a>Now if you’re like I was, you may be asking what is Onicon? \u00a0 Someone told me to think of it as Comic-con for people interested in Manga. \u00a0My son learned about it when he became a member of the high school’s Manga club. \u00a0He goes to their meetings every Wednesday after school where they talk about, watch, and read all things Manga. \u00a0He has made several friends that he actually talks to outside of school. \u00a0I may not appreciate Manga like the members, but I do love that my son has found a place to belong and people who are glad to have him around!<\/p>\n

So this morning when I woke him up early to get ready to catch the bus, he quickly got out of bed to eat breakfast and get ready. \u00a0He was so excited. \u00a0The only other time he gets out of bed\u00a0so quickly is to get a pop tart\u00a0on his gluten day. \u00a0(He loves things with gluten, but we don’t like what it does to him so we limit it to one day every five weeks.)<\/p>\n

I sat for several minutes watching him as he greeted his friends. \u00a0He was smiling his big, I can’t believe it’s time, smile.\u00a0 I have to honest, I was a little nervous to let him go. \u00a0His autism and na\u00efve nature can make him an easy target. \u00a0The event is being held at convention center with hundreds of people, some of whom may not have the best of intentions. \u00a0But as I looked at the crowd of students who greeted him this morning, I knew he would be fine. \u00a0They know him. \u00a0They know how he thinks. \u00a0They know his weaknesses. \u00a0And they care about him. \u00a0They watch out for him. \u00a0They would defend him if needed.<\/p>\n

As I drove away, I was the one with the big smile. \u00a0We have prayed for him to find his place and friends who see the wonderful things we see. \u00a0I wasn’t sure it would ever happen. \u00a0But it has. \u00a0He has found his people, his tribe. \u00a0It’s a beautiful sight!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watched him as he bounded out of the car to meet up with his friends. \u00a0He had been waiting for this day for six weeks. \u00a0He was on his way to Onicon. Now if you’re like I was, you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}