About Babies

From Despair to Hope:
 our family’s journey with an autistic child, Part 1
By Sheri Hunt

Sheri, Haidyn, Dyson and Larry Hunt

I felt so honored when Susan asked me to write an article about autism for the Charis newsletter. When our youngest son was first diagnosed with autism we felt overwhelmed with sadness and grief. In the upcoming articles I will be writing, I want to share how God graciously changed our despair into hope for our son’s recovery. I’m so excited about this, though, that I am getting ahead of myself.

My name is Sheri Hunt and I am the mother of two rambunctious boys, 8-year-old Dyson and 6-year-old Haidyn. Dyson and Haidyn love to keep me on my toes. I know the names of all the dinosaurs and I can play a mean game of Mario Carts. We live in North Port, Florida, where the sun is always shining and every day is a good day to go to the beach. The pastors of our home church are Todd and Kristin Schuchmann and they’re a blessing to our family.

Larry and I have been married for fifteen years. We were so excited to start a family when we were first married. After five years of trying, I was finally pregnant! I loved being pregnant! (Unfortunately, both of my deliveries were by Cesarean section.) When I held Dyson in my arms for the first time, I was so thankful and felt very blessed. I tried not to think too much about having another baby (even though I wanted another one) because I assumed it would take us another four years before Dyson would have a brother or sister. I’m so glad I was wrong.

Dyson was thirteen months old when we found out I was pregnant with Haidyn. Haidyn was the happiest baby, always smiling and trying to talk. His development was right on track. Haidyn’s favorite things to do were cuddle and eat. You should have seen how cute He was singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider!”

Next month, I’ll share about when Haidyn started showing signs of autism.

Baby Haidyn