Having five kids wasn't very hard for Julie; just finding out that two of them were autistic was when all the trouble began. Julie married her long time boy friend Tom when they were around the age of twenty. Julie had her first child Scotty a year after they had been married. She had all of her kids a year apart. "I always wanted a big family and having the kids a year apart would help them be closer." Julie stated. Scotty was the first one born then along came Mary, then Jason, Kyle and Crystal. Kyle and Crystal the two youngest of the five are the two kids that are autistic. Julie knew of some relatives on her mom side that had autistic kids also but she had never been around them. "Its hard raising five kids let alone, but then also having two of the childen that are autistic was even harder to deal with.".
"When Kyle was born, the doctors didn't say any thing to me at first. I knew something was wrong with him. The birth didn't go the way the other three births went. After about an hour or so the doctors took Kyle to get some x-rays they brought him back and he had asked my mother and husband to come in so he could give us some news. The doctor told us that Kyle was born with a disease. I kept thing to myself, what's going on is he going to die, Kyle was autistic." Julie never could believe this could happen to her. She kept thinking that she did something wrong. The doctor sat down with all of them and went over everything about autistic children. He let them know were they could get help and whom they could talk to if they need any thing. .
About a year, after Kyle was born Julie was pregnant again, this time with a girl. Kyle was so excited about having a little girl around the house. Julie and Tom thought it was great that Kyle understood what was going on. "Nine months went by really fast. Since it was my fifth kid Tom and I really new what we were doing." Julie added. Feb 5, 1994 the day Crystal was born.
