Ashley Bursian is a stay-at-home single mother who lives in Traverse City, MI. Ari is five years old with severe autism and is essentially nonverbal. His name means “lion-eagle.” He loves music, visual stimulation, and lots of physical contact like hugs and squeezes. Ashley is currently working on attending culinary school in the near future. They have been in stable housing for the last five months.
I live in two different worlds. One, let’s call this my “home planet,” is the neurotypical, familiar, and comfortable world in which I was raised and conditioned. The other is “planet Ari,” which is the world of autism. I entered this world as an alien to autism, and have slowly been adapting to the strange […]
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I am the proud parent of a severely autistic and nonverbal miniature force to be reckoned with. His name is Ari Raphael Vincent Joyce—and he saved my life. And by save my life, I mean more in a spiritual sense. Not religious, I am not religious, but in a sense he allowed me to see […]
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