Later that night, Mark headed upstairs to start Broden's bedtime routine. I slowly gathered up pairs of shoes that had been kicked off onto the floor that day, and anything else that needed to find its home. As I stumbled up the stairs, Mark came out of Broden's room, "Broden had about 6 or 7 pairs of his 'papaw pants' laid out all over the floor tonight. I picked them all up and tossed them in his chair. Why did he do that?" I just giggled and said, "Well, for some reason it made sense for him to do that." I blew a kiss to Broden as he blew one back to me and I got ready for bed.

The next morning, Broden was laying in his bed with 7 to 8 crochet blankets on top of him. He was curled up like a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon, "Good morning Broden. Rise and shine. It's Thursday. Grab your robe. It's time for a shower." I sat in his chair and looked over at the "papaw pants" that had been thrown over the arm of his chair. I figured out why they were neatly laid out on his floor the night before. Broden likes to layer his lounge pants or "papaw pants," sometimes wearing up to five pairs on top of one another. Unfortunately, Broden has been unable to express to us why he likes to do this now. For his pants to be layered, he decided to lay each pair out and match which pairs he wanted to go together. He layered them so when he decided which combination he wanted to wear each night, the task of layering was already complete. After figuring out why he did what he did, I thought, "This was brilliantly executed."

I gave Broden one more prompt, "It's time Broden. It's time for a shower." I started to see movement under his blankets, like his cocoon was moving. Then suddenly, he thrusted one arm and leg to the side and flipped his blankets off, so he was laying on his back in bed. He looked to the left to see me sitting in his chair and smiled. I smiled back, "Good morning." Continuing to smile, he said back, "Morning."

That was a moment. That was a moment to experience, and I remind myself that my journey with him will be full of these. His brain is so unique, like a snowflake. There is no one like him. We're on a journey together and I'm not going to focus on the destination. I'm going to focus on the moments we have together. I will continue to revel in the surprises he leaves for me each day, like how he layers his "papaw pants," as well as the many other fascinating things he does each day. One day one of those fascinating things will stop, but then he'll surprise us with a new one. With surprise, there will be change and with change there may be other emotions such as anxiety or worry, but that's ok. If I feared other emotions besides happiness, or only wished for things I can control, then my life with Broden wouldn't be a journey anymore. What kind of life is that? •

OUR JOURNEY IN CAMO Shelly Huhtanen is an Army wife stationed at Fort Jackson, SC. She enjoys sharing her experiences of her day-to-day life caring for her son with autism. Shelly authored Giving a Voice to the Silent Many that encompasses many stories of raising a child with autism in the military. She also teaches Public Communication at the University of South Carolina and has contributed to EP Magazine for over 10 years.