To Olivia & Beyond – You CAN do anything you want and you WILL, but in your own amazingly perfect way. You are Brave. You are Kind. You are Smart. You are Beautiful. You are Loved. You are Passionate. You are Fabulous. You are Worthy. You are YOU.

July 2020 (2 years old), our lives changed forever, when Olivia was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder + Developmental & Speech Delay at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, causing challenges with social interaction and communication + repetitive patterns of behavior. If you have met one child with Autism, you have met ONE child with Autism. It is called a “spectrum” for a reason, because of the wide range of symptoms and severity.

This was a territory my family and I were unfamiliar with and had a lot to learn. Many levels of emotion processing what exactly this meant, how would this diagnosis have a direct impact on her life, did I do something to cause this, what does her future look like, will she be able to hold a job and get married/have children one day, how can I protect her from being bullied in school… and then I did what I (and all mothers for that matter) do best: TAKE ACTION.

The CHOP behavioral department provided us a long list of items to complete in the beginning weeks. I became laser focused on researching everything I could to learn, how can we as a family help her at home/in our surrounding environment, what activities would be best for her to engage in, how can we make adjustments to our home to better fit her needs, etc. 

After weeks spent of hours and hours and HOURS on the phone making calls, strongly advocating as any parent would for their child, Olivia was approved and began receiving weekly in-person Speech & Occupational Therapy sessions privately, in addition to receiving virtual weekly Speech and Occupational Sessions through the state of Pennsylvania Early Intervention program. In addition, after being on the waitlist for 8 months, she now receives Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy (MAJOR HOORAY to this) at EBS Children’s Institute in West Chester + 3 additional services through the Delaware County Intermediate Unit (DCIU) that go to her school 4 days per week. The only reason why I felt it necessary to list these out, is to showcase a main point – Olivia has an extensive TEAM in her corner and I promise you, this team was handpicked after many evaluations and are the BEST. This doesn’t even include her school teachers who are absolutely amazing in itself with the level of love and support they provide her on a daily basis. I am forever grateful for her Team!

This is exactly why I am now ready. Ready to help. Ready to participate. Ready to fundraise. Ready to advocate more than I already have. 1 in 54 people under 21 living in the US are on the Autism Spectrum, Olivia is now 1 in 54. The Eagles Autism Foundation’s mission is to support the highest quality and most impactful autism research and care to improve the lives of those individuals like Olivia and families. The Eagles Autism Challenge is dedicated to raising money for innovative research and programs to help this mission!

I have now personally seen how quality early intervention and therapy can benefit an individual with autism. This is why we are walking and raising funds for Olivia + children like Olivia, who is a child with the biggest heart and most contagious smile you have ever met but struggles to let you know that she does not understand something when instead responds with “I have to tell you something, the Bergan’s are coming!”, or has a full-out meltdown because the cabinet door was left open and is the child in any activity or out and about in the community who is running around in the background 99.99% of the time because she cannot bring herself to process taking a deep breathe when sensory overload kicks in.

We do not ever leave the house without already having an exit plan in place for when “it’s time”, we start every day (and continue to do so all day) with setting the expectations of what exactly she will be doing that day, what is her role in where we are going, what are the rules, who will be there, what sounds will she hear, what is she going to do “first… then….”, which has completely transformed our normal communication language. There is no “winging it”, ever. There has already been (multiple) in-depth conversations leading up to the minute something out of her normal routine is about to occur, and even on normal routine days, we are still setting expectations consistently. If something occurs once, that is the way, forever.

Olivia has a long journey ahead of her as she learns to utilize these tools and resources to become the best version of herself, as she develops the appropriate behaviors and learns the social cues, forms the communication skills, adjusts to the environments that set her to sensory overload and we learn the triggers and alternative methods. Our family is learning to adjust our ways of interaction and communication methods with her, and she surprises us every single day. It truly has been a rollercoaster of emotions and events as we navigate through each step of the way, as every day is a new obstacle to overcome. As a parent, you don’t even think twice about it, you just do whatever you possibly can out of love for your child because you believe in them, and I will never stop advocating for her and continue to get her the best level of care and support she needs and deserves.

Looking back over the past year+ of being diagnosed, as Olivia approaches turning 4 years old in April, she has made lightyear’s of progress and continues to do so every day. Her accomplishments and milestones look differently than another child who is non-neurodivergent, and we celebrate every single one like she just won an Olympic gold medal. We might bring the circus no matter where we go, we know her limits, but we will ALWAYS give her the opportunity to prove us wrong versus assuming she cannot do something. The worst that can happen - she has an “Olivia moment” and we leave while keeping our heads held high, a smile on our faces (while slightly embarrassed) and you better believe when we get to the car, she is convinced she just did a great job doing whatever it was she was doing prior. Yes. Yes you did girlfriend. We are so proud of you for trying! Meanwhile she has no idea how much of a true disaster it was. This Is Us. She is learning to process the world around her in nothing short of Olivia’s Way – To Olivia & Beyond!

Our family THANKS YOU from the bottom of our hearts in advance for supporting Olivia and supporting our Team by helping us reach our fundraising goal! It makes a difference to these sweet children who will more than likely need lifelong support. XO