Paul’s Prayers: A Mother’s Account of Raising an Autistic Son

Anderson takes readers on a journey of compassion, frustration, and triumph as she looks back on raising her autistic son, Paul. Her memoir episodically recounts significant events in Paul’s life, including his growth to faith in Christ and acceptance to college, as well as the struggles he faced that Anderson at first didn’t understand. Early in Paul’s life, Anderson knew something was amiss, and soon she realized that he was autistic. As Paul grew up, he dealt with the typical challenges of day-to-day life (attending school, making friends) while also experiencing the tests of living with a disability. Anderson taught Paul to pray, and he became a devout follower of Christ. Later, after Paul dropped out of college, Anderson encouraged him to keep working on writing in order to express his emotions more clearly, and some of his musings (“The world is never going to be perfect and I am never going to be happy all the time when I wanna be happy all the time”) are shared in the book. Anderson’s love for her son marks this beautiful portrait of family and faith. [em](May) [/em]