The Austin American-Statesman had an article on the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" house today filling in a lot of details. The family sounds like they were in a pretty dire situation; they were the only family in the country with five autistic kids. The house demolition is later today, and local builders will be putting up a new structure all this week. The family heard the official news on Sunday morning and are now on vacation at a camp for special-needs children.
I wonder if I'll be able to hear the demolition from my place. Work is supposed to be going on 24-hours-a-day until completion; I saw lights in the street near the site last night, but didn't try to go investigate again.
Are they all their biological children or is there adoption involved? Maybe I'm unkind here, but it seems when you started noticing the trend, you'd stop having kids? I mean, my great grandparents had 5 kids and every other one had Fragile X syndrome(which is much more immediately apparent than something like autism, admittedly). Sometimes 2 people's genes together aren't a good thing. I'm not at all advocating only genetically perfect matches have kids, but autism is a rough disease.
"Of the O'Donnell children — Caitlin, 15, Deirdre, 12, Erin, 10, Meaghan, 8, Patrick, 6, and Kiernan, 5 — all but Meaghan have varying degrees of autism, a brain disorder that impairs the way people talk, play, relate to others and respond to the environment."
the prevalence of autism these days
As for the demo work, it amazed me how quickly the house across the street from me came down when it was razed. I could have sworn it was standing when I my dogs and I started a walk but it was definitely down when we returned.
the prevalence of autism these days