✨️Stephanie Halbrook✨️

How the Grinch stole my heart ❤️ 💚

Woman is upset after her husband surprises her with a budget-friendly house instead of the dream home she wanted 👀🤔

Ahhh, I loveeee my nieces & nephews so so much... They're my bonus loves 💕 Some of these memories recently popped up of my nephew & I just melted all over again 🥰

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. My wife and I want to raise awareness of and help decrease any stigma around autism by sharing that my wife learned she has autism later in life—in her late 30s. It’s common for girls and women to have autism overlooked due to their often subtler signs. Reflecting on her childhood, she realized many signs were there but were framed as something else; one example would be her teachers' complaints that she was constantly “daydreaming” in class (to this day, her ability to “check-out” is phenomenal). Autism usually presents differently in girls and women, and society is particularly demanding of them socially, so my wife tried to fit in by unknowingly masking her autistic traits and devising hidden techniques to manage the influx of information (stimming). That said, autism has given her some true superpowers, such as how she perceives the world, processes information, and quickly notices patterns. She’ll also tell you how it is—unvarnished and direct. However, her autism can come at a cost, one of which is requiring a lot of alone time (the fur kids and myself excluded) and downtime to rest and recover. There is an incredible, invisible effort required to navigate the world. A beautiful trait of her autism is her deep connection to animals and attention to understanding their needs. If there’s a social event with an animal present, poof! she’s gone and you'll find her with the animal. Her health journey has been intricate, as she has Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). Learning about her autism was a gift to understand a large missing piece of herself, giving her greater self-empowerment to advocate for her needs, especially medically. If given the chance, she (and I) wouldn’t change her autism even a little (though we can’t say the same for her hEDS, POTS, and MCAS!). My wife likes to say we all have universes within ourselves, and her autism is a wonderful universe.

This zesty accompaniment pairs well with any savory dish. Check the video to find out 👀