JOSEPH’S AND JONATHAN’S
Journey BY ANGIE AND DAN, AND KENDRA ROGERS, MS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PHOTO CREDIT TO KATIE PRZYBYLSKI PHOTOGRAPHY
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ngie and Dan met on a group date in 1987. They dated on and off for several years during high school. The pair reconnected as young adults and talking of marrying and starting a family. They married in 2000 and decided to build a house in a more rural area. Now it was time to think about starting a family. In 2006, after trying for over a year, they were elated to find out that not only were they expecting but were expecting TWINS. The
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February 2024
couple welcomed their identical twin boys in the summer of 2007, Joseph and Jonathan. As first-time parents Angie and Dan thought their boys were developing typically. Unaware of any missed milestones the new parents felt the boys just had their own twin-to-twin language. After a routine “well baby visit” the pediatrician was concerned the boys were not functionally communicating. The pediatrician referred the family to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for testing. Following a full day
of testing the family was gathered together in a room with all of the “professionals” to give their prognosis. The main doctor looked at Angie and began by saying, “Well, with Autism...” and that’s all Angie heard. Everything stopped. The world went silent and everything she thought she had with her boys was gone! As she gained her composure, she began to ask questions... “What can we do, what do we do next, are you sure, are there supplements, therapies, diets, medicine, what do we do?!?!?”
