Jadon  Burgess-Thomas 

Grovetown, Georgia (Senate District 23)

The Burgess-Thomas home is filled with palpable love and humor as well. The doormat at their front door affectionately reads, “But did you call first?” A few minutes after the writer and photographer arrive at their home Jadon appears and makes his way down the staircase holding his iPad. Inquisitive and pensive, he stands, pauses, and just looks at the strangers that have entered his home. No hello. No words. No gestures, but a lot of intense eye contact. Jadon knows they are new and don’t ‘belong’ in his home. (Story continues below after slideshow.)

Jadon, a nineteen-year-old Black male who has autism and ADHD, is the middle son of Michael and Telphanie. He lives with his dad in Grovetown, Georgia. Change is the one thing that stays the same and incorporating a child with autism brings a juxtaposition to the already daunting challenges that are a part of being a military family. 2023 has been a hard year and full of major life changes for the Burgess-Thomas household. In March, Telphanie, the matriarch of the family, died unexpectedly. With love, devotion, and support from Michael, care from Jadon’s medical team and receiving waiver services due to the emergent need, Jadon is blossoming.

Jadon is a young man of few words yet knows what he wants. In August, he transitioned from being home-schooled to in-person school and adapted to yet another major change very well. Michael was unsure how Jadon would feel going to school, let alone riding the bus. To his dad’s surprise, Jadon got on and rode the school bus with no problems; he actually enjoys it. Jadon requires assistance with many personal activities of daily living and staying on his daily routine is important for him to feel comfortable and avoid meltdowns. His bus arrives at 5:50 am, requiring very early mornings. Michael helps Jadon shower, brush his teeth, wash his face, then travel downstairs for breakfast. Just before the bus arrives, Jadon gets dressed with Dad’s help. Through trial and error, they’ve found that this is the best use of their time and energy just in case there are any accidents.

Per Jadon’s IEP (individual education plan),he attends high school half-days and his DSP (Direct Support Professional)meets the bus at the house in the afternoon to provide care, supervision, and support until Michael returns home from work. Jadon is a lover of food and has his favorites. He and his caregiver get fries from McDonald's or Popeye’s a few times a week. On weekends, Jadon tries to convince his dad to go to Golden Corral or Popeye’s. While Michael concedes at times, he shakes it up with roasted barbeque chicken and the other things that Jadon will eat from his limited selection of likable foods. For example, Jadon has pancakes and sausage for breakfast every day.

While Jadon has transitioned well to school, Michael wants more for his son. He believes that Jadon not only needs to be around his peers, but in the community as well. As a working, single parent, it is a lot of time, work, and energy to identify and explore what options are available, as well as vet them. Now that Jadon has the COMP waiver, that affords him more opportunities. As a result, Michael is exploring a transition to community day programs that will keep Jadon safe and engaged.

Raising a child with a disability is hard and can be rewarding at the same time. Michael and Telphanie were aware of and exposed to other families raising children with disabilities, but they weren’t aware of the intimate details of day-to-day life. It’s not something families knowingly sign up for, and yet they learned how to embrace and manage the new world they find themselves in. Autism, especially significant autism, can tear a family a part; it almost tore this one apart. But Michael and Telphanie were committed to each other, and to their children.

With the sudden loss of Telphanie, things got very difficult. As Michael found the right medical team for Jadon which got the right medications for him, their family life looks different now, in a good way. Micah and Asher, Jadon’s older and younger siblings, love their brother, but they have lived through a lot of hurtful experiences due to Jadon’s disabilities. They couldn’t actively participate in this story because talking about the past is too hard for them. “The boys had to grow up a lot faster than they should have. They have seen much progress with Jadon, another side of him if you will. They are seeing what is possible when Jadon has what he needs to be more in control of himself. He’s gone from destroying everything in the house to being a happy, content, and peacefully inquisitive son and brother,” says Michael.

As a veteran of the U.S. Army who spent twenty years in communications, Michael expresses the need for the social services systems to communicate with each other. The constant repeating oneself and being asked to give the same information to organizations that interact and are tied together is exhausting. The systems are interdependent yet don’t share pertinent information regarding supports, resources, and processes necessary to effectively transition to adult care, despite Jadon being an adult in physical appearance solely. The other side to this is having to interact with individuals who work in these systems (government organizations) who don’t understand what guardianship is and why it’s needed in some cases. Transition of a child with lifelong intellectual and developmental disabilities to adult care is convoluted. Michael shares that, from his perspective, it would be advantageous for the systems and ‘powers that be’ to find a way to not disrupt family’s ‘normal’ life. Interruption of medications and access to medical care, at a minimum, is inconvenient and disruptive, and life-threatening at most.

It’s hard for Michael to not get emotional when thinking about Jadon’s future: “It was always a concern of what will happen, where will Jadon go when his mom and I are gone. While we didn’t expect to lose her this soon, the reality of having non-family support in place is even more present,” he says, as he watches his son who, for now is hanging out on his happy place, the trampoline. “I know Jadon won’t be able to live on his own and will always need support and supervision. I am committed to finding the right care for him and will never give up on him.“

Writer: Naomi Williams, Photographer: Sydney Foster