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You’re going to find this difficult to believe Chris because of my youthful good looks and flawless skin but in a couple of weeks time I will be the mother of two teenagers. I know! As well as having a 15 going on 25 year old, my youngest is going to be 13. He's as tall as I am and a fabulous human.

It's not always been easy for him though, as well as being born a Bottley he is a bit unusual. One snowy December for example when he was little enough to still be learning how to dress himself, I told him to go upstairs and choose clothes he thought most appropriate for the time of year and the weather, 20 minutes later he came downstairs dressed as a Christmas tree. Another time we found him kneeling by a bathful of water systematically going through all the shoes in the house to see if they would float, his beach sandals did, my high heels didn't.

At first we put it down to eccentricity, but after many an hour sat in meetings with teachers and specialists, ‘IT’ came to have a different name, it doesn't matter to us of course, we knew he was special, we just didn't mean it how they meant it.

Being a parent to a kid who is a bit different isn't always easy, but it's never hard to see him as the amazing individual he is.  The bible has a wonderful turn of phrase to describe just this, it says ‘You are fearfully and wonderfully made’ capturing something of not only the amazing privilege it is to be our Arthur’s mum but also the amazing thing it is to be Arthur.

We are not all the same but I do think we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, the ones who fit the mould and the ones who don't, the ones who think their normal, whatever that means, and the ones who would never want to be. 

So Happy Birthday son, my amazing boy, it's an honour to be your mum and you're brilliant, just the way you wonderfully are.