It was just another hot, exhausting summer day in Indiana. For the most part, our days are the same. My two sons have autism, and we find ourselves living a daily routine. I picked up the boys as usual from their full day of applied behavior analysis (ABA). Once we arrived home, it all started.

My 5-year-old is nonverbal and requires regular care. I was in my second month of potty training him, and I was starting to feel like a failure. Amidst this, I have my 4-year-old son with autism who wants my undivided attention to play superheroes with him. On one particular evening, I was running on fumes. My non-sleeper had spent the last two nights up. I was sleep-deprived and needed a boost to keep going.

Lo and behold, I got want I needed that night. I felt tears coming to my eyes. I held them in, but there was no doubt I felt like a complete failure as a mother at that point. I didn’t think anything could help, until I found the note!

I stepped into the kitchen to go through their book bags from the day. One of my son’s coaches left me a note in his book bag. To this day, I have no idea which one did it, but it was what I needed that night!

At that moment, I let the tears flow from my eyes. Someone knew and appreciated what I was going through and took time out of their day to write a few words on a napkin. That is all it took for me to get my boost and feel re-energized.

This is my journey, and I take great pride in it. I would be lying if I said I never got tired, because I do. It gets mentally and physically exhausting. However, on this particular day, in the snap of a finger, I felt like I was on top of the world. And it was all from one simple napkin.

The Mighty is asking the following: Share with us an unexpected moment with a teacher, parent or student during your (or your loved one’s) school year. If you’d like to participate, please send a blog post to community@themighty.com. Please include a photo for the piece, a photo of yourself and 1-2 sentence bio. Check out our Submit a Story page for more about our submission guidelines.