About Julian
Julian is the son of Anthony and Ani Rapallo, young brother of Francesco and twin brother of Shant. Julian was born on July 31st, 2009 with his twin brother Shant at 24 weeks gestational age, weighing a mere 600 grams in Toronto, Canada. After four long months at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Julian overcame many life-threatening challenges. With his brother Shant, Julian finally came home to us on November 25th, 2009.
As years went by and Julian was two years old, we realized that he had some difficulties in reaching his milestones. He was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder on February 2012. It was a very difficult and sad time in our family as we started a new phase in recognizing this new disorder and trying to understand that life will never be the same. We had to learn that children with Autism are gifted and unique in their own way but have challenges in life… But, it didn’t take us too long to come to the conclusion that this happened for a reason and we are very lucky to have Julian in our lives.
As a premature baby, we could have lost him so many times, but he survived - now he has Autism and we can live with this. Life had a new meaning for us and we want to celebrate his achievements, his survival and his proof that miracles do happen and Julian is one of them.
Julian is a grade 4 student at St. Nicholas Catholic School in Bolton. His favourite song is Ed Sheeran's "Perfect". He enjoys playing Piano Tiles on his iPad and he scores very high!
Julian loves to play with his brothers and also enjoys swimming. His favourite place to visit is the trampoline park and enjoys road trips and loves all the traffic signs. Julian is a wonderful boy with a big heart and wide imagination. He teaches us to be humble, kind and loving.
He is surrounded by wonderful family, friends, teachers and therapists who support him and love him unconditionally.