Christina was St Elizabeth of Hungary for All Hallow's Eve

She is always sympathetic to the needs of others, and likes to help prepare meals, so I thought St Elizabeth, who is remembered for her charity to the poor of Hungary (the hungry of Hungary) was a good choice of saints. We celebrated, as always with the Friars of the Immaculate at their beautiful Friary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Griswold, CT.
After the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, we had a potluck meal, saint guessing games, games of chance with Biblical themes, and a spectacular show of skateboard jumps from Fra Gabriel, who will heretofore be known as the "Flying Friar". He jumped a bucket of flames to the delight of the dozens of children assembled in their costumes on that frosty evening.
Holiness and happiness were in the air as we remembered that we are proceeding towards the Church Suffering and then towards being part of the Church Triumphant.

Research Down Syndrome fundraiser supported by NJ First Lady

September 25, 2010:  New Jersey First Lady, Mary Pat Christie hosted a reception and dinner at Drumthwacket, the Governor’s mansion, in support of Research Down Syndrome(RDS). Speakers included Mrs. Christie, Governor Chris Christie, Roger Reeves, Ph.D. professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and member of the RDS Scientific Advisory Board, and TV host Geraldo Rivera. Mrs. Christie was presented with an award by RDS for her commitment to Down syndrome cognitive research. Roger Reeves informed attendees that a number of potential targets have been identified for the development of drugs that will impact memory and learning in persons with Down syndrome, and that clinical trials are anticipated within the next year. Wall Street Journal columnist Bill McGurn, and “On the Record” host Greta van Susteren also attended the event, and you can read their accounts of the evening in blog entries: Bill McGurn’s New Jersey Rules and Greta van Susteren’s Greta Wire. 

More photos from St Louis

With Eileen and I it was truly a case of "meet me in St Louis", as we came from Vermont and Connecticut to meet in the middle of the country. We traveled in different planes amidst dire storm warnings and managed, thanks to the prayers of our friends, to meet in plenty of time to collect our thoughts and prayers, and do a good job on the interview.
We'll let you know when it airs next spring.

In St Louis filming "Faith and Culture" interview

Eileen Haupt and I were invited by Colleen Carroll Campbell, the host of "Faith and Culture" on EWTN to do an interview about KIDS Keep Infants with Down Syndrome. Here are some photos taken the Cardinal Rigali Residence in St Louis during the filming. Colleen gave us a warm welcome, and made the interview seem effortless, despite the fact that she is a nursing mother of twin babies; whom we met after the taping.

 I gave Colleen a copy of Michelle Buckman's compelling novel, "The Death Panels" , and we got into a discussion about the March for Life. The producer invited us to stop by the EWTN tent at the March for Life this January 24, to be interviewed by Teresa Tomeo about KIDS. Look for us in their live coverage of the March. Our "Faith and Culture"  episode will be aired sometime around Easter.

We passed a portrait of Cardinal designate Ramond Burke who presided over the Archdiocese of St Louis until his appointment to the Vatican.

We said a rosary of the Mysteries of Light in thanksgiving in the breathtaking chapel.

 We celebrated afterward by touring downtown St Louis to see the magnificent 'new' Cathedral, which is not a Basilica, and the the Mississippi River and the Gateway Arch.
The National Park Service has a fascinating museum about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis and Clark passed St Louis while exploring the Louisiana Purchase.

Fun facts about Down syndrome

Did you know that 1 of five people with Down syndrome play a musical instrument? No?
Then hop on over to All About the Enskats to learn some fun and interesting facts about those who have designer genes!

Welcome Drew Mariani listeners!

It was my great pleasure to share with you my story of Christina's prayer to Our Lady in my time of need today as part of the Marian Retreat on the Drew Mariani Show.

Its a beautiful and humbling experience when our children's relationship with God takes wings. It was Christina and the Blessed Mother who spiritually carried me through the ordeal of my mother's suffering and death.
Remembering that Our Lady was calling Mom home helped me to see her hand in Mom's life and death. She suffered with Mom and taught Mom to offer up her sufferings for her nurses, her family and anyone she met. Priests left her room saying that she inspired them, and Mom was anointed many times before she died a happy death, after receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion, surrounded by her family just before the Hour of Mercy on a Friday. We prayed her on her way to God with the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

I told Christina that Grandma went to live with Jesus and she seemed to understand, nodding her head. I am so grateful that Our Lady sent me a little angel whom the world often rejects to lead me through the valley of death into the light of faith.

I'll be on the Drew Mariani Show today

At 6PM EST, the Drew Mariani Show, as part of their Marian Retreat In Mary's Hands, will be playing my story of  "The Prayers of  a Little Saint" from Mary's Touch Program on Catholic Radio International. Afterwards, Drew and I will discuss the story, and may even take calls. I look forward to telling you how much  my daughter Christina with Down syndrome has taught me though her simple trust in Our Lady.

You can listen to the show live by clicking on this link.

New reading methods for kids with Down syndrome being tested in UK

A well organized trial of new methods of teaching children with Down syndrome to read is underway in the United Kingdom, conducted by DownsEd International. The experiment will finish in summer of 2011 and the results evaluated. Few studies of this kind have been conducted due to lack of funding for Down syndrome when compared to other conditions, like autism, and resistance to change, which is a shame considering how promising  the preliminary results look,

The research team today presented their findings during a symposium on reading at the 3rd European Regional Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities. Dr Kelly Burgoyne, the psychologist leading the study at Down Syndrome Education International, reported that the children in the study made significantly better progress after only 20 weeks of teaching using the specialist programme, when compared to children with Down syndrome receiving ordinary classroom instruction. Dr Burgoyne commented: "This is exciting because it shows that the programme can be effective in a short period of time. We will now continue to follow the children to see if they make further gains in their language and reading skills."

I say, let our methods be informed by solid research and results, and look forward to reading the study when it is available.

Read the entire article at DownsEd International website.

I'm giving a talk on reaching the hearts and minds of youth for pro-life

Each year, at the March for Life, there are hundreds of thousands of youthful marchers, yet few of them are from the Northeast.Why is that?
 On Saturday, October 30, at the Holy Angels Pro-life Outreach Conference in South Meriden, CT,  I will be speaking on how to reach the youth of Connecticut with the pro-life message.
In preparation for this talk, I am looking up youth groups in CT to recommend.
My research on pro-life youth groups in CT has led me to YLife who are sponsoring a pro-life youth conference at Holy Apostles Seminary this Saturday from 9 to 5. The cost is only $15 including lunch, and the speaker, Fr Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center is top notch. See their blog for registration information, but rest assured you can register at the door for the same low price.

Learn why the Church has always opposed IVF, and meet some pro-life youth.
Be inspired by the Culture of Life among youth.

Fall Family Fun Montage

Mount Greylock, Hurst Farm, Lapsley's Orchards in October.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Feast for the eyes

Check out Kelle Hampton's gorgeous photo blog to see stunning pictures of children with Down syndrome.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Theresa Thomas and Patti McGuire Armstrong over at Stories for the Homeschool Heart blog for awarding me "The Versatile Blogger Award". They are the editors of the book I contributed to by the same name, and have given me the opportunity to be included with some of my favorite Mom bloggers.

To accept the Versatile Blogger Award the rules are:

• Thank and link back to who gave you the award.
• Share 7 things about yourself.
• Pass it along to 5 blogs you’ve recently discovered and enjoy
• Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award

Seven facts about me:
1. I speak fluent Spanish and very halting French.
2. I love to garden but since I became a writer, well, the weeds won!
3. I am a diabetic, but thanks to "The Light Weigh" a wonderful Catholic weight loss program, I am replacing overeating with prayer. My goal is to throw out the diabetes and blood pressure medication, and keep up with my active girls. And look good for my upcoming television show. . .more on that later!
4. I stopped riding my bike for twenty years, but this summer, I began riding again.No accidents yet.
5. I love to cook old family favorite recipes handwritten by my Irish Gran and my Italian Nana.
6. I love to pray the rosary with the lights off and the candles burning on the family altar.
7. Something about mountains calls to my heart; last Sunday my family climbed Mount Greylock for the first time, the highest mountain in Massachusetts with Kristin's family (see nomination below).

I nominate the following bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
Jean of Catholic Fire
Esther of A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
Kristin of 11 on my Own
Monica at Monkey Musings
Kimberlee at Pondered in My Heart

October is the month of the rosary

Here's a find from Facebook, it's called Come Pray the Rosary
It joins you with others who are on the site, and starts whenever you want, accompanying your prayers with beautiful views of the Holy Land Shrines for each mystery and heavenly music.

Today begins Down syndrome awareness month

Peter Elliot is the Director of The Downs Syndrome Research Foundation and he wants your help. 
They are a British organization which offers free online educational seminars about educating children with Down syndrome. 
Unlike NDSS, NADS, and NDSC, They are pro-life. 
He send me the following message on Facebook.

We have this NEW USA Website in development and we need lots of video clips.
Here is a chance to show off our kids young and old while they are doing interesting stuff and it can be dressing up or dressing down, action clips or having a rest, sking, swimming, running, playing football or playing darts, doing well or doing awful, these should be short clips you can post to UTube and let us have the copyright to put on our website.
PS: We dont care if you live in the USA or the ends of the earth we just need great video clips to let new parents and doctors see our kids as they really are.

Christina's after school routine

A friend on my Down syndrome Yahoo group is concerned because she feels her son is very limited when he gets home from school, not wanting to participate in normal activities. Christina is similar in that she has a set routine when she gets home from school, and rarely deviates from it.

She doesn't want to read a story, play with her sisters, or go for a walk. She only wants to play alone with her Elmo doll, or watch her favorite movies on TV. Period. The only exception to this routine is if I can get her to stay in the yard after she gets off the bus. She enjoys nature and throws the ball for our dog. It helps her unwind. 

I don't let it bother me like it once did. She has a lot of 'have to's' at school, and home is her down time. I give her time to veg out doing a mindless activity after school, and usually, by dinner she is more herself. I save shower/bath time for just before bed, and then she'll usually let me read her a book (same one every time). I think she's just humoring me. She gets lots of stories in school. 

In that way, she is similar to my husband who wants to veg out after a day at work!

I think there is a comfort to routine after what can be a very taxing school day. 

Last night we had a friend come over for dinner with her big family. Christina had a marvelous time playing dress up in the basement, but had a big meltdown when they left at 8:00. It took over an hour to get her upstairs and ready for bed. She probably enjoyed the break from her routine, but it still ruffled her feathers.

I have to accept her needs after school and not deviate from them more than necessary.

Down syndrome teen scores 51 yard touchdown!

Check it out over at my friend's blog

You have our backs

Now that I am on networked blogs, I get more comments on Facebook than here, so my friends have been sending me much needed prayers there. I owe you an update on Christina's and my backs.
 My spine has been locked up and developing arthritis, because I neglected to find a new chiropractor here in CT when I moved two years ago. The pain which crippled me in bed for two weeks was cured by one adjustment where there wasn't even a crack! Now with some ongoing treatment we can prevent a crisis like I just suffered through.
 I felt great for the banquet, and I am back among the active, praise God!
Now Christina will be undergoing an MRI for which she must be sedated later this week. Then we will decide if spinal surgery is indicated.
Good thing I am in good shape for this. Please keep the prayers coming.

Ave Maria Home Banquet Montage

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Irish cartoon to feature character with Down syndrome

A children's cartoon in Ireland will feature "Punky" a six year old girl with Down syndrome. It promises to be a positive portrayal, treating her as just one of the family. This cartoon is perhaps a result of living in a nation where 90% of babies with Down syndrome are not aborted. Abortion is still illegal in Ireland, and a visiting US professor wrote an article about how casually children with Ds are accepted in Irish society.

Gerard O’Rourke from Monster animation says that the main character Punky is a playful six year old girl who lives with her family but she is slightly different to other children. O'Rourke told the Evening heard that judging from their research this is the first ever series where the main character has Down Syndrome.
"It was unique and scary to deal with the subject matter on a mainstream cartoon. Down Syndrome Ireland provided a great bedrock and they were completely behind the idea of us doing the show," he said.
He added: "We wanted it to be shown among mainstream cartoons. It's not like a special show being shown at a special time. It'll be shown in amongst Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig."

Good for Mr O'Rourke! You can't accept a type of person you rarely see, so frequency of contact leads to acceptance. I have never faced rejection of Christina by children, merely curiousity.

Maybe American TV will carry the show and teach young people in the US what a child with Down syndrome is like, they would certainly have to search far and wide to find one here.

Read the entire story here.

Christina's spinal malformations

My dear friend and outstanding pro-life physician, Dr Judy Mascolo recommended a CAT scan for Christina before OKing horseback riding. Thank God for her cautious wisdom!! The malformations have been there since birth and explain why Christina holds her head to one side.
Monday I met with a neurosurgeon, Dr Jonathan Martin, at Conneticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford and saw what concerned Dr Mascolo; her spinal malformations. Very frightening indeed!

Her top vertebrae in the cervical spine are warped, have extra bone in places, the top vertebra is fused to her cranium, and the fifth bone is missing on the left side, yet the upper vertebra has moved down to fill the gap;  they resemble ice which began to melt and then re-froze in bad position. She may need surgery to make the opening in the center of her vertebrae larger for her spinal chord. This is very scary and we will need your prayers as we do an MRI and then meet with her doctors to make this crucial decison.

Meanwhile, I am meeting with officials in her school to explain why she needs constant one on one supervision and greatly reduced activities. I hate to deny her the  playscape and swings, but we must err on the side of caution, since a wrong move may mean paralysis.

Please pray for my back

How many times have I reminded myself that when you are doing something beautiful for God, you pay a price. The enemy tries to prevent me from publishing "A Special Mother is Born". Now, for the past week, I have been flat on my back with spasms. Painful ones. I am tired of offfering it up. I want relief prayers. Now.

UPDATE Sept 24: Thank you, my back is still bad, but I finally found a new chiropractor here in CT (I haven't bothered since our move over 2 years ago this month, a case of mom's priorities come last coming back to haunt me) and they seem to have pinpointed the problem as a locked spine in my mid back, which is leaning on the muscles and causing spasms.
 I will be going on Monday for some relief, please God.
Meanwhile, I'm resting and on medication, oh, except for the Ave Maria Banquet, Mass on Sunday, then its Cennacle Sunday at the Friary. I'll be on heavy pain meds, so I can't drive to any of these events, but I'm still going.
Thank God for my husband and teenagers in my house who can drive!

Bishop welcomes people of all abilities at ‘Catholics Can’ Mass (CNA)

Thank you Bishop John Wester for the idea of a Mass for those with disabilities and for these words,

In his homily, the prelate said Jesus speaks to us in our sufferings and our challenges. “Our focus is not on the challenge, our focus is on your success, on all that you’ve accomplished, about the kind of human beings you are because of the way you have grown through your suffering and through your challenges,”

I am so proud to belong to a Church who recognizes the special spiritual gifts of those whom the world scorns for their lack of intellect or physical prowess. We really have our priorities right in the Catholic Church! Chris Bell founder of Good Counsel Homes and father to six disabled children said today,
"when we get to heaven, we will see our special needs children way up there (pointing up) because of their great spiritual gifts". I have seen Christina's spiritual gifts, and I am in awe of her ability to communicate with God, despite her speech delays, shows you that God is not hampered by them.

To read the entire article go to:

Bishop welcomes people of all abilities at ‘Catholics Can’ Mass :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Is aborting babies with Down sydnrome genocide?

Over at the Devoted Intellectual, they are asking if you think the 90% abortion rate of children with Down

sydrome is, as George Will says, "eugenic gendocide".

Of course, you know where I stand. Here is Keep Infants with Down Sydnrome, the group I co-founded to fight this terrible truth.
 But the more we can engage in conversation on this topic, the more the idea that selecting babies for destruction based on their genetic makeup is genocide, is advanced. The closer American comes to a nation with justice for all, born and unborn.

I'll say it again, the abortion of babies with Down sydnrome is eugenic genocide.
Pure and simple.

Chime in!

Winner at The Christopher's student film festival

The Nativity of Our Lady

Meditation:


St. Peter Julian Eymard

Even in her cradle, Mary was the delight of the most Holy Trinity, the admiration of the Angels. 'Who is this privileged one,' they ask, 'who at the first dawn of life, is so rich in virtue and adorned with such glory?'

In like manner should we rejoice, since Mary brings us the Bread of Life. From the day of her birth, we salute her as the aurora of the Eucharist, for we know that the Savior of mankind will take from her the substance of that Body and Blood which He will give us in the Adorable Sacrament of His love.

St. Peter Julian Eymard, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, (Eymard Library), 31.
 

Meditation from Mary Vitamin
 
Here is a meditation on the meaning of the word latria, or the devotion we owe Our Lady as opposed to worship, which is reserved for the Most Holy Trinity. Latria was the
virtue I was given to cultivate this year when I was given a holy card at the Friary at Epiphany.
 

End of summer party

We celebrated the end of summer by watching Kristin Bothur's family on NBC news and enjoying Shana Surek's expressive photos in the Hartford Courant article (see photos here). It was a busy summer, helping her move, and to travel from Philadelphia to Boston to publicize her book 11 On My Own, but it brought our families closer. We watched as our children toasted marshmallows over a bonfire, and played 'manhunt' in the dark, grateful for their friendship. The photo shown here is of Chrisitna's First Holy Communion at St Mary's with Kristin, holding Dominic at our side.
I am pleased that Shana and the NBC TV crew focused their cameras on the lovely statue of Our Lady in their work, it gave the viewers a true sense of just what keeps this mother of eleven centered on her mission. Fr Tito was eloquent in the piece, saying, "its always a good to invest in the mother-child relationship". If only the children's father understood this none of what the family endured this summer would have been necessary, yet in His wisdom, Our Lord has brought blessings from sinfulness, and grace from depravity.
Now we have to pray for the father of these children to repent and support his family.

Our children deserve research!

Bella's backyard shrine

For days, Bella and Gabbi were up to something. They were in the woods, working on a surprise for me, a top secret project. They left to get wood chips, and came back dragging no less than six huge bags of chips. I had my suspicisions, but the result far surpassed my guesses.

Accross the stream from the henhouse, down a winding wooded path, lined with woodchips, up a dry stream bed, and around a tree in the path, likes the Shrine of the Holy Family.
The Velasquez family now has a shrine where they can hear the forest music as they pray to the Holy Family.

Thank you Gabbi and Isabella!