New Interview with Eduardo Verastegui

Eduardo Verastegui and Gabbi Velasquez. 

On September 11, the DVD of "For Greater Glory" will be available. In  preparation for this event, I interviewed actor Eduardo Verastegui by phone. I reminded him of this interview which I conducted with other members of the press here in Connecticut in August 2009 and he fondly remembered staying as the guest of the Sisters of Charity in Baltic, CT. I will be linking to the interview here when I type it up.
We discussed the film, and passing on the Faith to children, and the dangers of our children losing it when they leave home. I wanted to tell him I am not worried about my daughter losing her faith because of who she is, and where she is going to university, but we had time constraints and I didn't have a chance.
Here is the interesting part. My daughter Gabbi met Eduardo in 2009 when I did,  both at her summer camp with the Sisters and after my interview with him. Here they are in these photos.

 Now I interview him again, and, afterwards,  I called her to tell her, she is away at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and she tells me that she will be meeting Eduardo again, on Monday as he screens "For Greater Glory" there.
 I hope she'll get a chance to tell him she's my daughter, and that I don't have to worry about her losing her faith at Franciscan. She's in great hands at Franciscan.

Small world!

Jerome Lejeune, the French doctor who 'discovered' the cause of Down Syn...

The silent suffering of empty arms.

Jennifer Fulweiler brought up a subject which is close to my heart in her National Catholic Register blog post, "The Silent Suffering of Women Denied Children". Jane's husband had a vasectomy after their second child, without consulting her. The hardest part is the isolation.

But she remained surprisingly troubled by the fact that most people didn't seem to think that her story was one worth telling. Eager to know that she wasn't alone, she searched online for blogs or books in which other women in her position shared their experiences, but found few results. Women's websites told the tales of women undergoing all different types of challenges, but none showed much interest in discussing situations like Jane's, in which women were denied children by their husbands. It seemed clear to her that her pain was not deemed valid, and therefore was not considered to be worth discussing.

 Many good Catholic women who have been blessed with fertility have had this gift taken away, either by their poor health, or their husbands. I suffered both. My body and my husband said "no more children".
It is an acute suffering which is seldom spoken of, but I am feeling it keenly as I am about to send my daughter off to college. She will leave a huge vacancy in our home. My oldest is leaving home this week for Franciscan University of Steubenville, and.as proud as I am of her, that leaves a very quite home, where I wanted a bustling houseful of children. I try to offer up my suffering for the women who abort babies with Down syndrome.

The hardest part is the world thinks three children is more than enough and wonders why I am sad when I should be rejoicing in my freedom.  Faithful Catholics who have large families, often make inaccurate assumptions about my situation. The other day I was at a devout family's home and two women were discussing the persecution they face out in public when they take their many children somewhere.  I had difficulty sympathizing, though I really do admire their openness to life. I too have been open to life, but my family size doesn't reflect that. It merely made me more lonely.

But there is hope and healing. Bella, my 15 year old had a beautiful dream last month which gave me great consolation. She dreamed of our family as it will be in Heaven, with our three missing children. She dreamed that two were teenage boys just the right ages, and that she had another 12 year old sister, who was, as she said, "spoiled". How my heart soared when she shared this dream, which she recalled vividly. I bring it to mind whenever I mourn my loss, and remember that God sees our tears, and is preparing my home in Heaven, full of children!

Kimberly Hahn in Rome Sweet Home said we can commune with our lost children at Mass when the company of saints and angels accompanies us at the altar, so I often send up an order to my children, "give Grandma a hug for me" or "pray for your father".

Antique German Violin for sale

This lovely violin was made in Germany over 200 years ago and I am looking for a buyer who can afford to pay its true value. The second German violin in this site is made by the same maker at approximately the same time. It is selling for $12,500.00

The violin has the inscription

  Michael Boller geigen macher en Millenwald an Derlfen 178

Here is the back story;
My Irish Grandmother had an old fashioned home with a three car garage. An elderly Russian lady named Vicki Shamshin, whose husband Luke was in the Czar's family and fled the communists, rented space in the 1960's to protect her car during the day while she worked at Doubleday in Garden City, NY. The ladies became friends and Vicki gave Grandma many more items to store; rare wines, a trunk with submarine plans in Russian, and offered this violin to me in 1970 as I began to study in elementary school. It accompanied me through St Anselm College where I played it at Mass. I never pursued music as a career, so I always felt that this fine instrument was wasted on me. To be honest, I rarely have time to play nowadays.
Many times professional violinists would ask to play it and exclaim, what are YOU doing with this violin! So I knew it was valuable. 

I took it to Christie's in New York seven years ago but they undervalued it and I decided not to auction it at that time.

 Now I have a book I need to market to support expectant moms who are facing prenatal diagnoses like Down syndrome, "A Special Mother is Born". I need to travel to the Catholic Marketing Network in Dallas at the end of this month to market the book. This may pay my way. The idea came to me at Mass while I was asking Mary for help.Perhaps the sacrifice I make in selling this precious violin will save lives. My pastor says that prayer united with sacrifice is the most powerful force on earth.

Reward; A Trip to Rockport, MA

Every good deed deserves a reward, and I wanted to give my girls  a reward for getting up early on a summer morning and driving two hours to Burlington Mall to wait in line for hours to eat a chicken sandwich. See my post on Chick fil A.

Chrissy is looking over the cliff where she had just pitched her crocs.  

Brave Bella rescued the crocs before the tide rose.

So afterward, we drove up to Rockport, MA. We had a marvelous time, with our dear friend Caron Sheffield,  viewing the various shops on Bearskin Neck, taking in the amazing view as the sun set and the full moon rose, and celebrating a fun day with a pizza.

First ever drug to treat Down syndrome!

Dr Alberto Costa and his daughter Tyche

An encouraging article by Dan Hurley in the Washington Post describes the clinical trials of the first ever drugs to improve learning and memory in those with Down syndrome, conducted by Dr Alberto Costa and Dr William Mobley. Enthusiasm is spreading througout the research community that Down syndrome, once considered too complex to treat, and abandoned by researchers, is now the subject of clinical trials.

“A lot of us are well aware of progress we’ve seen . . . in the past five to 10 years,” said Jamie Edgin, a developmental psychologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Among those advances, she said, are tests designed to measure the cognitive abilities of people with Down syndrome. The development of mice with the genetic equivalent of Down syndrome, essential for studies of possible drug treatments, has been another milestone. “There’s a lot of excitement,” Edgin said.

It is a devastating irony that stunning advances in accuracy in  prenatal testing  AND the first clinical trials for medicine to treat cognitive impairment of Down syndrome are discovered concurrently. Sadder still is the fact that the prenatal testing is receiving vastly more press coverage.
Imagine the excitement in the press if a new cancer drug were discovered?! Well, this is how the families of over 400,000 Americans who have Down syndrome feel about this drug and its potential to change lives. Not only can it help my ten year old daughter communicate with her classmates, but it may help insure that she has more classmates who look like her.
Maybe, just maybe, if mothers who are told that their unborn baby has Down syndrome heard that there are amazing advances in treatment for the cognitive delays in Down syndrome, they would not despair of their child's potential for a happy and fulfilling life as stated in this article.

Servant of God, Dr Jerome Lejeune

Of course, we who love our children with 'designer genes' already know their lives are wonderfully rich, full of love and learning, and giving back to their community. But if it takes more hope to help bring such gifted people to birth, then we want to be the first to spread the word. Thank you WaPo for joining us in our efforts to spread the good news.
Dr Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who won the Kennedy prize for his discovery of trisomy 21, the cause of Down syndrome spent his career hopeful that such treatments would be discovered, and his family via Lejeune USA  continues to fund such promising research. Dr Lejeune understood the importance of such research when he said,
“I see only one way left to save them, and that is to cure them. The task is immense, but so is Hope.”

Morning Star Catholic Girls Camp 2012

Friendship, prayer, sports, nature, crafts, music, add up to a week of pure joy. My daughter is radiant when I come to New Hampshire to pick her up and is floating on a cloud for a week or so. Her prayer life is deeper, she has learned songs, boating skills, dances,  and crafts, and made friendships which last. 

 I am so thankful to be able to give this week of joy to my daughter Bella each year. God bless the Sisters of the St Benedict Center for running Morning Star Catholic Girls Camp each year! 

The Love Chromosome

The Love Chromosome

The breakthrough we've been waiting for!

Dr Alberto Costa and  his daughter Tyche. 

Since I began blogging six years ago, I have been awaiting news that the research in Down syndrome would provide positive results. I know this will help lower the horrible abortion rate of those with Down syndrome.

Now, finally, we have a clinical study which proves that a drug, memantine, used for Alzheimer's disease, has applications for Down syndrome, it helped young people with Down syndrome remember better, in fact one person's memory improved tenfold!
This means we can give hope to those who are expecting babies with Down syndrome that research has been successful and will be followed by even more research, to help improve the quality of life of those with Down syndrome. And moms will not feel that their unborn baby has no hope. They may be more inclined to give birth since we have given them hope. HOPE.
 It is the first crack in the wall erected by scientists that believe that trisomy 21 is too complex to cure. It proves that the 'prevention' of Down syndrome known as pre-ntatal testing to abort babies with Down syndrome is a distortion of the wonderful discovery of Dr Jerome Lejeune. He intended that his discovery of trisomy 21 be used to introduce pre-natal therapies to mitigate the affects of an extra chromosome. 
We can now proceed to unlock more of the secrets which trisomy 21 reveals to us, possibly finding more treatments for other diseases as well; cancer, Alzheimer's. . . 
Thank you Dr Acosta for your persistence in seeking a therapy for cognitive delays of Down syndrome in a field which had all but abandoned them. 


Read the articles:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120718/Memantine-boosts-memory-function-in-people-with-Down-syndrome.aspx
and here
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/can-a-pill-make-people-with-down-syndrome-smarter/
and here
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/364096/20120717/memantine-down-syndrome-memory-alzheimer.htm
This is a HUGE breakthrough!

Article on Dr Jerome Lejeune

Great article on the legacy of Dr Jerome Lejeune by my friend Barbara Curtis in Celebrate Life Magazine.
The Culture of Death would come tumbling down if we had a few more scientists with his moral courage and articulate defense of the scientific truth that life begins at conception and all human life has equal dignity. As the mother of a child with Down syndrome, Dr Lejeune is our patron saint, and I am asking him to cure my daughter's spinal malformations.
Dr Jerome Lejeune, priez pour nous!
Don't miss this wonderful memoir of the good doctor, written by Clara Lejeune Gaymard, his daughter, Life is a Blessing.available from the National Catholic Bioethics Center. 

Christina's Summer Plans

 While Christina was enjoying our new family pool on Sunday, I shocked her by reminding her that she began summer school the next day. She shook her head to say "NO" a few times, however, once she dried off, she rummaged in the hall closet till she found her backpack and put it near her shoes by the back door. She was ready for the inevitable, and even though she had to be sent to school in her pajamas today and yesterday, she seems to have adjusted pretty well. Its only for 2 and 1/2 hours twice a week for a total of four weeks, just so she remembers the routine, because she gets in a groove and it VERY hard to get her out of it. But there's much more to our summer plans than summer school.

There's Boot Camp at Crossroads Physical Therapy on Wednesdays. Christina does mat exercises for two hours once a week with other special needs children, and is learning to walk on a treadmill and throw a weighted ball. She hasn't had PT for months at school since her PT read my book, "A Special Mother is Born" and was inspired to spend more time at home with her preschool children. I was so happy for her, I couldn't object to my daughter's loss of therapy. So, FGod sees and provided us with Crossroads to facilitate some PT this summer.

Once a week, she will attend Farm School at Farmer Sally's Organic Farm. Bella is one of her instructors, and, for the third year in a row, Christina will learn what grows on a farm, how to plant, weed, water and harvest, care for goats, chickens and a donkey, and I will learn the difference between Swiss Chard and Bok Choy. We will learn how to eat more greens and to work the land together. I always arrive home with fresh smelling bags of organic produce, inspired to cook mountains of greens for my family. Expect some photos from this adventure!

And then there are visits to the beach, the mountains, and Grandpa's on Long Island. Summer ends with a long trip to Ohio to bring Gabbi to Franciscan University of Steubenville in August. Sounds like fun, right?

Mom's summer is more complicated.
In this time I hope I can convince United Health Care to pay for Christina's speech therapy at UCONN, and her Special Ed Director to allow her to bring home her Ipad from school. We are working with DDS to obtain this permission and a customized speech therapy education plan so that she will be helped to communicate better. IF I can get all these objectives met, then, my goals for Christina for this summer will be accomplished!

Gabbi's 19th Birthday Journe 6/2/12 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Gabbi's 19th Birthday Journe 6/2/12 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Gabbi's 19th Birthday Journe 6/2/12 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Heritage Vineyards for Mother's Day

Francisco treated the entire family to a Mother's Day brunch at Heritage Trail Vineyards in Lisbon, CT where we sampled the wine with Chef Harry's amazing array of dumplings, crab cakes, barbeque beef, tuscan chicken breast, couscous, baby greens salad,  and for dessert, homemade brownie topped with raspberry gelato.
Vinter Laurie Schwartz was our hostess and her warmth and  thoughtful service made us feel like her personal guests even with a fidgety Christina.
Gabbi and I  took a walk after the delicious meal in the vineyard.
We can't wait for an excuse to have another bottle of wine, and a meal at the vineyard.

Our Visitation Garden

Our Mary Garden is flowering in time for the Feast of the Visitation, Isabella Maria's feast day.
Last year, I planted a couple of wildflower daisies, and they took over with rampant blooms, and a beautiful blue clematis vine took over the trellis behind Our Lady. I never planted clematis, in fact I spent nearly a decade trying to grow one on Long Island, with a paltry two or three flowers. Suddenly, there are a dozen big blue flowers behind Our Lady from a vine I never planted.
I suppose Our Lady figured my garden needed a little help from above!
This is the same garden you see in the blog header above, where there was nothing but grass.

My Mother's Day Surprise

  I often think how much fun it is for the ladies whose babies are being born in the Facebook age. They have a vast audience to oohh and aahh at their baby's first photos, an instant birth announcement.
 I never sent out birth announcements for my children, nursing a new baby was about all I could handle, especially with my youngest child, Christina who was born in spring of 2002. I had her a month early because my gestational diabetes endangered her life. Giving birth early made my milk slow in coming in, giving her jaundice, which required an extra hospital visit. Add to that my c-section scar and the fact that Christina had Down syndrome, and you have one very frazzled mom, spending day and night trying to breastfeed a tiny five pound baby.
We eventually succeeded, Christina was an ardent nurser once my milk came in. My friends were wonderfully supportive, I didn't cook a meal till after her Baptism, which took place in the pouring rain on Mother's Day. Over one hundred people attended, and I felt very loved.

However, a precious opportunity, to photograph her as a newborn had passed me by. Or so I thought. Last Saturday I was speaking at the Connecticut Right to Life Convention, and Dr Brian Clowes of Human Life International was waiting his turn to present. We had met before, in 2002, when Christina was one month old. He asked my permission to take photographs of her. I was flattered because, by taking her photo,  he treated Christina, the baby with Down syndrome so often rejected by society,as evidenced by the 90% abortion rate,  as a celebrity. She was sound asleep in the baby sling, and we walked over to the window to catch the afternoon sunshine.


I never got to enjoy these amazing photos, as didn't see Dr Clowes for a decade. I mentioned his taking photos of Christina in my talk, and how that helped me understand that this little girl was going to be a light in this dark world, as Blessed Pope John Paul said, a sign of contradiction. To my utter shock, he said he knew where the photos were, and, true to his word, he sent them to me, on Mother's Day.
I was thrilled to gaze upon my newborn daughter's face again, and happy memories came flooding back. How that little pink preemie outfit was bought by mistake, and I gave it to my 8 year old to use for her dolls. When Christina was born prematurely, I asked for it back, and only fit her with the sleeves rolled up. How her sleeping smile lit up her face, and my Salvadorean in-laws said it meant she was dreaming of the Virgin Mary. How her little tongue used to protrude, and we taught her to keep it inside her mouth. How utterly delicious it is to have a newborn babe wrapped next to your heart.

I had had an amazing Mother's Day last Sunday.
My husband took the family to brunch at a local vineyard cafe, my daughters made me an exquisite card and bought me luxurious rosemary mint soap and tea spice scented candles from Old Sturbridge Village. My in-laws gave me a nectarine tree and a tiny white rosebush. I thought this was going down on record as the Mother's Day to remember. I had no idea how right I was!
How generous God is when you give your life to Him!

The gift of speech

Be grateful like blogger Kellie Dolin for your children's gift of speech, it truly is a gift. She shares on Faith & Family Live:

Sometimes I struggle with volume. “I’m standing right next to you,” I repeatedly tell one of my kids who seems to have one volume and that would be jarringly loud.
Sometimes it’s the sheer number of words. One of my kids is going to be a rapper one day. The words pour forth without pause.
But then I sit in church behind a woman whose son clearly struggles to have a voice, any voice.
Although I don’t always appreciate the message, I am so very blessed that he has a voice.

 I might be that mother in front of her in church. My ten year old daughter Christina has Down syndrome and hardly speaks. If she does, its in a whisper, or in her own particular sign language which I struggle to understand. We are doing all kinds of therapy, using Ipads and sign language, but her speech has diminished when most kids are adding to their vocabulary. It hurts me to the core.

 Recently I viewed a home video from when she was five, answering questions from daddy, with much more speech than she has now. This happens with Down syndrome, and though we have hope in many of the clinical studies being conducted now to improve cognition in those with Down syndrome to give her the connections she needs in her brain to process speech, until then,  each day is a struggle to communicate.

My constant prayer to Jesus is for Him to tell her "Ephphatha!"(be opened)
If that comes when we are both in His presence, so be it. It will be worth the wait.