Monday, September 5, 2011

The Big Catch Up Post

Hey ya'll,

I have been MIA for a while now and thought I might catch you up.

Since the RR reunion, I did summery type things and went to Camp Veritas again, which is always amazing!

I've also hooked up with a lot of teenage orphan advocators! I never realized how big of a community there was! I have met so many great people, such as the Guardian Angels, 4Girls4Christ, and some independent advocators like myself.  It's been a blast and they've encouraged me to become a prayer warrior! I'm really excited! I can't wait to begin a serious campaign to bring home a child!  In the past I have picked kids to pray for, and my most recent little girly, Josie, who has a family! Yay!

Prayer request! Please pray for Tripp Roth! He is so dear to my heart! If you haven't heard of this little cutie yet look at my blog list and check out "EB"ing a Mommy.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Best Days of Our Lives (part 4)

Sorry I haven't finished this until now, life has been crazy!

So anyway,

Sunday was a joyous but sad day, since we knew that all of this happiness and union would have to end.

A BBQ was held at the campgrounds, and Pathfinder Village came to us! The food was great and getting to talk with everyone again was great.

All of the little ones played on the jungle gym, while the older ones did pedal karts and mini golf, fun was had by all and we partied late into the night.

The Village people left a while after dinner and tears were flowing.  All of the wonderful people we had met were leaving.  Fairly soon after that, the Wojciks left too since they had a long ride home in the morning. Everything was ending all too soon.

The campgrounds was doing fireworks that night, and nobody wanted them to start since that meant that most of the families were leaving afterwards.  But they started as planned and ended all too quickly.

The Spitz family and ours (plus Molly) said our teary good-byes.

And even though the reunion came to a close, I don't think anyone who witnessed it will ever forget.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Best Days of Our Lives (part 3)

Pathfinder Village! Officially dubbed heaven on Earth!

Day 3, (Saturday) As we arrived we were escorted to the pavilion in the "back yard" of the Village.  There we saw all of our friends and just played around until the tour.  There were water gun fights, basketball games, and even some pre-dinner snacking.

During the tour we were led into the school, a home, the chapel, the village building, and back to the pavilion again.  The facility was astonishing!  Completely beautiful!  If we ever needed a place for Julia to go, Pathfinder Village would be my first choice.  The workers were so wonderful, and the residents (or village people, as I have dubbed them) looked so happy.

We had a BBQ, with really good food, and got to enjoy some tunes played by a band, and rode some orthopedic bikes.  By the way their playground was awesome!

I had a really great time with Nick, Summer's son, playing with the little ones, and Addisu enjoyed the back of Nick's bike. And we met two especially great guys, Lee and Nicolas,  Lee came over to Taylor, Summer's daughter, and told her that she was his girl friend, which was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Nicolas then decided to join Lee since they are good friends.

Once it came time to leave nobody wanted to! Pathfinder Village is heaven on Earth, whether you have Down syndrome or not!  It's a place where everybody is accepted for who they are.  There is no where else I would rather have been that night!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Best Days of Our Lives (part 2)

Day 2, (Friday) all families attending the entire weekend were at our cabin and we all met Bellie and the rest of her beautiful family and spent the evening talking and playing with rocks and looking for fossils.

The sense of knowing each other was so powerful even though we all hardly knew each other. We could get right down to the nitty gritty stuff and they all understood.  It was as if we could read everyone's thoughts right out of their heads!

It was a good night all in all, but it didn't compare to the joy of Pathfinder Village.

Parts 3 and 4 tomorrow!

Best Days of Our Lives (part 1)

I just experienced the most amazing weekend of my life. "How so?" Because I met some of the most wonderful people to walk the Earth through Reece's Rainbow, including Reece himself.  I also met some of the sweetest people in the universe who just so happen to have Down syndrome and live residentially, but you couldn't call Pathfinder Village residential living by any stretch.

There is just no way to express in words the feeling I had as I spent time with these people.  There was definitely happiness, but also despair knowing that after a few days all of it would be over.  And now that it is there is no way to express the pain I suffer knowing I won't be able to see them for a long time.

On Day 1 of the get-together, (Thursday) the Spitz family was unable to attend, but the Roberts/Faris group, the Wojcik's and Lococo's were all hanging out by a campfire roasting smores. Fun was had by all, but something was missing.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Love of a Father

So today in Mass the responsorial psalm was about listening to God and hearing his voice.  The Point is if you don't listen or try to then you won't hear it. You have to lift your voice and worship him so he knows you're listening, only then can you be sure that everything will be alright.  Before I went to Camp Veritas I didn't care about my religion wholly. It was a place to see friends and talk about the God who "loved me" and it was hard for me to believe.  Then at adoration one night I was whole-heartedly listening and I could finally hear him saying, "I love you daughter, everything is in my hands so you have no need to worry."  I will NEVER forget that night! It was truly the best night of my life!



Saturday, February 5, 2011

LONG TIME, no blog :(

         Oh my goodness! There's so much to talk about! JULIA IS HOME!!!! She has been home for a month and a week almost! The wait is over! She is absolutely amazing! I wouldn't change a thing about her.  Every thing is going smoothly so far and she's even adjusting to her glasses well! Yeah you heard me, GLASSES!  I just can't even imagine life without her any more!


         Also the Hooks have a court date to bring home their bundle of heaven on March 31!!!!

         But all of these thoughts of these children with Down syndrome have been running through my head lately. She may be able to get by now, but what about later? What if the children in our school district will underestimate her just because she looks different?  To me she's like any other little kid because I understand the syndrome and all, but for people who are uneducated on the subject, what do they think when they see me carrying her in the grocery store, or walking up and down the aisle with her toddling along by my side?  It really upsets me when people put their all of their possible feelings toward a person in the dump because of a medical term used to describe them! God made these children special! God can see them in a way we will never understand! They look at the world through bright eyes, everything is an adventure! 

I was trying to find a resource that I could use to show people that Julia will be able to do more than some neuro-typical people will ever be able to do. Then I remember a documentary on You Tube that my mom mentioned to me when she  first found Reece's Rainbow.


Even though most of you out there reading this already have seen it just watch it again. I did and I feel like every time I get even more inspired, and my fire burns brighter and stronger!

             Remember that Down Syndrome is a GIFT! God gives it to his special children and we will never even be able to fathom how special each and every person with Down syndrome is.

Elizabeth