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Best Date Ever! Celebrating Love!

BJ took me on an awesome date last night!  For Mothers Day, BJ and the kids got me tickets to see Sal Valentinetti at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg, PA.  Sal sings Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and more!  He is 21 years of age and on his way to big success!

Beej took me to dinner at J Corks!  We had so much fun!  It is so nice for us to get these moments.  This past week was hectic with meetings regarding Kate's future and what school she will attend.  We also are in wedding mode!  Everything is coming together beautifully.

BJ and I have been together 24 years.  We still laugh and love.  It is rare to find us going to a better restaurant than Applebees!  Lol!  Because we like to relax and not all the fuss.  Our favorite evening out is going to a pub for food and the the American Legion for beers.  We go with my cousin Dan (my brother from another mother) and his girlfriend Sharon, who I consider one of my closest friends who I love so much.  They both know all about Autism by close relatives and being hands on to help when they can.  They give to Beej and I a friendship of love and laughter.  There are many other friends that we love to be out with too, but our calendars don't always allow this.  So we put our grown-up clothes on and stepped out in style, just the two of us! It was soooooo fun.  I look at BJ and thank God that he married me.  Before BJ, I was searching for a guy that was genuinely kind.  BJ still is.  He made last evening so special.

When you are parents of five, you are in such a different mode at home.  Our oldest son Beau (22) is getting married to Angel soon.  Our oldest daughter, Maria (20 soon to be 21 in two weeks!), runs her own Graphic Design business.  She is about to go to her Senior Year at Franciscan University.  Right now she is helping her younger sister Trinity with her show pigs.  Trinity (13) is in 4H and very successful at show pigs.  She also enters jackpots on the east coast.  She won the WNY Preview Classic in Hamburg, New York out of 375 entries!  Our daughter Ireland (14) is my artist.  She loves design and is a huge part of our future and current house renovations.  Her eye for color and decorating blows us away!  So much talent!  Then of course is our peanut Kate.  She is the Heart of the home.  Loves her siblings and each one plays an important role in her life.  So when BJ and I are home we are dad and mom.  We homeschool Ireland and Trinity.  Kate will be attending a special needs school in a couple of weeks.  We aren't sure officially where yet.  Kate is officially diagnosed with Down Syndrome/Autism.  If you have followed our journey then you know she has been through a lot.  We are so busy.  This is why Beej and I need to connect outside of the house for date night.

What is funny is we talk about each child while we are at dinner.  Talk about our hopes and dreams and sometimes we talk about the heartbreaks that come our way.  We can talk about everything and anything.  We have realized we can't solve our worries but God can.  We have learned to surrender to His Will.  God is first in our lives.  Anyone that wants to know how our marriage worked, it was because we reverted back to our Catholic faith.  We wouldn't have had a chance without God being the center of our home.

This is our blog this week.  We have many friends that support us emotionally that we haven't mentioned, stay tuned my loving friends.  Again I say thank you for reading this.  We are up to almost 400 hits on our blog!  I hope anyone with a disabled child relates and finds comfort here.  I hope anyone that never knew a family with a disabled child sees all the love and how rich our lives became because of God's gift of Kate.  If you are pregnant and found out you are having a baby with a diagnosis and you are afraid, I will tell you this.  Your lives will be enriched like you could never imagine.  The love is beyond your wildest dreams and your hopes just shift.  Every single child is a gift from God, no exceptions.  If He sends you this gift, it is because He believes in you.  He will walk with you and you can do this and find great reward.



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