The Child of Those Tears Shall Never Perish
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
1y ago
Every August for many years, I have prayed the St. Monica novena. She was the mother of St. Augustine, a philosopher and theologian and one of the Catholic Church’s most highly revered saints, but it took seventeen years of her prayers for him to convert to Christianity (she also worked to convert her husband and mother-in-law). She’s one of my favorites and I believe that I owe her intercession to my husband’s conversion to the Catholic church. I don’t have a wayward son who causes me grief, an adulterous and explosive pagan husband, or a difficult mother-in-law living in my home like St. Mon ..read more
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Just Do The Next Right Thing
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
1y ago
What would you say if I asked you what your primary job is with respect to your child(ren)? I had this discussion with a friend recently and we agreed: our mission is to keep our kids alive and get them to Heaven. That’s it. That’s the job. It’s simple to say but challenging to accomplish. You may have a child at risk of serious – even deadly – illness, forcing you to be hypervigilant at all times. Your child may be physically healthy but at risk of harming themselves (or being harmed by others) due to intellectual disability or mental health challenges. Even “typical” children can fall, get s ..read more
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Reflections on St. John the Baptist
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
1y ago
Most of the time, when I sit down at my computer to write for Accepting the Gift, I begin with a “tidy” end in mind. My first child with special needs was born almost twenty years ago, and my second over twelve years ago, so I’ve got a great deal of experience under my belt and can usually take things I’ve learned and tie them to a feast day or a Gospel message or pro-life message or some other something that fits neatly into the purpose of Accepting the Gift. But today I’m tired and a little disheartened, so I hope you’ll bear with me while I pour out a little of my heart to you. Over the pas ..read more
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A Day In The Life: Homeschooling With Down Syndrome
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
One year ago, Nathan was a fifth-grader in the public school around the corner from our house, loving the kids and his teachers, and I was scrambling to prepare Sarah Kate for college. I was also working part-time as a freelancer from home and my days were…comfortable. As I shared last week, in August the Delta variant of COVID hit our community right as the school year was about to begin and we threw on the brakes, switching Nathan to virtual school at the very last minute, and then pulling him out altogether when, a few weeks in, I realized that virtual school wasn’t going to work for him. M ..read more
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Why and How I Decided to Homeschool My Son with Down Syndrome
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
Last September, I fell accidentally into homeschooling my child with Down syndrome. Two years ago, I would never have believed I would choose, much less enjoy, homeschooling Nathan. As Mr. Andi has declared quite a few times, “I’d have lost money on that bet!” I simply never had the desire and I was pretty sure I didn’t have the patience to be my child’s teacher, yet here we are. Why I Chose to Homeschool My Son with Down Syndrome When the 2020-2021 school year began, we sent Nathan to school. I was terrified but also overwhelmed and it seemed like the best choice at the time. A year later, th ..read more
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St. Gianna Molla, Pray for Me!
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
Before we go to Reconciliation, Mr. Andi and I get small notecards to write down what we intend to confess and we take those in with us, then destroy them afterward. I don’t know if other families do it this way, but it helps us remain focused, forces us to be intentional in our assessment of ourselves, and probably saves the priest a little time, as I can be a bit (ahem…) verbose. Before Easter, as I dug around in the drawer for a notecard, Mr. Andi scoffed at the idea that I would have anything that I needed to confess. He declared, quite forcefully, “I’m married to a saint!” “Well, that is ..read more
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What Parents Can Learn From the Childless St. Gemma Galgani
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
St. Gemma Galgani lived a little over a century ago in Italy and is one of a select group of saints who experienced the wounds of Christ on her body. In addition to the stigmata, she faced numerous physical and personal struggles throughout her life. She had a number of illnesses, including severe headaches, spinal tumors, and tuberculosis. She was a wonderful student but was forced to leave school because of her poor health. Other setbacks included the deaths of her mother, her brother, and her father, and not being allowed to enter the convent. I wasn’t familiar with Gemma Galgani until rece ..read more
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Approaching Lent As A Special Needs Mom
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
Every year at this time I see lots of articles on blogs and Catholic sites with titles like “25 Things You Can Give Up for Lent” or “Creative Things to Do for Lent” and around the same time some of my friends will declare (on social media, naturally) that they are fasting from social media for Lent. I’m not knocking those approaches, but there are times when my mom-brain just doesn’t seem to have the bandwidth to do something radical like sleep without a pillow. If you have a non-typical child, you aren’t a typical mom, so those lists of creative Lent ideas simply may not work for you, but you ..read more
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The Unseen Power of Thinking Differently
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
When Nathan was first introduced to basic addition facts, Mr. Andi opted to do some visual practice with him one day. He held up one finger on each hand and asked Nathan how many fingers he was holding up, first on one hand (“One”), then the other (“One”). Then he moved his hands together so that his two fingers were side-by-side and asked him what number he was holding up. Without hesitation, Nathan responded, “Eleven.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong. We expected him to add one and one together and come up with two, but his brain saw two ones side-by-side, which is an eleven. I’m not exaggerating wh ..read more
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With Our Sons in the Temple
Bringing the Sunshine -"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
by Andi
2y ago
Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which celebrates how Jesus was presented to God in the Temple in Jerusalem, forty days after his birth. What a joyous occasion that must have been for Mary! The presentation was a ritual of the Mosaic law and a precursor to the Sacrament of Baptism that we experience under the new covenant. I didn’t give birth to the Messiah, of course, but I remember clearly the day Nathan was baptized. He was a few months old and Mr. Andi and I were still acclimating ourselves to the Down Syndrome diagnosis he got at birth. Mr. Andi would eventua ..read more
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