I have been blessed to raise
8 children. These children have taught me to love and give as I never
thought I could. They have brought me incredible joys, and at times,
have brought me to the brink of despair. Life with my children has
been a strong catalyst in strengthening my own relationship with God.
Nothing brings me to my knees faster than their struggles. Nothing
brings me to praise God quicker than their personal victories. They
have taught me to run to Jesus in all things.
One of our sons, Peter, is
profoundly Autistic. When Peter was around 7, he was still in the
thick of the difficult years of parenting him. He was a very
wiggly kid who still had a habit of bolting away from us. Peter
needed to have constant...and I mean 24/7 kind of
constant...supervision. He had the impulsiveness of a young toddler and
the physical coordination of a child his age. We had keyed locks on
all our windows to keep him from escaping the house...put on after he
escaped out of a window when I took my eyes off of him for a literal
two minutes and didn't find him until 10 minutes later halfway down
the street of our neighborhood sitting on one of our neighbor's lawn
mower tractors in their driveway. Life with Peter at that point in
time was extremely stressful.
Every Sunday, Peter sits
next to my husband, Jay, at Mass. It was a challenging hour to get
through for Peter...and us! One Sunday at Mass when he was around 7,
Peter slid out of the pew and...........
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