Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas to all of our dear family and friends! We hope this letter gets to you before the end of the year!

We have much to be thankful for this year and writing our annual letter is always a time for us to reflect on that. The best news by far that we have to celebrate this year is that some of our dearest friends who have been trying to have a baby for over a decade are now expecting a baby girl. God is so good and miracles are so precious. Thank you for the gift of life!

Vincent is still in tech, he has enjoyed getting into a new role at work as a project Manager. Though it’s been a challenge, Vincent always knows the challenge to learn something new can only help him to grow. We are really proud of him.

Vincent has done a great job exercising a few times a week and keeping up with his good eating habits. He is looking fit, and feeling great. His heart hasn’t given him much trouble this year.

Eileen’s trying to keep it together, some days feeling like super Mom and other days feeling like social services might come knocking. Despite our awkward looking photo which is making her look deceptively large in that wide striped sweater (no not pregnant) she has done well to lose all her baby weight and is enjoying the extra energy she has. She has been following the simple diet Vincent uses. Cut out bread and sugar and increase protein and water intake. That’s all, no calorie counting. Needless to say the sweater is not going to be a future fashion choice! Getting another chance at someone taking a photo of all of this for this letter, well that just is NOT going to happenJ

Eileen is running a small universe with the help of Super Man Vincent, but what you really want to hear about is the little super hero’s who inhabit that universe:

Joseph turned 6 in March. He makes us so very proud. He was diagnosed this year with high functioning autism after months of extensive testing with child clinical psychologists. Knowing more about how our child thinks and reacts has only been a blessing to us in getting to know this little boy. We have so much yet to learn, but we have enjoyed studying more about autism and how best to engage with Joseph.

Because he is high functioning, at first many people may not notice anything, while others may notice right away, but spend some time and you will get to know his loving and unique little personality and you will understand more about it. It keeps us on our toes. We have a little saying when things go awry in the house; we just turn to each other and sigh saying “Ahh…life with Autism”

Joseph is in Grade 1. Eileen is homeschooling the kids. This has been the first official year in grade school ages and we love it. Being able to take such an active part in their learning, while also being able to partake in activities a little “outside of the box” has been such a great ride.

We are under an ISP here in California called the Almaden Valley Christian School which specializes in helping parents who have special needs kids and want to homeschool.

Joseph has been getting piano lessons from our good friend Hanna. He loves it and has been picking up Christmas carols by ear!

Joseph is learning to read and picks up new words very fast. He is also a very talented artist as many of you know. He and James are in a weekly horse riding lesson which includes Occupational and Speech Therapy work.

Recently, friends honored us by asking us if we were interested in taking Joseph to Lourdes, France with a group of the Knights of Malta who do a yearly prayer pilgrimage. Lourdes, where the Blessed Mother appeared in 1858 to St. Bernadette has long been a place of healing and prayer. Please pray for Joseph that he would be accepted on the trip and that we can raise the funds to send Vincent. We think that this is a beautiful opportunity to actively put our trust in God for whatever he wants from our entire family.

James our happy little boy, he is in Kindergarten homeschool and is always ready with a hug and a squeeze. He turned 5 in November. He is a wellspring of affection, what a joy he is to his parents and those who know him. He is making us very proud as he is growing, learning his letters and doing great at Math. He loves to sing and when it comes to dancing he can really cut a rug!

When deciding to evaluate Joseph we knew that James was struggling as well, though a year ago the issues weren’t as apparent as they now are. So both boys went through many months of appointments and testing, it was a very expensive and arduous task but we know that we needed to do it and we don’t regret it.

James didn’t get the official diagnosis of autism; though it is highly suspected that he will as he gets older as he is right on the borderline and some things couldn’t be properly evaluated at this time, so we can see more this year. Right now they see many autistic tendencies and traits and sadly our little guy is years behind in most areas, testing at more the level of a 2 ½ year old. It was a little heartbreaking for us to hear, as he is not thriving like a happy little 5 year old usually does. Both James and Joseph will be tested for dyslexia in separate evals this year as the psychologists felt this was most likely an additional thing they have on top of the autism spectrum issues.

Vincent just says, “We know how to make em babe” really though it is very common, when there is one child with autism in the family, many of the siblings present some degree of spectrum like qualities such as sensory issues etc…

Therese our little princess, or Queen she would say, is a doll, a beautiful strong little person who we are enjoying immensely. Eileen loves having girls since she had no sisters growing up. Therese is miles beyond her tender age of 3, which she just turned in October. She fits in 4 and 5 year clothes, looks about that size and talks about that age as well.

Therese has presented some typical autism issues that siblings generally have and so we need to help her along with some of those things, particularly sensory issues. She had taken to twisting her hair so badly that she only has a full head of hair on one side, needless to say she looks quite lop sided! We bought her a little bean bag ball to hold at night instead of her hair. Sometimes she whips it at us as we walk past the door. Ouch.

She has also the very typical autistic “my way or the highway” outlook, she and Joseph share many similarities! Or is that Mommy she gets it fromJ We are enjoying helping to form her and have high hopes that her leadership qualities will become a benefit to the family. She adores mothering her baby sister Celine.

Baby Celine… aren’t babies such a blessing? We are so grateful to be able to have our kids, they are such a gift, and we never tire of her antics and her little toes! She is delicious in every way. It was such a hard pregnancy, yet such a wonderful gift. She turned 1 this Dec and it has been a marvel watching her grow. She has been so different from out other kids in terms of milestones. All our kids were walking well before a year but Celine only began crawling 2 months ago! She is bright, affectionate and happy to go to anyone.

Lily, our autism service dog, a black standard poodle was added to our family Dec 11 and though it’s only been a few weeks, we are all truly in love with her. A heartfelt thank you to many generous friends and family who helped us by raising the needed funds with the North Star foundation. She is so gentle and intelligent. She came already with a lot of training, but she is still a puppy, she is only 7 months old. She will continue in the New Year with a local trainer working with us in order to pass her service dog exams. Right now you may see her around town wearing her service dog in training vest, please pet her, she loves the affection. It’s a great way to engage our kids in conversation.

The highlight of the year was attending Vincent’s brother’s ordination to the Priesthood in Alabama and New Orleans. Father Anthony S.J. is a wonderful new priest and a great example to our kids.

We also got to be at a Wieck Thanksgiving at the farm in Oregon with all the siblings and cousins. Christmas is quiet for us, we don’t have any visitors this year but we plan on a Canada trip this summer for a month. There will be a family reunion on Eileen’s moms side of the family in honor of it being100 years since moms Dad, Francis (Frank) Carson cleared and homesteaded the land in Warspite, Alberta. Vincent will work from his laptop in Edmonton. We haven’t been home since right after we were married, almost 7 years. We have been lucky that Eileen’s parents make it down once or twice a year to visit. We are very much looking forward to seeing our long lost family and friends in Alberta!

As usual, don’t be strangers. We love company, please do visit.

With much love, Vincent, Eileen, Joseph, James, Therese, Celine and puppy Lily.