Book review: A Special Mother is Born

A little over one year ago, my friend Leticia Velaquez, a fellow mother who was also blessed with a child that has Down syndrome, Christina, published a book called, A Special Mother is Born. The book features "thirty three stories from Catholics whose children have disabilities including Down syndrome, autism, deafness, blindness, and trisomy 18 share the blessings God brought to their families' lives through their child. Contributors include former Senator Rick Santorum, Barbara Curtis, Lisa 'Jelly Mom' Barker, Mary Kellet, Kate Basi, and Dr. Gerard Nadal. Foreword by Mother Mary Agnes Donovan, SV, Superior of the Sisters of Life, with an afterword by Father Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life."

I ordered it as soon as it was fresh off the press last year. I've been so bad about trying to get caught up with reading all the books I've purchased over the past year. I typically have 2-4 different books I'm be in the process of reading at any given time. But one month ago, I decided it was time to finally finish reading Leticia's book. 

I am so PROUD to call her my friend. Leticia is such an amazing Pro-life crusader and advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. In addition to being the author of this book, she is also the co-founder of KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome), she's had her work published in numerous Catholic publications, and Leticia also has a few different blogs Cause of Our Joy, Causa Nostrae Laetitae, and Catholic Media Review. You can also visit A Special Mother is Born's website.

Each of the authors in a A Special Mother is Born helps to give light for anyone wanting to understand what us mothers of children that have special needs go through and also how we use our faith to help us going especially in a time of need. 

With each stories I read, the fellow mothers of these beautiful children, shows an extremely, profound deep love in each of the mothers' stories and how God helps them each in their own way. I find myself on a daily basis calling to God to help guide me as a mother especially when it comes to Joey and his needs. 

A Special Mother is Born has recently has recently been approved by the Catholic Writers Guild. 

I highly suggest A Special Mother is Born for any new mother or one who has received a prenatal diagnosis of any diagnosis or even any family member who might need a deeper understanding of what we, as parents might be going through raising a child with a disability. 

Leticia and I in 2008 with Joey and Christina

24 books for Advent, the kids LOVE it!

Days 1-4 have been a total success with giving the kids 24 books to Advent. Unfortunately  I can rarely get Joey to sit for a picture, so many of the pictures you'll see will be of Leah and Aiden, LOL!

Before we open up each book, we've been taking a minute to read  the reading associated with that particular day of Advent and then explain it to the kids. I'm so happy to make this an annual tradition for our family!!

Check out my post from last week: 24 Books For Advent

24 Days of Books for Advent

I really wanted to find an extra special way to celebrate Advent this year. A few of my friends told me how they give their children 24 books, one each day of Advent, I couldn't help but think what a wonderful idea that was! I've been wanting to add to our bookshelves, so I had to jump at the chance.

I decided rather than just wrapping the books and giving them to the kids, I would go a step further. I went online and found popular daily readings from during Advent. I did one for each day THEN I went one step further and searched Google Images for pictures for each of the readings. Believe me, this took A LOT of time but it's going to be so worth it. Not only to give the kids a new book each day but also to read the reading from the Bible and explain Mary & Joseph's journey leading up to the day Christ was born.


Since I want to make this a yearly tradition, I cut each day's page down to a good size then laminated each page. I bought this laminator on Amazon last year, which has been so handy for many projects, LOL!

If anyone is interested, I made the daily readings into a Google Doc to share with anyone that would like to use it. You can access it here.

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