I just wanted to share the following clip with you. This is my daughter Gabriella playing "Lucy VanPelt" in the school play "You're a good man Charlie Brown."
She had lots of fun being part of the play.
I am very proud of her.
Enjoy.
Ken
Hello, Ken here. I just wanted to share the following clip with you. This is my daughter Gabriella playing "Lucy VanPelt" in the school play "You're a good man Charlie Brown." She had lots of fun being part of the play. I am very proud of her. Enjoy. Ken
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Hello Ken here.
It has been another interesting week here at the Licata household. The week started with a scheduled trip to the doctor for Julianna. The appointment was to check her hearing. As we guessed, she has slight hearing loss in her one ear. The doctor says she can see fluid in both ears and has suggested putting in tubes. The tubes will certainly help with removing the fluid, but we will need to wait and see if it improves her hearing in that ear. Next of the weekly list SNOW, again. I was in NJ for two days attending meetings for work. During my visit in NJ they had another snow storm with about 15 inches of snow. FUN! Once I was able to dig my car out of the snow, the drive home was no problem. Third on the list, a Bishop McDevitt High School swim meet. Dominic and Francesca swam and did well in their events. The girls team lost but the boys team won by 2 points. Nice job by both groups. Lastly, just a smile from Julianna. Gabby styled Julianna's hair for school and she poised for a quick picture for me. Enjoy and have a great week. Ken Snow day, snow day...wonderful glorious snow days
No reading, no writin', no 'rithmetic... ...Well, you get the idea. Except...Mom is adament after a couple of previous delay days that everyone gets out of bed and has a productive day on these "gifts from God." Mom attended a meeting at school while Dad worked in his home office. Dom was partnered with Jules. Vinnie picked Francesca. Gabby got Ang. They partnered for two hours while Mom was away. To nobody's surprise...all went well. There was some outdoor play on this surprise snow/ice day. Gabby, Vinnnie, and Jules built a mini-"Dobbie." They also argued over the sled. Dom and Chech got extra time to study for mid-terms. They all enjoyed a fun lunch together. Gabby is happy that tomorrow is the first day of the school week....and it's a Wednesday. A good day for everyone was enjoyed! Hello Ken here. It has been a very long week at the Licata house! I have been working out of town for the past 4 days and will be returning home on Friday evening. This means Annie has had to do the running and everything else by herself. This IS a tough job. One bright spot for me this week was I was able to stay with my sister Karen and her family while I was out of town working. The past two nights I have found myself reading different family blogs from RR (Reece's Rainbow). I wanted to share the following post from one familie's blog. It certainly is not a "happy" posting BUT certainly will give you something to think about. Aaron is the boy that this family adopted from Eastern Europe. Aaron's Nothing We live a harried life. Running here, there and everywhere. We work, take our kids to this activity, then that activity, rush to meetings, juggle schedules and cook, clean and work side-jobs in our spare time. We rarely have time to do Nothing. We love doing Nothing. A day where we have no appointments, no meetings and no places where our children have to be. An evening where we can stay at home, curl up as a family with a bowl of popcorn and watch a movie. An afternoon where we can take a walk or play in the yard. Nothing. Nothing so that we can do what we find pleasurable. Reading a book, building a puzzle, playing a game. Nothing has warm connotations, happy thoughts. Nothing is what we live for as a family. For us, in America, Nothing means Everything. For the Lost Boys and Girls, Nothing means NOTHING. This is what NOTHING looks like for the Lost Boys at Aaron's former institute. This was Aaron's Nothing. A shed with Nothing in it but carpets and benches. Nothing.
On warm days, 20 plus boys will be led to this shed. 20 plus boys will go inside this shed. A bench will be placed across the door so that they will not be allowed to leave. Then, those 20 plus boys will do nothing. They will sit inside that shed. They will sit. They will rock. They will cry out. They will moan. They will stare at the walls. They will hit each other. They will hit themselves. They will sit. They will sit. They will wait. After hours of sitting they will get to leave for another shed, to eat. They will be forced to eat quickly so that they can be led back to this shed. To do Nothing. In the afternoon they will be led to their rooms. They will be made to lay down on their beds. For hours they will lay on those beds. Some will sleep to escape. Others will lay and do Nothing. Staring at the walls, ceiling - staring at Nothing. When it is time to get up, they will go back to their shed. Again, to do Nothing. On rainy days, or cold days, they will stay in their buildings. They will not leave those buildings. They will not venture downstairs or get to visit the other boys in the other buildings or even in the other part of their building. No. They will stay in their section. They will sit in the sitting room. It is as empty as the shed. Benches and carpets. They will sit. They will sit and they will do Nothing. They will rock. They will moan. They will hit each other. They will hit themselves. They will sit. They will wait. They will stare at the four walls. They will do Nothing. Once in a while, on weekends, they will get to hear music. The bigger boys will get to do jobs. Some jobs that are heart-breaking. The best behaved boys will get to kick a deflated ball sometimes. Sometimes a stick can be found for drawing in the dirt. Sometimes they will even let a child or two play in the sand pile that is often used as a toilet. Sometimes. On really rare days, when visitors come, they may even get out a hidden toy or two. Rarely. Most of the time, they do Nothing. Nothing for the Lost Boys and Girls in Eastern Europe means Nothing. Two worlds. Our Nothing. Their Nothing. Can we just sit by and do Nothing? You may have noticed in earlier pictures that Angelo received a guitar from Santa Clause.
I have included the below video so you can see his skills learned thus far. Look out rock world, here comes Angelo! enjoy, Kenny Kenny shared this video with me(Annie)....his sentiments are as follows:
"I saw this article / clip and wanted to share it with everyone. Okay, get out your tissues." http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13760282 Ken P.S.....You really will need the tissues Just think about how much good there is in the world! Christmas 2010 was one to remember at the Licata house. The first "big" Christmas for Julianna and the first Christmas with six kids for Kenny and me! Whew!
From decorating the tree to opening presents, the Christmas season was filled with joy, love, laughter (a few tears = stress, I think) and lots of happiness for all. Angelo's big gift was a guitar! Julianna is sporting a new leapster. Vincent received many beloved Steelers' gadgets and clothes. Francesca (whom I don't think is in many of the photos) is still awaiting receipt of her letterman jacket. KEnny and I got her one because she earned her varsity letter for swimming as a Freshman swimmer last year. Gabby is glamorous with jewelry and jewelry box. Dom received an IPOD touch! Santa and parents were good to all the Licata children this year. On Christmas Day we left at noon for Grandma and Grandpa Carr's house to visit for the day. That night we stayed at a motel and had fun watching the re-play of McDevitt's loss at the state championship game :(! THe next morning we had a continental breakfast, Mass at a local church, and then to Grandma and Grandpa Licata's house for gift exchange with the cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was a full weekend! Julianna loved the presents. She was careful to wait her turn and unwrap only her gifts. Angelo took forever to unwrap his gifts. At times, his eager brother, Vincent, helped him without even being asked :)!! God bless us everyone! The pictures tell most of the story below. :)
Angelo and Julianna are learning by watching their older siblings and by getting in the water at least three times each week. Julianna and Ang are taking lessons from "Mr. Mike" at the Friendship Center courtesy of the Central Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Awareness Group Grant that Julianna received last year. These two little fish are amazing in the water...and they even amaze their instructor! Am I surprised? Not at all! With the amount of time that they have spent, spend, and will continue to spend at pools...swimming is a way of life for them. It is also great exercise and a superior lifeskill to have. We are so proud of all of our swimmers! Also note that we got Vincent in one of the photos. Vincent's times have dropped significantly this winter season, as Gabby's have too. Dom and Chechie continue to swim with the high school team. Note that Angelo and "Jules" love to cheer! With our pastor’s announcement that he would be leaving on the first Sunday of Advent, and a new pastor on his way, we thought this was God’s way of reminding us that we needed to move forward with a conditional baptism for Julianna. Yes, … conditional. While I was in Russia at the Institution, I received a card in Russian that was never filled in for proof of Julianna’s baptism. It had her name on it, but not a date, location or name of the priest. Regardless, Kenny and I wanted to make sure that Julianna was baptized.
The only date that Julianna’s Godparents and we could schedule with Monsignor was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We scheduled her baptism on Saturday, and finalized on Sunday. Three days later, “Jules” was baptized conditionally, which means that if she was not already baptized, the service serves as a baptism. If she was already baptized, as we were told by the Russians, then the ceremony was simply a prayer service. We figure, only God will really know if she was previously baptized. We’ve posted a number of photos from the day. It was a beautiful occasion. Julianna wore a blue dress that was made for Gabby when she was seven or eight years old. As you can see by the pictures, she looked like and trust me, acted like, a perfect angel during the entire event. Her desire to be precious in God’s eyes was achieved by her mere presence, yet she did much to add by her most reverent and pious mannerisms throughout the ceremony. Once again, we were amazed by our little Julianna! Thank you, God, for giving us the courage to listen to you and bring her home to us where we can guide her for you! May God continue to bless her (and our family) abundantly! Some of you may recall the old camp song, "Swimming." One of Angelo's early intervention therapistsreintroduced us to this song, including the hand motions. We all, including Julianna, memorized the song - that was at the end of the summer.
Now...we still swim in the swimming pool. Gabby and Vincent are on a different winter club team this winter season. The lap pool is part of a larger fitness facility that includes a leisure pool. When Vincent has practice for the team on Monday and Wednesday after school, Angelo and Julianna get in the pool with Annie and enjoy the water. Enjoy the water? I guess that's what you call Mom teaching them some of the basics of swimming - blowing bubbles, bobbing in the water, jumping in water over their head, floating on their backs, etc. We have known that Angelo is a fish since this summer. Even though Julianna had never been swimming until she came to our home in late August, no one would ever know that she is new to the water. Julianna watches the big kids and tries. She can float forward and almost on her back by herself. She loves the water...just like her siblings. I guess she knew that that's what we do in this family...! The two youngest are getting lessons soon...so we are expecting great things by spring. Francesca and Dom have started some off season high school swim team practice. Chechie has been to many practices, while Dom is trying to keep up with his school work! Chechie lettered last year as a freshman, and a letterman jacket is on her Christmas list. Gabby is excelling, swimming three mornings a week. She and Vinnie have their first meet on Saturday. ".....breast stroke, side stroke, fancy diving too....don't you wish you had nothing else to do." |