Mentor Family Ministry

I feel blessed to be a part of one of the most enjoyable ministries at my Catholic Church, the Welcome Committee. There's such a good feeling from connecting others and then stepping away and watching their faith life grow! 

That's exactly what I get to do with the Mentor Family Ministry program at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (St.E's, as I call it). I was asked to help coordinate a welcome ministry at church and then later on to model a mentor program from another large parish in the diocese. After trial and error, I feel like it's coming together, but we still need more established parishioners to be mentors. 

It's such a great way to make our huge church seem smaller to those new parishioners! 

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please stop by the Ministry Fair this weekend, as the Welcome Committee will have a table after every mass. You won't want to miss entering into the drawing for a Gurgle Pot either! 

I hope to hear from you or see you soon!

Almost to Speech Graduation

Gabe has been in speech therapy since he was 3 years old. My mom, whose a speech therapist by trade, recommended that I get him evaluated. At the time, he was still 2, so I started by calling Indiana First Steps and getting the ball rolling on an assessment. We decided to get him enrolled in speech therapy with the schools, instead of First Steps because of his birthday and the cut-off with that program being from birth-3. When a kid turns 3, they go to speech in the schools.  There's quite a bit of paperwork and necessary evaluations, so if you are thinking that your child might need speech, I'd suggest starting early. 

I'm so glad I listened to my mom's advice and enrolled Gabe in speech. He was at first very hard to understand! Olivia was his translator, but he's come a long way and has worked hard on his speech. 

We've been taking him to Whispering Meadows for his speech and he has Miss German, whose been fantastic! She just told us that he's getting really close to graduating speech! I'm so proud of Gabe!!

The morale of the story is, a speech impediment can happen to anyone, but it's fixable and well worth your time to call and get your child help! 

Peace~

Fort Wayne Ballet's Princess Tea

Today Olivia & I had the pleasure of attending the Fort Wayne Ballet's Princess Tea at the Fort Wayne Country Club. It was an enchanting experience from the moment you walked into the building. A princess handed Olivia a crown, while I checked in by giving my name (super easy), then a ballerina escorted us to where we needed to go. 

They had a nice photoshoot with ballerinas for guests to get their picture taken upon entrance, but of course Olivia was too nervous to get her picture taken.

They handed the adults a glass of champaign (if they wanted it), and the rest was pure entertainment. 

Olivia and I found a place at a table to put our stuff and then went to find the face painting. Sweetcakes Entertainment was there doing a marvelous job with the kids face paint. The lines were a little long, but well worth the wait once you saw the finished product. Olivia got a Frozen snowflake design on her face, which she loved. They even had princesses handing out mirrors and personally writing each girls name on their own mirror, which then the girl could go and decorate her mirror. Very clever! They also had ballerinas stopping to chat with the little girls while they were in line. This also made the time go by much faster, and I have to say that Olivia didn't complain about standing in line, which is impressive. 

After the face painting, they had Story Time, which was incredibly  interactive. Then Olivia wanted to look at the raffle ticket items, but by that time the raffles had closed (oops on our end), so she wanted to color, which didn't last long, because then she wanted to go to the Photo Booth and get her picture with her mommy (love that she still thinks the world of me).

We had fun with that, and then we went to watch the Fort Wayne Ballet's performance, which was phenomenal! 

Then they gave each princess a Cookie Cottage iced cookie as they left. 

The whole event was flawless and I have so much appreciation for the Fort Wayne Ballet! 

I'd highly recommend this event next year! It's only $35/ticket and is well worth the cost, plus it's a fundraiser for a good cause!

Would anyone want to go with us next year???