eSpecially Ben

Ben enjoyed our quick walk around the block during our Winter Blizzard with 2 inches of the white stuff. Check here for more photos of special kids.

Thank you for your great responses to my request for team name ideas for Amazing Race. The winning name will be posted on t-shirts and banners. We will show our team spirit to Charlotte. Beginning Friday, you may vote for the one name that you like the best. A box on the right-hand side of this site will have these choices. Of course, you may vote as many times as you would like. Here they are: Bentastic Ben the Builder Ben and the Builders eSpecially Ben Peanut Butter and Benanas The Red-Haired Fighters The Amazing Ben   Unfinished Benness (The TV show's theme this season is Unfinished Business) If you have a creative jolt in the next few days and want your idea added, late entries will be accepted. Just email them to me at vanessainfanzon@gmail.com or include them in the comment section below. Remember there will be a prize for the creator of the winning name!

I have wanted to write this story since it happened, but then life got too busy and the emotion of the experience dissipated. As weeks passed, it was like, as my long-time friend, John, used to say, "It's out of the moment." Circumstances over the last month make it important for me to tell the story now because it marks a big change in Ben. Christmas Eve last year , we attended the family service at our church and had an absolute wonderful time. Since I was pregnant with Logan, we have attended services three times at this church - Logan and Sean's baptism and last Christmas. To our credit, before Ben was born, we were active participants and luckily, church members remember us from then. So this year, I had high expectations for the Christmas Eve service. As usual those expectations were thrown out the window as soon as we sat down in our pew. Ben was very noisy, so I took him to the back of the church in his Convaid chair . Using eye gaze, he lead me down the s