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When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned · Groove with Portia

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to Grow with Porsche, the podcast that uncovers the
0:09
Speaker 1: hidden treasures within grief. I'm your host, Porsche the Producer,
0:12
Speaker 1: and I'm inviting you to join me on a transformative
0:15
Speaker 1: journey where we were exchange laughter, of course the best
0:18
Speaker 1: medicine of them all, reflect on cherished memories, Remember that
0:21
Speaker 1: time that the little boy grabbed my hand instead of
0:23
Speaker 1: his mother's at the amusement park yikes, And of course,
0:26
Speaker 1: discover gratitude while navigating one of life's hardest challenges lost.
0:31
Speaker 1: So get ready to gree with me, Porsche the Producer,
0:35
Speaker 1: let's dive in. Hello everybody, and welcome back to Grow
0:46
Speaker 1: with Porsche. I am your host, Porsche Booker and is
0:49
Speaker 1: always don't forget to like, share and subscribe to keep
0:52
Speaker 1: up with all things Grew with Porsche. One of the
0:55
Speaker 1: things that I keep from my mother is one of
0:59
Speaker 1: our talks about how everybody has the ability to learn.
1:05
Speaker 1: Those of you may remember my mother was an educator
1:07
Speaker 1: for thirteen years in the Cleveland Municipal School District and
1:11
Speaker 1: her main focus was special education. And I often believe
1:15
Speaker 1: that my mother she joked about having ten kids, even
1:18
Speaker 1: though she only got two biologically. But her other ten
1:22
Speaker 1: came from the individuals who she had the honor to
1:26
Speaker 1: work with. And so how many of us today feel
1:29
Speaker 1: as though that learning and education is all over the
1:33
Speaker 1: place because of social media, because there's a lot of
1:36
Speaker 1: guilt and shame about asking for help. How many of
1:40
Speaker 1: us have been sitting in that boat for a little while.
1:42
Speaker 1: So I have a special treat for each of you today.
1:45
Speaker 1: So today I have the honor of being joined by
1:48
Speaker 1: an amazing couple, doctor Joe and Cindy Farini, who have
1:52
Speaker 1: authored a new book titled The Special Needs Parent, A
1:56
Speaker 1: Guide to the Life You Never Expected. Special thanks to
2:01
Speaker 1: John Kerzy for the introduction to this amazing couple. So
2:05
Speaker 1: welcome doctor Joe and Cindy to grow with Porscha. How
2:08
Speaker 1: are you today?
2:09
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much for having us today.
2:11
Speaker 1: For sure, it's an honor because I know that when
2:15
Speaker 1: you have a child that is different based on society standards,
2:22
Speaker 1: there comes a lot of guilt, Shane grief about the
2:26
Speaker 1: life that you thought you were going to have and
2:29
Speaker 1: the life that has currently been unexpectedly birthed in front
2:34
Speaker 1: of you. And I'm curious doctor Joe and Cindy for
2:38
Speaker 1: our audience who's tuning in. When you think about your
2:43
Speaker 1: life shifting with your child, what did that look like
2:49
Speaker 1: for you? And how did you hold on to your
2:53
Speaker 1: faith during that time when so many people tend to
2:57
Speaker 1: turn away when challenges an adversity come into their wheelhouse.
3:04
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what. Absolutely everything changed. Everything changed.
3:10
Speaker 2: You want to share your story about the blueprints?
3:13
Speaker 3: Yeah?
3:13
Speaker 4: One, The reality is, you know, when everybody gets married,
3:16
Speaker 4: where anyone gets married, we all walk down that aisle
3:19
Speaker 4: with an invisible set of blueprints kind of tucked underneath
3:22
Speaker 4: their arms, and upon those blueprints you kind of set
3:25
Speaker 4: off to build your marriage. And the reality is is
3:29
Speaker 4: that when you have a special needs child, that blueprint changes.
3:34
Speaker 4: And unless you are going to be really proactively trying
3:37
Speaker 4: to modify and adjust that blueprint to reality, you don't
3:42
Speaker 4: have a difficult time to in your marriage, in your family,
3:46
Speaker 4: dealing with people outside your relationship as well.
3:50
Speaker 3: And that just changed your whole world.
3:53
Speaker 4: But tragically, is that on average, what we understand the
3:57
Speaker 4: statistics to be that eighty five center of the people
4:01
Speaker 4: with special needs children do not adjust their blueprint, and
4:05
Speaker 4: that causes them to drift apart in their marriage, relationship
4:09
Speaker 4: and and that's the that's the fact that we try
4:12
Speaker 4: to deal with in our in our book is that
4:15
Speaker 4: you know you have you have a fact that you
4:18
Speaker 4: have to deal with, and what are what are the
4:20
Speaker 4: means that are available to you to kind of walk
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Speaker 4: through and navigate through that life that you are now
4:26
Speaker 4: confronted with.
4:28
Speaker 2: And I would say, you know, you're asking about our faith.
4:32
Speaker 2: First of all, our faith journey began even before we
4:35
Speaker 2: were married. So we had a strong belief in Jesus Christ,
4:40
Speaker 2: and we have wanted to live and glorify Him all
4:43
Speaker 2: the days of our life. And this doesn't change that.
4:46
Speaker 2: What changed really is how He would work through us.
4:51
Speaker 2: One of my favorite verses is Saw one thirty eight eight,
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Speaker 2: and that says the Lord will accomplish what concerns me.
5:00
Speaker 2: And sometimes I think we go through something like this
5:03
Speaker 2: and you can pick whatever it is that is a
5:05
Speaker 2: challenge in your life. Maybe it's a wayward child, or
5:08
Speaker 2: a divorce or some kind of abuse, or I mean,
5:10
Speaker 2: just fill in the blank, right, fill in the blank,
5:13
Speaker 2: and ask yourself the question, well, what is it that
5:15
Speaker 2: concerns me? What has God allowed? What has God put
5:20
Speaker 2: into our lives? And then to ask, like how does
5:23
Speaker 2: that concern me and I really think if we were
5:26
Speaker 2: to go through all of these forty five years of
5:28
Speaker 2: us having our son Joey, we have learned so much
5:33
Speaker 2: and he has God has allowed us to take this change,
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Speaker 2: this challenge that we never expected and bring out the
5:43
Speaker 2: best of us and the worst of us. And how
5:48
Speaker 2: have we manifested him Jesus in our life is really
5:52
Speaker 2: what the call is. And so it's been a journey.
5:56
Speaker 2: It's been a long journey and in some ways it's
5:58
Speaker 2: been a short journey. Sometimes we think like, wow, we've
6:00
Speaker 2: been doing this for forty five years. That went really fast,
6:03
Speaker 2: and then sometimes you think it's been a really slow
6:06
Speaker 2: journey too. So it has been something that we've walked
6:11
Speaker 2: together and we're thankful that we've stuck it out because
6:14
Speaker 2: there's been times that have been a challenge that you
6:18
Speaker 2: just want to say, you know what, you do this,
6:20
Speaker 2: you know you take over this, and there are people
6:23
Speaker 2: who have done that and it's not always an advantage
6:26
Speaker 2: for the couple or for the child or children. So
6:30
Speaker 2: that's kind of where we've started off and where we've
6:33
Speaker 2: seen our journey go. And we just pray that the
6:35
Speaker 2: Lord would continue to give us endurance and perseverance so
6:38
Speaker 2: that we can go to the course and have Joey
6:41
Speaker 2: with us as long as we can before our girls,
6:44
Speaker 2: who have lovingly offered to have Joey until they would
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Speaker 2: need to, you know, take him and take over caring
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Speaker 2: for him.
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Speaker 4: I think you had a very insightful question that it
6:55
Speaker 4: had to do with the relevance or how culture sees
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Speaker 4: our situation. And I think one of the great stories
7:05
Speaker 4: in the Bible tell us the story of blind bartimaeis
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Speaker 4: and uh, and that's referenced three times in different gospels.
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Speaker 4: But you may remember the story is that, you know,
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Speaker 4: disciples asked the question who sinned? Was it the parents
7:21
Speaker 4: that sin that caused him to be blind? Or was
7:23
Speaker 4: it this person that sinned to be blind? And Jesus
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Speaker 4: says it was neither. It was so that God might
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Speaker 4: be honored and glorified through this person's life. And I
7:35
Speaker 4: think that's that's the privilege that we have at this point,
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Speaker 4: is to help people to recognize the blessing of having
7:41
Speaker 4: a special needs child. Now does that come naturally, I
7:44
Speaker 4: assure you it does not.
7:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know it was.
7:50
Speaker 4: It was a challenge, and I'm so thankful Cindy kind
7:53
Speaker 4: of jumped in and you know, be first and engaged
7:57
Speaker 4: right away with taking care of Joey and all his
7:59
Speaker 4: knees said he had and and and I sandly did
8:03
Speaker 4: not jump in.
8:03
Speaker 3: As quickly as iish as I should have.
8:06
Speaker 4: And I was because I was just not dealing with
8:09
Speaker 4: the reality of having a specialties child. I mean, my
8:12
Speaker 4: whole world was kind of was wrapped around sports and
8:16
Speaker 4: doing sports and participating and I'm so my, my, just
8:20
Speaker 4: give an idea what I'm talking about. When we brought
8:22
Speaker 4: Joey home from the hospital, he was wearing a Cleveland
8:25
Speaker 4: Brown's unit uniform.
8:28
Speaker 3: Uh, he had.
8:29
Speaker 4: A Cleveland Indians baseball cap on, and he had an
8:32
Speaker 4: Ohio State banner in his in his crib.
8:35
Speaker 3: There were there were other things in there, but you
8:37
Speaker 3: get the idea. There's a baseball and there's a.
8:39
Speaker 4: Football, and so you know, what was on my mind
8:42
Speaker 4: was that this was going.
8:43
Speaker 3: To be a future athlete.
8:45
Speaker 4: Well, the reality is, and I'll just you know, this
8:48
Speaker 4: is kind of zoom to where we are today, is
8:50
Speaker 4: that to this day, I've never been able to play.
8:52
Speaker 3: Catch with my son.
8:54
Speaker 4: And and that's just a reality that you you engage
8:58
Speaker 4: and and face that real or you're gonna have a
9:00
Speaker 4: difficult time. And so hopefully the book would be one
9:04
Speaker 4: that will help people to really kind of get to
9:07
Speaker 4: that point real quick in their journey, because it's a
9:10
Speaker 4: journey for sure.
9:12
Speaker 1: When I love to doctor Joe that you brought up
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Speaker 1: the blueprint in the beginning as you're walking down the
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Speaker 1: aisle exchanging your vows, the I dos the promises, and
9:26
Speaker 1: not realizing that that blueprint that both of you set
9:31
Speaker 1: forth as the foundation would have to essentially kind of
9:36
Speaker 1: be rewritten a little bit as you grew in your marriage,
9:40
Speaker 1: the beautiful children that you have now, and then adjusting
9:44
Speaker 1: to Joey's special needs. And I'm curious too, doctor Joe
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Speaker 1: and sending, when did you both recognize that this challenge
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Speaker 1: that you've had over the last forty years needed to
10:00
Speaker 1: be pinned, needed to be the message for other people
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Speaker 1: to be able to turn their situation, that obstacle into
10:10
Speaker 1: an opportunity.
10:11
Speaker 3: That's great question.
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Speaker 2: I love that question. You know, we've written several books.
10:17
Speaker 2: We've never thought ever we would become authors. But you know,
10:21
Speaker 2: when you say yes to the Lord and different things
10:23
Speaker 2: that he has for you, he puts you on this
10:25
Speaker 2: course that you also couldn't have expected. So put it
10:28
Speaker 2: on your blueprint. But it's put it in pencil, because
10:31
Speaker 2: he's going to use an eraser and for you and
10:34
Speaker 2: give you something else. But you know, just the course
10:37
Speaker 2: of our lifetime was such that years ago, many years ago,
10:42
Speaker 2: we brought to Cleveland the Family Life Conference and it
10:46
Speaker 2: was a marriage conference, and that really became We've done
10:50
Speaker 2: ministry all of our married life. Discipling helping others grow
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Speaker 2: in their faith. That's the definition of discipling, making them
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Speaker 2: disciples of Jesus and helping them grow in their walk
11:01
Speaker 2: with the Lord. That's where it really all started. And
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Speaker 2: then people would ask us to do something and we'd
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Speaker 2: say yes, you know, of course we would see that
11:09
Speaker 2: as the Lord putting that in front of us. So
11:11
Speaker 2: when we brought the Cleveland Family Life Conference at the
11:14
Speaker 2: time it was called Conference to Cleveland, we had no
11:18
Speaker 2: idea that some ten years later we would be asked
11:20
Speaker 2: to speak for that conference. That was never on our radar,
11:24
Speaker 2: never on our blueprint. And so when we were asked
11:27
Speaker 2: to speak, and by the way, you don't call them
11:29
Speaker 2: up and say would you like us to speak? You know,
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Speaker 2: they call you to speak so we were shocked and
11:35
Speaker 2: of course pleased, and we said yes. And it was
11:38
Speaker 2: quite quite a journey in itself because there was a
11:41
Speaker 2: lot that they expected of us, and it was a
11:43
Speaker 2: wonderful opportunity. We did that for twenty years, and so
11:48
Speaker 2: because of that, the messages that we would share about
11:51
Speaker 2: our family and about Joey, people would ask us questions,
11:55
Speaker 2: and pretty soon we began to think, you know, this
11:58
Speaker 2: is this is only if we're here do they hear
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Speaker 2: this message Other people on the team, there were other
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Speaker 2: people speaking had special needs children, but it wasn't always
12:07
Speaker 2: a part of their marriage. And that's not to say
12:09
Speaker 2: that it should have been. Their message was a different message,
12:12
Speaker 2: and so we began to think, you know, we should
12:15
Speaker 2: put something together so when someone leaves here they would
12:19
Speaker 2: be able to have a book or a direction or something.
12:22
Speaker 2: And that's really how it happened. And so this is
12:26
Speaker 2: our third special needs book. Our first one is called
12:29
Speaker 2: Unexpected Journey. The second one is called Love All Ways,
12:33
Speaker 2: and it really goes through the wedding vows for a couple,
12:37
Speaker 2: but with the thought of how are you going to
12:41
Speaker 2: embrace your marriage while you're embracing this special needs that
12:44
Speaker 2: takes up so much time, energy, and life to make
12:49
Speaker 2: your marriage work. And then we have this new book,
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Speaker 2: The Special Needs Parent, A Guide to a life you
12:55
Speaker 2: never expected. So really, I really have to give credit
12:59
Speaker 2: to family life and their part in our life and
13:03
Speaker 2: our part in their life for this. How it came
13:06
Speaker 2: to be today.
13:09
Speaker 4: Well, we just basically responded to people's questions that they
13:14
Speaker 4: would come up to us as we would share our
13:16
Speaker 4: story and they would then share their story, and they
13:20
Speaker 4: would ask the question, what is out there to help
13:23
Speaker 4: me get through the day. I mean, these people were
13:27
Speaker 4: crying for some help, and as we did our research,
13:31
Speaker 4: we found that there wasn't anything really available except some
13:35
Speaker 4: flowery explanation for why things are happening the way they're
13:38
Speaker 4: happening in your life. But that wasn't going to help
13:41
Speaker 4: these people. They wanted some practical how to and how
13:45
Speaker 4: to get deal with the situation at him.
13:47
Speaker 2: You know, the first when we first learned of Joey's
13:50
Speaker 2: diagnosis and what this would mean for our family, for
13:53
Speaker 2: our life, for his life, I went to the library
13:58
Speaker 2: at the time and looked up the different things and look,
14:01
Speaker 2: what kind of books could I get to learn more?
14:04
Speaker 2: I even talked to other moms whose children were more
14:08
Speaker 2: like teenage to adult years, and even they said the
14:12
Speaker 2: same thing as what I was reading. You know, life
14:15
Speaker 2: is good and life will be fine. God is good
14:18
Speaker 2: and everything will turn out well. That is true, there's
14:21
Speaker 2: nothing false about that. But I want to tell you
14:24
Speaker 2: that there are days that are not good, and there
14:27
Speaker 2: are moments that I'm not good and I'm not happy
14:32
Speaker 2: about the day, and I'm not doing well today. You know.
14:36
Speaker 2: So what we really want to do in our first book,
14:40
Speaker 2: Unexpected Journey, was to be raw and real, and we've
14:46
Speaker 2: done that in this book too, but this book has
14:48
Speaker 2: a little bit different twist and direction to it. But
14:52
Speaker 2: the point was, you know, your day, you may wake
14:55
Speaker 2: up and have four days in a row that are terrible,
14:58
Speaker 2: or four years in a row that are terrible, and
15:00
Speaker 2: what are you going to do with it? You know,
15:02
Speaker 2: maybe in the end we can all look back and say,
15:04
Speaker 2: you know, God was good and he is good. But
15:07
Speaker 2: when you're in the midst of really struggling, you know, seizures, disabilities.
15:12
Speaker 2: We have friends, We have many, many friends who have
15:15
Speaker 2: children with disabilities. But one friend has two girls only
15:19
Speaker 2: a couple of years apart. One hundred percent care in
15:22
Speaker 2: every single way, feeding, changing, showering. They don't speak. I
15:28
Speaker 2: mean one hundred percent care. Now you picture that they're
15:31
Speaker 2: not in an institution. These parents are caring for these children.
15:34
Speaker 2: And so we didn't want our book to be you know,
15:38
Speaker 2: everything is fine. I mean picture that they have a
15:40
Speaker 2: staff that has to come and help. How would you,
15:43
Speaker 2: if you're listening, how would you like to have someone
15:45
Speaker 2: coming into your home, maybe two people, three people every
15:48
Speaker 2: day to help you do what these children need. Your
15:53
Speaker 2: home isn't your home. Your home is not your own life.
15:57
Speaker 2: There's a lot to it. And while that has not
15:59
Speaker 2: been our story, We've had many many therapists, doctors, teachers,
16:04
Speaker 2: bus drivers, aides. I could list them all because many
16:08
Speaker 2: of them I'm still in contact with who have been
16:11
Speaker 2: a part of Joey's life. They enter your life and
16:15
Speaker 2: maybe it's for a season, maybe it's for a lifetime,
16:17
Speaker 2: but it's not just like the three of you, or
16:20
Speaker 2: if you have more children, the five of you. You're
16:22
Speaker 2: engaging in a community that is a big community that
16:25
Speaker 2: needs to help you. And I will say this, and
16:29
Speaker 2: you mentioned your mom was an educator. Joey had the
16:33
Speaker 2: best education, the best teachers, we could have ever asked for,
16:38
Speaker 2: and we count that as one of the greatest blessings
16:41
Speaker 2: as we look back on his schooling. Fantastic people who
16:47
Speaker 2: loved what they did, who loved Joey and the others
16:50
Speaker 2: in the classroom and wanted the best for them. We
16:53
Speaker 2: couldn't have asked you.
16:54
Speaker 4: We can't fake the genuineness of these people, you know,
16:58
Speaker 4: and you know you just can't help but fall in
17:02
Speaker 4: love with these people and just just so appreciative of
17:05
Speaker 4: who they are and what they do, and and they
17:09
Speaker 4: know what you do as well, you know, as a parent.
17:12
Speaker 4: But you know, it is just a miracle of God
17:15
Speaker 4: that God raises up people like your father to step
17:19
Speaker 4: up and do this because it's you know, it's not
17:21
Speaker 4: the normal world in which we have to people have
17:26
Speaker 4: to deal with in general.
17:27
Speaker 3: So we appreciate our teachers.
17:29
Speaker 2: Oh yes, And I just want to add to as parents,
17:32
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes we will spend and it could this
17:36
Speaker 2: could be a minimum of thirty minutes trying to figure
17:39
Speaker 2: out something that our son needs or wants. Something he's
17:41
Speaker 2: trying to express to us, and we're trying our hardest
17:45
Speaker 2: to understand what he's saying or find out what rabbit
17:48
Speaker 2: trail he's on that we can figure it out and
17:51
Speaker 2: have an answer for him or provide something for him.
17:54
Speaker 2: And teachers are no different. They're with them, you know,
17:57
Speaker 2: for the good part of the day. And so so
18:00
Speaker 2: you have to look at every single person who's in
18:02
Speaker 2: our life as such a blessing that they come alongside,
18:06
Speaker 2: because you can tell when people are patient and they're not.
18:09
Speaker 2: They want to hurry things along when you know your
18:11
Speaker 2: child needs ten seconds twenty seconds just to process it,
18:15
Speaker 2: let alone to speak it. And so we are just
18:19
Speaker 2: most grateful. And so really, you know, this book we've
18:22
Speaker 2: written it for parents, but in many ways we've even
18:26
Speaker 2: given the thanks throughout the book to teachers and to
18:29
Speaker 2: others in our life who have really gotten us to
18:32
Speaker 2: where we are and to a place where we would
18:36
Speaker 2: never have gotten on our own, because we're not studied
18:39
Speaker 2: in this way. And so we're so grateful. And I'll
18:42
Speaker 2: just tell one quick little story that when Joey was younger,
18:47
Speaker 2: on his IEP, and for those who don't know what
18:49
Speaker 2: that is, it's an individual educational plan, and so it
18:55
Speaker 2: would give all the different things in different areas of
18:58
Speaker 2: his life that they want to try to get him
19:00
Speaker 2: to learn the next thing. Well, tying his shoes must
19:03
Speaker 2: have been on the IEP. I don't know how many years.
19:06
Speaker 2: And finally I said to this one teacher, I said,
19:08
Speaker 2: you know, we have had this on this for like,
19:11
Speaker 2: I don't know, four years, five years. I said, I
19:12
Speaker 2: don't think he has the dexterity to do that. I said,
19:15
Speaker 2: can we take that off or do we have to
19:17
Speaker 2: leave that on and hope that we hit the mark?
19:19
Speaker 2: She was like so excited, she was I think I'm
19:21
Speaker 2: going to do a cartwheel. And I said, you know,
19:25
Speaker 2: we can get Belcrow's shoes. If there's a time that
19:28
Speaker 2: we're not able to tie shoes or we need that,
19:30
Speaker 2: I said, maybe we should just take that off. She
19:33
Speaker 2: was delighted. But you know, these teachers and these people
19:36
Speaker 2: that help, they're helping us as parents to get to
19:40
Speaker 2: where we need to go, to get our child where
19:42
Speaker 2: they need to go. We are most grateful for those
19:45
Speaker 2: people in our lives.
19:46
Speaker 4: If this book can just help people just take the
19:48
Speaker 4: right next step, that's all we're trying to do at
19:51
Speaker 4: this point, and grateful, as Cindy said, that we've been
19:55
Speaker 4: given this privilege to be able to do this again.
19:58
Speaker 4: It was Moody that came to us and they contracted
20:01
Speaker 4: with us to write the book, and we were honored
20:04
Speaker 4: that they would do that, of course, but we just
20:06
Speaker 4: hope that this would be a blessing to people to
20:09
Speaker 4: help them take that right next.
20:11
Speaker 1: Up well and give them something tangible, right, because there's
20:15
Speaker 1: let's be realistic, in the world of social media AI,
20:20
Speaker 1: there's a lot of information out there, but that information
20:27
Speaker 1: does not touch the experiences that come from both of
20:33
Speaker 1: you firsthand, that spans over forty years. So I'm really excited,
20:41
Speaker 1: you know, to definitely put the information in our show
20:44
Speaker 1: notes about your book to give parents and families something
20:50
Speaker 1: that will help them, right, Because I mean stories, as
20:53
Speaker 1: we mentioned in the beginning, stories from the Bible that
20:57
Speaker 1: we hold close, stories about Joey learning. You know, maybe
21:03
Speaker 1: tying his shoes might have been a little challenging, but
21:05
Speaker 1: why not switch them to velcrow? I mean, hey, why
21:08
Speaker 1: not switch them to something that has honey on the bottom,
21:10
Speaker 1: where he can you know, stay grounded all the time,
21:13
Speaker 1: right and do cartwheels?
21:14
Speaker 3: Right.
21:15
Speaker 1: These are the things that we hold clothes, Doctor Joe
21:18
Speaker 1: and Cindy. This has been a beautiful conversation and we're
21:22
Speaker 1: going to be wrapping up here soon. But for our
21:25
Speaker 1: audience who's tuning in. If there's parents, educators who would
21:30
Speaker 1: like to get a copy of the book who would
21:32
Speaker 1: love to connect with both of you to have you
21:35
Speaker 1: maybe come and speak at their next event, how can
21:38
Speaker 1: they connect with you today.
21:40
Speaker 2: Well, the best way would be to come to our website.
21:43
Speaker 2: That would be the first and that would either be
21:45
Speaker 2: at Cindyferini dot com or Joefarini dot com either one.
21:49
Speaker 2: But the book is available through Moody Publishers who published it,
21:53
Speaker 2: but it will also be and is actually also available
21:56
Speaker 2: now ready for distribution, and it would be a target Walmart, Amazon,
22:03
Speaker 2: Christian Books, pretty much anywhere that you would get a book.
22:08
Speaker 2: Once you click on your do your Google and however
22:11
Speaker 2: you want to get there, you'll find it. It will
22:13
Speaker 2: be there, and we hope that many people will get it.
22:16
Speaker 2: What I have to say, I love that you just said.
22:19
Speaker 2: You have all this social media and AI, but you
22:22
Speaker 2: know what experience is not what AI has. AI can
22:27
Speaker 2: tell you certain things and give you certain information, but
22:30
Speaker 2: AI has not lived the journey of special needs and
22:34
Speaker 2: many people who have opinion on it haven't either, And
22:37
Speaker 2: that goes you know, we could put that across a
22:39
Speaker 2: lot of different things. But the point is we have
22:42
Speaker 2: the experience and we didn't just tell Joey's story in
22:45
Speaker 2: this book. This book is about many different people, stories
22:49
Speaker 2: of other people. Because Joey is just one, if you will,
22:54
Speaker 2: one picture of special needs. There's so much out there.
22:57
Speaker 2: Some things are visible and some things are invisible. Some
23:01
Speaker 2: things are within the brain that don't show in a
23:04
Speaker 2: person's stature or walk, or inability or ability to speak
23:09
Speaker 2: a certain way. So it's not just our story, and
23:12
Speaker 2: I think that's the important thing that parents who pick
23:15
Speaker 2: this up, they will find their story in between the
23:18
Speaker 2: lines of ours.
23:20
Speaker 1: And that's the thing I think sometimes we diminish our
23:25
Speaker 1: story because of the societal narratives, the different things on
23:31
Speaker 1: social media, these quote unquote experts that really don't have
23:35
Speaker 1: an ounce of understanding other than the books that were
23:39
Speaker 1: written fifty years ago. Right, So for our audience, those
23:44
Speaker 1: of you, you can do a Google search for the name
23:46
Speaker 1: of the book, The Special Needs Parent, A Guide to
23:48
Speaker 1: Life You Never Expected. You can also go to Cindy's
23:51
Speaker 1: website Cindyfarini dot com and will also include that in
23:55
Speaker 1: these show notes. Well, everybody that was doctor Joe and
24:00
Speaker 1: Cindy Farini that you heard from today on this episode
24:04
Speaker 1: that grew with Portia. And that concludes our conversation and
24:07
Speaker 1: until next time, everybody, Peace and hair grease everyone,