Spotlight Continues

So I slacked on honoring my "friend of the week". It's been on my mind for weeks, and finally have had the time to sit down and do it. So the friend I am choosing to honor this week is.......Stacy Justinich. I have to say which Stacy it is, because for some reason that is the #1 name amongst my friends.
Stacy graduated recently from school. I'm so proud that she was able to finish her goal while living a life that she never thought she would have. Having a child with special needs is very time consuming, and full of ups, downs, and everything in between. Congrats again Stacy! Here she is:

So here's our story.... Stacy was "referred" to me from the teacher Dylan had in the infant program he was in. His teacher asked that I call this mom that was "new" to the program. So we finally were able to touch base one day and spent awhile on the phone one Saturday. During that phone call we found out that we both scrapbooked, had sold the same scrapbooking product, and that our brothers had played soccer together on a team my dad coached. Small world. Never in a million years did I think someone from my past would be raising a child with special needs that knew of me back when I was in junior high. Crazy huh??? Well, our friendship has blossomed during the past 3 years. Her son Evan, was born in October, and as most of you know that is usually when Dylan begins to have more problems that normal, so for the past 3 years we haven't been able to attend her son's b-day party. One year I even responded to the evite that we would be there as long as we weren't in the hospital and guess where we were the day of the party. yup, the hospital for 3 days. I hope that one day we will be able to attend Evan's party. It's one of my goals. It might sound silly, but being able to be there for my friends on their children's birthdays are very important to me. I know for me that every year when it's time for Dylan's birthday it is an extremely challenging time and it helps to be surrounded by family and friends to help us during that time. It's a very hard reminder that another year has gone by and milestones and goals we hoped to achieve may have not been achieved. It's extremely difficult. Stacy brought my dinner when day just because she thought I needed help. What a great friend:) I'm so glad that I called her so many years ago. I don't know how I would have made it through some days the past few years with out her!!!

So here's my reasons why I hold Stacy close to my heart:

1. She listens endlessly to my rants and raves about whatever is going on in my family's life
2. motivates me to scrapbook
3. has offered numerous times to come sit with Dylan and/or Brianna so I can go to the store
4. wants to participate in a book club w/me
5. shares her beliefs with me
6. scrapbooked together (we need to do that again)
7. is extremely thoughtful
8. is non-judgemental:)
9. brought me this tool thingy to get rid of dry skin on my feet, just because she knew I was annoyed with my feet. (I know more than you wanted to know)
10. is a great mom and advocate for her kids
11. is extremely kind to others, even when they aren't to her. (I'm working on being more like her)
12. I have a million more reasons but need to go feed my family dinner.

check back for the next spotlight......