Alex Convertito

Most of you know the story of my cousin Alex Convertito...

The short version is this:

He's 22 years old and over labor day weekend was in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Alex was thrown from his vehicle (which had turned over a few times first), and landed in the right lane of the highway. He remained conscious but has severe spinal cord injuries as a result of his T7 shattering.

In addition to his many physical obstacles, the cost of his care (his insurance topped out oh - probably in his first few days at the hospital), has been a huge issue. In the end, my uncle was able to get insurance for him which enabled him to go to Shepherd Center last week (a rehab center in Atlanta). There have been many fundraisers/benefits - in fact they are having a dinner dance to benefit him on Friday night this week (in CT). Below is information from the flyer for the benefit on Friday night:

In one blink of an eye, life can change. On September 6, 2009 shortly before 9:00 pm Alex Convertito, 22, was hit by another driver on Route 8. Now, some weeks later, Alex still lies in serious condition in St. Vincent’s Hospital. Alex has severe spinal cord damage and is paralyzed from his waist down. Alex is a student and works for Stop and Shop part-time but his insurance will only cover a very small portion of his present medical expenses and none of his rehabilitation expenses.
Alex’s friends from Fletcher Thompson have organized a benefit dinner-dance. The proceeds from this event will help defray the cost of Alex’s medical and rehabilitaion expenses.
We are accepting monetary donations or goods or services to be auctioned and raffled off.
For more information call Amber Lynn Trojanowski at 203-258-5061 or email
dancingforalex@yahoo.com

To read his whole story, see the following site (my Dad set this one up for donations, but you can also read his blog by clicking the links tab at the bottom of the page).

http://www.giveforward.org/Alex/

The gifts of your support and prayers has been huge - thank you!

Our Big Boy, Samuel, is 4!

We had Samuel's birthday party yesterday, though he won't actually be 4 until tomorrow.

He requested a pirate party with pizza and cake, so Pirates, Pizza, and Cake are what he got (it's good to have simple requests!).

I was so busy with work during the week that I asked Darin to help me prepare. I did the grocery shopping for the food, and Darin took care of ordering the cake. I had big plans to make the cake on my own then decided that it would end up being a headache (since it's not something that I enjoy) and that I'd probably end up frantically finishing it at 2 or 3 in the am. So my wise husband said, "just order one.". Darin took one of the pirate plates up to the grocery store and asked that baker to be creative. She said, "don't worry, I'll make it look good.". And she did! And it WAS NOT expensive either (gotta love that!). Ahh, so I'm off the hook on cakes and I don't even have to feel guilty for spending the $$! OK, so enough about the cake...

We had Samuel's buddies Evan and Mitchell over and my nephews Joshua and Michael. The weather was so nice the kids got to play outside. It's funny actually - last year in Houston it was in the 50s and SO windy that our outside party was moved indoors. This year, in Maryland, it was in the low 70s and sunny. Go figure... We had a great day.

When I figure out how to get video on here without locking up my computer I'll give it a shot. Samuel was so fun and excited while opening his gifts... he's going to be a blast on Christmas morning!

The kids singing happy birthday to Samuel. Darin and I got him with Silly string at the end, but I don't have any pics of that... maybe someone else does.

Samuel got a scooter - can't wait to try it out!

And some new pirate accessories... which he wore ALL day

Aaarrrgghhh!

Nora (Evan's little sister), the only girl there... isn't she a beauty!