This weekend, my family had the opportunity to visit with a number of other members of the new Exceptional Family TV web community. Shel and I got to finally meet people we’ve been talking with through facebook, through blogs and through e-mail for months.

First, a big “Thank You” out to Susan for inviting us into your home and hosting us there for an entire day of filming. A “Thank You” to Nathan and Renee for your abilities as hosts for the interviews. A “Thank You” to all the other families there for being a building block in this new community of exceptional families that Susan and Nathan are constructing. There are so many times that Shel and I feel isolated – not physically from people; thanks to our kids, we are around families and friends non-stop – but isolated by experience. We become isolated by the simple fact of the life we now lead. For one weekend, at least, we woke up and had breakfast with other families who’s kids face similar problems to ours. We sat around a living room with a group of special kids playing in front of us. We had dinner together – all together – as one big exceptional family.

I’m dreading that I didn’t take photos. I hope Susan and the others have some shots or some footage I can add in later.

I said in one of the interviews about our family that I created this site in the hopes that just one family that gets the results of their genetic test will type that combination of letters and numbers that suddenly represents their son or daughter – 6(del)13q14.2q – and what they will find won’t be just a vast emptiness. That’s what we found when we first started searching for answers. Hopefully, someone who’s scared to death about what’s happening to their son, what’s happening to their daughter, what’s happening to the future they imagined with their child, will find a post like this and realize that their life as a family is just beginning. And that life – their family – can be exceptional.

Trust in hope.

todd