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Available Now! Click here to learn more!

MONDAY MORNING: MARRIAGE MATTERS with Joe and CIndi Ferrini. A 5 minute spot answering questions (people can email us through the website), sharing marriage thoughts and ideas that will be helpful to those dating, engaged, and married for any length of time. The idea: listen in because….. your marriage matters. It will air at 6:05 and 8:05 a.m. It’s light, it’s fun, and it’s fast! Heard on WCRF 103.3 Cleveland (wcrfradio.org)

"Special Needs and Marriage" by Joe and Cindi Ferrini (posted on the Focus and the Family website): keeping a biblical perspective on a godly marriage and building oneness...

Newly updated organizational planner: GET IT TOGETHER
CMF Organizational Workbook
Organize your life in a 3-ring, 81/2 by 11 inch notebook! This step-by-step workbook helps you "get it together!" Develop daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term plans specifically for your life. Learn how to work with your energy level. Prepare for Christmas, hospitality, your finances, and more! Lists, charts, and information is all included!

 

A book by a husband and wife whose course in life changed from the birth of their first child. Yet, it did not stop there. Unexpected Journey shares the life of a family where daily challenges became a way of life - caring for a child with special needs and parents in their declining years.. Select the link above to read and listen to more about this compelling story. Release date February 2009.

*New* 'By the Beach', 'Idyllic Italy' and 'Cleveland' card sets with envelopes suitable for mailing. These are watercolor renditions of 6 different Florida beach/Italy scenes painted by Cindi Ferrini. A great gift or when you want to send a quick 'snail mail' note to someone! Click here to see the details!

Join us on Facebook!
Cindi Ferrini – make a friend request
Unexpected Journey – click on “like”
Get It Together – click on “like”
Balancing the Active Life – - click on 'like'
Marriage Matters -- Check it Out!

Unexpected Journey ... Testimonies

 

If you have anything you would like to contribute, please email us. Thank you!

2010

Cleveland, OH – speaking to group of special needs families

Thank you again for your ministry, your words of encouragement, and all you offered to our families. I was delighted to see the response to your offer to keep in contact with the parents (via newsletter). God bless you!

2009

I have been so blessed by your book Unexpected Journey. Our life has been particularly challenging now that our child with special needs is in first grade full time and he is becoming aware of his differences. In our struggles I have turned to your book to find someone who might understand...it's been a comfort and insightful to read how another family(ies) has/have coped! NC

Thank you for providing a valuable resource for those who are in the beginning of such an unexpected journey as well as for teachers (and others) who are unprepared to help, understand, and love children with special needs. I love the fact that you make no mention of a specific organized religion...I feel your arms around a much broader segment of human beings united in their belief in Jesus. (OH) What a helpful book. We profited from it. We pray the comprehensiveness of your book will help many to understand and support others. (OH)

There are no words in the English language to describe how your book moved me.  I know it sounds cliche, but I laughed, I cried... it was just amazing. You give incredible insight into what is really involved in cargeving 24/7 - eye opening, touching and heart-warming.  Cleveland OH

A friend of mine forwarded a note to me regarding your book.  I am a grandma of a precious little boy that was born with down syndrome.  I ordered a copy of your book for the parents, my other son and his wife, and my husband and I in hopes of finding encouraging support of all the joy that will be found in the challenges that we will face together as family. I am also hopeful of finding knowledge of how to help one another through some of the heart aches. God is good.  He will show all of us the paths that need to be taken to provide this family with the care and tools they need.   We are all trying to replace our fears with trust in our heavenly Father. (WI)

I just finished reading the book. I had no idea of all the needs there were/are. Perhaps because you have been so organized and continue to be involved in ministry - I assumed too much. Although physically there is probably not much I can do these days (our dear friend is elderly) - I will try to keep in touch and be more intentional about caring. (OH)

I am just writing to say thank you for writing your book.   Joe thanks for your part in the book it really helps me as a man and husband on how to live.  (TN)

I have gotten to chapter 5, and I am just so struck with the permanence of your life change. This is not an illness to get through or an accident to survive or a physical death to mourn. You had to figure out how to redefine your life and joy and satisfaction and fulfillment and life purpose and motherhood and success and…everything about your life! And those new definitions had to be permanent! I am just thunderstruck at the enormity of your challenges. Thank you for doing such a great job at ministering to so many people in your boat who feel isolated and misunderstood. I’m sure that finding their feelings described with words in black and white is such a reassurance to them. You have given them a voice with people like me who just don’t get it most of the time. (CA)

I just finished reading your book, Unexpected Journey.  It was blessing to have been given insight in your family's blessings and challenges during Joey's lifetime.  I thank you for putting the time and effort to have your book published.  It will be a guide to many families who have the responsibility of caring for someone who has special needs or parents with declining health issues.  (OH)

I really enjoyed reading your book! I lauged and cried, but best of all I feel I've gained a new insight into the lives of those caring full-time for those with special needs. I feel confiecnt that what you've shared will be a blessing to many.
(OHIO)

Your book is touching me deeply and I wanted you to know this. Knowing Joey and loving him through the years makes this book so personal to me, and knowing you and Joe contributes to this. The other reason is one that I didn't realize existed in the perspective of an unexpected journey (actually a lifelong one). Certainly we are on that journey in quite a different way, nonetheless challenging and heart wrenching.
(OHIO)

So I wanted to tell you both that i started reading your book....and I couldn't put it down! I was reading it while walking on the treadmill down stairs and I was crying!! I wanted you guys to know that I am so proud of you and that I’m learning a lot about you guys that I didn't know...I found it really interesting that dad worked with handicapped children and that some kid asked mom about having an abortion...did you really know that you where going to have a special needs child? That’s incredible! Well again...thank you for writing this book, and for having more children after Joey! I love you both very much, and tell Joey I say hello and that I miss him! (Kathleen Ferrini, OH – our daughterJ)

I'm reading and learning, too. The way you wrote it in short segments makes it perfect. I had no real idea of the depth of your heartache and the trials of day- to -day care of taking care of Joey. I always cared and prayed but still had no real idea of the magnitude of it all. I AM SORRY. The book is a good resource for every person because no one goes through life untouched by an unexpected journey in one way or another. Thanks for providing the insights we fail to see in going about our own day-to-day business. I'm sure your book will be a blessing to many people. (OH)

II checked out the resources on your website and they’re great.  I found a care giving service that should be helpful to mom and dad.  THANKS.  I can’t wait to share it with my friends who are in similar situations. 
FL

I received your book a couple of weeks ago. The first night I sat and "skimmed thru" the whole book for over an hour and a half. Then the next night I tried to actually read a few pages - didn't get too far - then the next night.....I laughed when I read in your intro about NOT being able to get the time to sit and read the book! Well now I'm up to Chapter 3 and loving it.  I keep thinking of people to buy a copy for!
Some of this must have been so painful to write and relive - all the emotions that went into this! I agreed with the statement you made about grieving and loss that just continues - I felt that at Christmas when we watched a video of the kids when they were little.  I was surprised by my gut reaction.  It took me back.....bittersweet...they were all precious and funny but it was HARD!!! 
MA

Thank you for allowing me into your life through the book you wrote....I hope you don't mind me saying it was beautiful and real...and encouraging...and properly chastizing (to those of us who really have no clue) Well...I need to buy another one!
OHIO

I read the first 30 pages upon receipt.  I cannot wait to read the rest.
Even though I knew your situation with Joey, your words really put your journey into focus.  I cannot and will not say I know how you feel, but with my (extended family member), I see the day to day challenges they go through each day. My wife is excited to give them your book!
OHIO

I just cried when I opened your book!  Silly me---I ripped into the pkg. while I was on the tollway in rush hour traffic on my way to pick up (my son with special needs) from school.....I started weeping...for joy!  That you finished!  You succeeded!  At a traffic snarl up, I read your words  "why write this?  It was hard enough going thru it the first time, why go there again??"  Oh MY!  And you're right....I can only read in snippets....  here I go....more later....he escaped from his room! 
INDIANA

Enjoyed your "fireside" talk this AM on WCRF. It was a great to hear again how God blesses us in ways we could never imagine.

As you may not be aware, I have three brothers and a sister. The brother just older than me has a special needs child, their first of two children. Your talk prompted me to do something for them (and made me feel sad that I haven't done more to encourage them over the years...I guess it is the distance apart more than anything.) I will be picking up a book for them in the near future. I know it will be helpful.
OHIO

I can see in my mind’s eye your Joey and Joe sitting next to each other…simply as a dad and son who love each other the best they can. Perhaps it is presumptuous to point this out, but isn’t that picture very much a replica of we mere mortals and God? In that picture, each of we “normal” (haha) people are really Joey - sitting on life’s couch - next to our perfectly awesome heavenly Father. And I’d be willing to bet that in the daily scenario we call our “Christian walk” our reading and prayers and worship sounds rather limited to God, too… you think? God knows we are all burdened with our personal limitations, flaws, weaknesses, and brokenness, so I guess the biggest miracle is that He loves us enough to crucify His Son to rectify the matter.
ARKANSAS

UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is the friend you need when you feel alone in the midst of your journey.
(VA)

The narrative of Joey at Disney and at the Olympic Village (with family) is worth the price of this book.
(OH)

WOW! No one can accuse you of presenting a biased view. There are quotations that will surely get a reaction.
(OH)

May the truth be told! Thanks for sharing real life stories about how it really is when caring for another.
(OH)