To give you some back ground on my family.  I was born in Petersburg, Va and raised in Waverly Va. I came to the saving grace in Feb 1983 and met my wonderful husband Mark Sr. on March 6,1983 and married him on April 23,1983.  It was love at first sight. Mark was born in Norfolk, Va. and raised in Va. Beach, Va.  When I met Mark he was a Christian.  He wanted to be there for me and help me strengthen my faith and walk with Christ.

Mark and I have been married for 25 years and still going strong.  We have six children.  Five of our six children have handicaps ranging from mild to profound.  Mark and I consider our children a blessing from the Lord.  At first I felt like I was being cursed by God but as I grew in my faith in the Lord I saw that these children were not a curse but a very special blessing from the Lord and a very high calling.  We are members of Calvary Presbyterian Church, in Norfolk, Va. 

 To tell you a little about our children, our first child, Mark Wayne Harrell, Jr., was born on August 24,1984.  Little Mark was born with a cliff lip that was repaired when he was three months old.  Mark is on the severe side of being autistic.  He enjoys going to church and country music. One thing that Mark is really good at is that he can cook.  I have fun teasing my daughter and husband over a Thanksgiving dinner one year when he cut up the giblets of the turkey and put them in the dressing along with oysters.  They about flipped out when they got a mouth full of the giblets and oysters.  They didn't want Mark Jr. to cook dressing for them anymore!

Our second child was Cynthia Anne Harrell.  She was born on Oct. 30, 1985.  Cyndy was profoundly handicapped.  She is the reason for this site and the book on her life.  Cyndy was not able to talk.  When she was under a year old the doctors thought she would never be able to walk, talk, sit up, or really do anything.  Cyndy died when she was 11 years old from a seizure disorder.  She did manage to sit up, walk, and say a few words.  Such as eye, nose, mouth, ear, and just before she died she had learn to say hair.

Our third child, Richard Wesley Harrell, was born on August 6,1987.  Richard is mildly autistic and has a very caring heart.  Richard loves to help around the house.  He enjoys church and talking on the phone with his Dad.  Richard when he was in preschool has given me a wonderful memory when he heard me going down the hall way at school talking with Dr. White, when all of a sudden we heard this little voice running behind us crying momma-momma.  It was so cute when he heard my voice and wanted to see his mommy.  Our church family can tell many of tales on him when he was small, such as when he grabbed the offering plate and had the deacons thinking they were going to have to play football with him to get the plate back.  What happen was that Richard had seen his Dad taking up offering, and he thought he was helping his Dad by going and getting the plate for him. 

Our fourth child, Barbara Katharine Harrell, was born on April 25, 1990.  She is our only normal child.  Katie is a blessing to our family.  She loves playing her viola and can play by ear.  She wants with in the next year to go into the Air-force and go into space.  She has gone on two short mission trips with in our church.  Katie is very caring and has said that she hopes to have a handicapped child of her own. She is a very big help to us with helping care for her brothers.

Our fifth child, Harrison Newbold Harrell (Buddy) was born on March 9, 1991.  Buddy is between Mark and Richard when it comes to him being autistic.  He is moderate handicapped and loves to take the trash out.  Buddy can tell you what you are to be doing that day before you remember what is plan to be done.  Such as he looks at the calendar way a head of you and tells you when your appointment are or he reminds you the day before trash day that the trash needed to be taken out to the street.  When he was 13 years old, he went chasing after the trash truck wanting to help them collect the trash on our street.

Our sixth child, Joel Michael Harrell, was born on Sept. 30,1994.  Joel is like Cyndy and is profoundly handicapped.  He can not talk and is severely autistic.  Joel is one that goes with the flow.  He loves stuff animals.  We dare not take him into the Christian book stores because he will find a stuff animal and want you to buy it.  The bigger the stuff animal the happier he is.  Joel is a very loving child for being autistic.  Joel has seizures and one thing that I have seen lately is that one of our three cats, Tiger will watch over Joel at night and if Joel has a seizure in the night, Tiger will wake me up.  Joel is also a miracle to be here.  Joel was born ten weeks early and almost didn't make it through the birth.  With him being breach he dropped feet first and the cord had been wrapped around his feet and he was in distress and had to be born by c-section.

This site was set up in memory of Cyndy our daughter that went to be with her Heavenly Father on Jan. 1, 1997 at the young age of 11 years.

Over the last twenty years we have had a wonderful relationship with Cyndy's Neurologist Dr. Larry E. White who is coauthoring Cyndy's life and death book with Anne Called CYNDY'S BLESSED ASSURANCE

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