Happy Birthday, Mama Mary!

Some pictures from Our Lady's birthday, a couple weeks ago...
We had a delightful celebration with our friends that afternoon, reading a story about Our Lady (or as the kids like to call her, "Mama Mary"), singing some Marian hymns, saying a few prayers, and- of course- feasting on yummy cake, in her honor!
We are looking forward to more intentionally celebrating Feast Days as a family this year. How I love the liturgical year and all the wonderful, rich ways the Church unites Her people throughout the year!
Next feast day we're eagerly looking forward to celebrating? Feast Day of the Archangels, next week!

Spiritual Adoption

("Lord Of Life" , painted by Kathy Grimm)

Thanks to the suggestion of a good friend, this week we 'spiritually adopted' children whose lives are in danger of abortion. Nothing complicated, but very special. The kids really took to the idea, too. I explained to them what I thought we could do, and they immediately started choosing names for "their own"child. From here forward, every day we will pray a special prayer together for each of their adopted children, and in 9 months we're going to have a celebration of their life, trusting in God's protection and goodness for each of these children who we faithfully prayed for.

Here are the names everyone chose for their child:
M: Cecilia Therese
L: Moses Patrick   :) (can you tell we just read a ton about Egypt and Pharoah, etc?!)

And then, lo and behold, You Know Who will not be left out. I didn't know if she'd really be into joining us, so after letting M and L christen their adopted children with their special names, I asked C if she wanted to spiritually adopt a child. She nodded excitedly...
Me: Would you like to pray for a boy or a girl?
C: Boy.
Me: Okay, and is there a name you'd like to choose?
C: Ry.
Me: Really? Ry?
C: Yes.
Me: And how about a middle name for the baby?
C: Mike.
Me: Okay! So, Ry Mike?
C: Yes.

And let me tell you- these kids take this very seriously! They have reminded me everyday now during our lunch time prayers that we need to pray for their adopted children. And little C pipes right in when we're praying, saying "And Ry Mike! Ry Mike!"

Please do join us, if you feel led, to pray daily for a child you may decide to 'spiritually adopt'. Here's the prayer we offer up daily for these children whose lives are in grave danger:

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you very much. We beg of you to spare the lives of these unborn children that we have spiritually adopted, whose lives are in danger of abortion."

Short and simple, yet seeing my children pray so earnestly, so faithfully for these little souls is incredible.

M: So Mama, will we ever get to actually meet Cecilia Therese, Moses Patrick, or Ry Mike?
Me: Yes, Sweetheart. It may not be on this side of Heaven, but surely one day we will meet them! And we must trust in God's goodness and pray with all our heart and strength, and  believe that these children will indeed be saved from abortion.

M and L: Wow!

I agree. Wow.  I know I'm humbled by the gift of prayer that God has given to us.

Prayers, please

Attention all Prayer Warriors:
Please keep our friend's baby, Julianna, in your prayers. She's just over a week old and last night she had a seizure and stopped breathing. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance, where she is presently stable and is (with Mama at her side) having numerous tests done the next few days, as the docs try to figure out what caused this.

A little theological pondering for all you wise folks out there:
(From the ever-reeling mind and mouth of our 6 year old): So, God is in charge and in control of everything, right? And everything happens for a reason, right? So, why would he let this happen to a little baby? He wouldn't want a baby to get hurt or even die so young, so why? Why does He let bad things like this happen??

She speaks!

Funny little C moments, as her vocabulary has greatly exploded this past month (her favorite and most common words used to be "No" and "Me"; we've welcomed the change!!) This girl has no problem speaking her mind now!! Just a little sample...

_____

Mama: (Reading to C from "There's a Wocket in my Pocket")
"Do you ever get the feeling there's a geiling on the ceiling...
or a zamp in the lamp...
or a ghair beneath the chair?"

C: No.
Mama: No?
C: Nope!
_____

After very uncharacteristically wetting a diaper that we'd just put on her before bedtime, I looked at her with a puzzled face and said, "C, why'd you wet the diaper I just put on?"

C: I dunno.

_____

For naptime I lay down with both Chiara and Caedmon to nurse them to sleep. Almost everyday now, Chiara likes to snuggle up next to me and 'stake out' her side. Then she'll look at me and say,
"Das my side, and..... das baby's side... otay, Mama?"
_____

M was reading something to C and told her she had to be quiet and listen. With the most hilariously serious and exasperated grown-up sounding sigh, C looked at her and exclaimed, "Not a-den!"

____

And let's just say, anytime she feels she has been wronged by her big sister ("Dah-duh") or her big brother ("Bye"), she comes and tells me great detail what has happened....

"Mama!! Bye's mean! Bye hit me! Here!"
or
"Mama!! Dah-duh's no sare me (i.e. Maia's not sharing with me)!"

(They can't get away with anything now!!!)

Charge that prayer on my card, please...

At our church- as in most Catholic churches- there is a place on each side for lighting prayer candles to offer a prayer for someone. I love the traditional real prayer candles: visual symbols of prayers. I love everything about them actually, from  the sacredness evoked by lighting one candle from the flame of another, to the familiar smell of burning candles and extinguished flames in the ashes, the flickering pulses of random candles lit by some other persons interceding for their loved ones, to the memories of my own days back in Minnesota as a child staring in awe at candles like these and always considering it a special treat to light one, just like my own children do now ...  yes, I definitely love the real candles.
Unfortunately, the candles at our parish are 'lit' by pushing a button rather than actually lighting a candle. However, this doesn't make it any less enticing or less intriguing for most children (perhaps the one plus about it is the safety factor! No real fire involved!)
There is a little hole for placing an offering when you choose to light a candle, and when our children want to 'light' a candle at church, we'll dig in our pockets to find some change. More often than not, though, we forget to grab some change before we leave home, since we don't normally carry cash with us. Today, on our way out of Mass, the kids stopped to gaze at the candles, with the 'light up' buttons especially tempting L and C (how can you not want to press a button that's going to light up a candle?!) M walked by and tugged at Papa's sleeve with a pleading look on her face. After he dug in his pocket and brought out empty hands, he shook his head at her regretfully.
M: "Can't you just put your credit card in there, then?"

Hmmm... maybe she's on to something there!!!