7 Quick Takes (v4)

1.  The big news tonight is walking.  Steps have officially been taken by our 18 month old, Catie.  I am thrilled.  She is pretty stiff legged and we have an appointment with an orthotist in two weeks for ankle braces.  But I am so proud of her!!

2.  PLEASE pray for my friend's unborn son Ryan.  He is 22 weeks in utero and has been diagnosed with a life threatening lung condition.  I am hoping to get his beautiful mom over to St Gianna's shrine to pray with her gloves.  They are also praying for St Gerard's intercession.  Two saints many of us know well. 

3. Yesterday was a tough one.  I joined a mom's spiritual support group.  In the middle of our already emotional meeting, a phone call came in about the Supreme Court decision.   So...whats the point in fighting for religious freedom?  I tried to take it all in.  It feels as if the hammer just came down and yesterday was a Roe v Wade type monumental day.  

4.  Today, I am thankful to see beauty rising from ashes.  If you have not yet, please get thee to 1flesh.org.  "Birth control has done nothing to reduce the rate of unplanned pregnancies, the Pill increases breast cancer risk, lowers female sex drive, and screws up the environment. We’re talking about how artificial contraception is one of the most falsely advertised products out there. We’re talking about how condoms ruin sex, how they’ve been remarkably ineffective in the fight against HIV, how they’ve done nothing to stop our modern explosion of STDs. We’re talking about the Pill and heart disease, about how the health benefits of oral contraceptives aren’t health benefits at all. We’re talking about the Pill’s potential to be an abortifacent, the bad philosophy behind artificial contraception, how contraception has increased the abortion rate, is linked to an increase in divorce, and how — in general — it’s been making relationships difficult for some time now.


Go here and Start Pinning!

5. Tomorrow is my 34th Birthday.  I am having my daughter take me to the movies.  We are going to see Brave.  So excited!  In the evening we will attempt a family dinner at my favorite (not so kid friendly) restaurant.  Pray for us!

6. I love the 6 word love story.  Check my last blog and add yours!

7. July 4th is a bit bittersweet this year.  Happy Weekend. 

six word love story

I saw this idea on The Lettered Cottage.  Such a cute idea.  Can you sum up your love story in six words?  Here is ours. 

Internet Romance.

It Worked!
Forever Love.

Our Week in Pics

The Backyard Setup

This weekend we started a new tradition.  We read about the "Great American Backyard Campout" and decided it would be a good idea to see if our family of five can really actually sleep together in one tent.  My husband and I love camping and it has been a challenge incorporating kids into the mix.  We are going to brave it on an official trip in a few weeks.

All in all it went well.  My biggest complaint is having a non walker (note her PNP prison).  She loves to roam free on hands and knees but will have to suffer confinement while camping.  Complaint #2, Augie does not settle well to sleep and the tent was no exception.  He was bouncing off the canvas walls until about 11pm.  But, we have done our dry run and are looking forward to camping for real soon. 

Cooking over the fire pit

Happy Girl (for these 5 seconds at least)

 Last night we went to one of our favorite places.  It is a local dairy where the kids can feed hoards of goats, donkeys and a plethora of other animals.  My favorite part is the play area and it is so fantastic to be there on a beautiful night during sun set. 

And just for kicks.  Here is a picture of Rosie playing at the same place when she was >2. 

  And, today Catie & Augie joined me to meet up with a beautiful friend, God's Plan is My Joy.  It is always a gift to spend time with a good friend. 

Our little treasures that help us grow holier by the minute.

Boys are gross!

quick takes (v 3)

1. In my last post I alluded to my week.  Here goes.

2.  Our first week watching "M", our adopted six year old.  The week before her family was all sick.  Sickness has fallen upon my family.

3.  Tuesday morning Rosie woke up vomiting.  Sit on day 2 cancelled. 

3.  Wednesday, our sitting resumed. I noticed a rash on Catie, called the doctor and they said come in.  Appointment scheduled for afternoon.  Sitter arranged to watch the other kids.  On the way to the doctor Rosie was not feeling well so I kept her and M with me to bring Catie into the doctor.  We walk in the office and  Rosie vomits all over the carpet.  They assume I am checking in my vomiting daughter.  NOPE!  I am here for the little one with the rash!  It was a 2-1 appointment. We spent the evening trying to keep anything down and everything clean. 

4.  Thursday, reflecting upon the previous day's doctor appointment I decide the doctor did not fairly access Catie.  Perhaps he was a bit distracted by the puker.  He said Catie had eczema and possibly an eye irritation from tears.  I reschedule Catie for a 2nd opinion with a different doctor.  She took one look and said "Lymes".  WHAT!  This freaked me out.  I have known several adults with Lymes and none have fared well.  Evidently it is highly common in our area and highly treatable in children when found early.  Thank God I went back!  21 days of antibiotics for my 1 year old.  And never ever am I going to let a crawling child do outdoor crawling in the future.  She better start walking soon!  (She is 18 months tomorrow, for the record).

5. Thursday night, my husband succumbed to the stomach bug and spent Friday in bed. 

6.  Friday...Oh, how I need this week to end!!  We are scheduled to attend a wedding tomorrow.  The feeling in my gut it making me a bit nervous.  Off to the store for the sickies.

7.  Happy Father's Day to my Dad.  You are my hero and I love you!  Happy Father's day to my Father in Law, thank you for all your love and acceptance...and the dishes!!  Happy Father's Day to the man whom God has chosen for me.  Your love for our family is so amazingly deep.  Thank you for all that you do and all that you are.  I love you! 

craving simplicity

Reading the post of a dear friend inspired my mind towards simplicity. How I long for simplicity! 

My friend attended a personal silent retreat.  That has been my dream for YEARS.  If I could work it in to my life every year, it would be bliss. 

I am sitting at my downstairs computer.  Stuff piled everywhere.   I walk into the area that used to be our garage.  I can not walk without having to step over or around something - ever.  In the laundry room I duck around piles of drywall, school desks and chairs that need to be refinished.  Upstairs...toys, laundry, books, stuff, stuff, stuff.  Out of size or out of season clothes that need to find a home.  Bags of clothes for good will.  I try to fight the stuff and the stuff fights back harder. 

I live with a carpenter - who is really a full time retail associate and part time student with little time for home projects.  That little time he has at home he wants to spend with kids or needs to spend on school.  Renovations no longer hold the same appeal.  Our fixer upper has not been fixed as fast as I would like.  I am destined to live in construction for years. 

I am so truly blessed to have a house full of love and children.  I am so truly blessed that our needs are met and we have clothes and shoes and socks and clothes and shoes and socks (i meant to do that).  I feel like I need a hoarder intervention.  I am not a hoarder.  I just need that organizing crew. 

Does simplicity start in the mind or in the home? 

This summer we are adding a 6 year old to our family.  No, not a foster child...a friend we are watching for the summer.  It has been a blessing!  Our routine has been strengthened and now I am accountable.  I can't just pound around yelling at my children.  "M" does not have siblings and I think she enjoys our chaos.  It is also helping to simplify.  We are finding a bit of order.  Time for projects.  Time for snacks.  Time for the pool.  This is the first time our summer has felt like a summer.  And...if you knew what my week has been like - you would know this is a pretty miraculous thing!

Quick takes v.2

1.  I am on a roll, right?  I try to blog at least weekly.  With Catie's adoption under our belt, there is nothing to report in the fostering or adoption fronts.  While our life is anything but quiet...my blogging mind is at rest a bit.

2. Camping.  I have signed up our family for a camping trip.  The idea of our whole family in one tent is a bit terrifying.   My husband and I have always camped.  We camped at least annually with our daughter.  Last year we camped for the first time with our son (and had Catie in respite care).  So...it should be an adventure.  Stories to follow in July.  Though we plan a practice round on the Great American Backyard Camping Day - Saturday June 23rd. 



3.  Speaking of our backyard.  We are hosting a party.  A outdoor "drive in"movie.  This is the 25th anniversary for The Princess Bride and (almost) 70th anniversary of the drive in movie.  So, we are inviting our freinds to join us on the lawn.  I am so excited!

4. Food.  My tummy is grumbling.  I have been struggling to find the motivation & food to feed our family lately.  I hate grocery shopping.  I hate preparing a meal only to have the kids refuse, complain or worse (spit it all over themselves, the floor, etc).  <---- the event that had me praying "Body of Christ, Save Me!  this week.  If anyone has simple lunch or dinner ideas, sites or pins, share them!  I know the garden harvest will help soon.

5. The Garden. 

Okay.  We have had a garden for years and can never seem to get it right.  Every year is more and more tweaking.  THIS is the year of "let no bird, nor rabit, nor squirel, nor deer feast upon our garden." We have fencing surrounding and have now netted the top.  Hopefully this message goes to the moles and snakes too.  This is our first year letting go of the squares and tilling the ground.  We have invading grass and I have to figure out that.  Next year the change needs to be soil testing and more composting. 

6.  Adoption!  Please join me in praying for a fellow blogger, Grace in My Heart.  They are a super family and any child would be so very lucky to be theirs.  If you know of a potential birth family or adoption opportunity please keep them in mind. 

And, please consider supporting my friends in fundraising for the adoption of a special little girl due in July with Spina Bifida.  Thier story is so incredible (hello God!).  Alison has created an adoption botique "Nestling In: Adopting Love" with beautiful necklaces, so supporting them can be as simple as purchasing a gift for yourself or someone special.   

7. Dance Recital weekend.  As of this weekend I am a dance mom.  I am not entirely sure that I will be embracing this role for long - if you could only have seen some of those little girls at the rehersal shake their little hips, you would know what I mean.  Rosie has promised to not "do her own thing" and to try to be a part of her team.  I had to talk her down when she told me she was going to be the star.  She accepted that she would not be the star, then asked if she could still be a princess.  Yes, Rosie.  You will always be a princess.  <---and yes, I am that mom.

Quick Takes Friday

1. I am joining in the Quick Takes for my first time ever.  I have recently become a huge Jennifer Fulwiler fan (she is the one who began quick takes, for those who have not heard of them before).  Several of her articles are published in One in Christ, the new marriage prep program our diocese offers.  I have been reading them and LOVE her story:
One Woman's Journey from Pro-Choice Atheist to Pro-Life Catholic

2. If you have time for some excellent reading, here are a few other articles from this marriage prep manual that I love:
Contraception and a Woman's Self Image Jennifer Fulwiler
Why my life is better since becoming open to life Jennifer Fulwiler
IVF and the Catholic Couple - Sheila Diamond, really good perspective on embryo adoption 

3. Happy Wedding day to Nick and Sarah!  Nick & Sarah are family in Chicago and this is perhaps one of the first events we have had to decline attending as a direct result of our growing family.  I am still in the adjustment phase of sacrificing wants out of necessity.  Other adjustments - food & laundry.

4. Because we were not traveling, we were able to make some progress on our basement!  It will be wonderful when it is done and I can fully use the space.   But I am so excited about the transition.

Before (WAY before) - this was when we first moved in...not our stuff hanging

After!  Not completely finished or prettied up yet. 

I love it!  We measured the boxes to store toys in canvas boxes.  I can't wait to get them all moved into the space.  My husband won the argument about moving the tv above the fireplace.  It is an adjustment for me and I have to mourn the loss of the picture space, but I think it will be a space saver to have the tv up there.   I did mention before, but anyone interested in the fireplace makeover, we followed these instructions for that part of the remodel. 


5. A play dough Rapunzel and daddy aka Rosie

6. Preparing to become a war widow this weekend.  Not in the sense you may guess.  It's WWII weekend in our town and hubby is taking the big kids tomorrow morning.  For now we get to listen to all the old planes flying in.


7.  FINALLY, Happy 10th Ordination Anniversary to world's best brother in law and priest.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  We had not known each other too long, but I was privileged to sit in the family section and watch you give your life to the Lord in the most profound and powerful way possible.  We are truly blessed to have you in our family and pray with you through these last 10 years, through good times and bad.  As our family grows, it only means more people to pray for you in the coming years.  We love you and are so proud of you and your priesthood.

"Almighty Father, grant to this servant of yours the dignity of the priesthood.  Renew with him the Spirit of holiness.  As a co-worker with the order of bishops may he be faithful to the ministry that he receives from you, Lord God, and be to others a model of right conduct." - taken from the prayers of consecration of a priest and printed on the back of his ordination card

Blood of Christ, inebriate me

So, as I am sitting on the back deck this morning, with my kids playing, reading my Anima Christi prayer book, the neighbor comes over.  He informs me that yesterday he found my two year old outside, in his yard, where he was about to back his truck.  The neighbor sent him back inside.  IF, this was an isolated incident, okay.  Unfortunately, I can add this to the list of a couple terrifying, his-guardian-angel-saved-him incidents. 

I have caught Augie trying to escape into the back yard a couple of times.  I thought I caught him every time.  Aparantly not.  And, up goes security...again.  Husband will be brining home locks to add to the top of the door.  The last incident resulted in the purchase of an additional baby gate (to block access to the garage door) and door knob protectors, which he has since mastered.  We are anxiously awaiting our adoption tax credit to purchase a much needed fence for our back yard.  Whether it is because he is mentally challenged in some way (yet unknown), or because he is a boy, or because he is two...he needs a greater degree of security and protection than Rosie ever did.

How many times must I say "do not leave this house without asking mommy?"  And, clearly, he still does not get it.  And so this saga continues...I can do nothing without Christ.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me

This line of the Anima Christi has always stood out to me.  "Inebriate me?"  Obviously, we have a very base understanding of inebriation.  "The kind of drunkenness we understand in our ordinary use of the word is a debasement or what true inebriation should be, that of what the poets and mystics have written when they said they were drunk with the love of Christ, inebriated with God."

Alcohol may lift & excite the senses, but ultimately, it is a depressent.  The stimulating effects wear off.  "Inebriation of the spirit is different....we should be enlivened, lifted up above our ordinary functioning, abilities and even potential, by the precious blood of Christ... In the true inebriation of the spirit, the antithesis of all that is preverse or evil or self-indulgent, there is a strength beyond what we could ever have ourself but which never lapses into languour." 

How could I ever survive motherhood without Christ?  This month I am discovering that the very beginning of a woman's cyce has potential for destruction and should not be written off since it can not technically be classified as "PMS."  Yes, I will be talking with my NaPro MD about this.  The control of my temper, control of my emotions are (right now) the little sacrifices I am being asked (by Christ) to make.  "In all the hidden, humdrum martyrdoms that are a part of real Christian daily living, one must be inebriated to agree to them....we die to our own preferences, we die to our tart response..we die to the caustic reply that pride proposes...one goes singing into all these inivtations to the little deaths of every day only when one is inebriated with the blood of Christ." 

"When what is asked for us in daily life seems...too much, too much to give, too much patience to sustain, too much meekness to achive, it remains wholly possible to turn to Christ, who shed all his precious blood that we might be inebriated by it's effects, to achieve ends far beyond our own unaided powers.  The more some things seem 'too much', the more inebriation we need.  And so the more we must turn to the precious blood of Christ streaming out through all his sacraments, given to us every morning in Holy Communion, cleansing us in every sacramental absolution...Why leave untapped the resources we have to be spritually inebriated?"  

Hello conviction.  Lord, let me not leave these resources untapped.

from "Anima Christi, Soul of Christ" by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C (an Abbess of the Cloistered Contemplative Poor Clare Nuns)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints

and with Thy angels
Forever and Ever
Amen

This is part of a series, click Anima Christi under tags to see additional blog posts.

today we marched for life

 and on a lighter note...yesterday we ate ice cream. 

Body of Christ, save me

Body of Christ, save me

"A tired body counsels the mind: 'Stop working now.  Let us rest together.' And we know what happens when the mind refuses to follow the direction of the body.  A very fatigued body can lie awake all night long because the mind says, 'No, I will keep on thinking', when the body has said, 'It's time to stop now and for us to go to sleep together.'  Body and soul cannot sleep apart...
...Christ is the perfect whole person, body and soul working in perfect coordination. Just as it is his animating principle alone that will sanctify ours, so it is to his body that we must turn when we are torn by temptation, racked by passion, week in langour, dispirited with fatigue, when our bodily desires get out of hand....Ought this not be a favorite prayer in time of temptation...'Body of Christ, save me!"
from "Anima Christi, Soul of Christ" by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C (an Abbess of the Cloistered Contemplative Poor Clare Nuns)

Today is Peak+10.  For non charters out there, that means PMS big time.  It has been a bit rocky.  Yesterday was a ridiculously challenging day.  The little two were HORRIBLE.  Thanks be to God we were home and even more so, that my husband was home with me.  Catie and Augie were in a battle of the screaming, nothing could squelch them.  I am not talking about a fun, playful type of screaming.  More of a blood curdling, I am about to die type of screaming.  Nothing we could do was resolving this screaming (they were feeding off each other).  It lasted nearly an hour. 

Bedtime lasted two hours beyond normal and that was after the end of the screaming.  My husband's one comment was to be careful what we are shouting as our windows are open and we have neighbors that live close.  Evidently I said something to Augie about needing a spanking.  No one was spanked.  That was a miracle.

When our anger is raging, we must cry out "Body of Christ, save me!"

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints

and with Thy angels
Forever and Ever
Amen

This is part of a series, click Anima Christi under tags to see additional blog posts.

a blog post SO worth sharing

TIME magazine chatters, THIS BLOG is a must read. "I don’t much care if you breastfed your kid until they started kindergarten, or if you fed them formula from day one....When it comes to issues of motherhood, there is one issue I care about: some kids don’t have one."

And now...go search some photo lists yourself:

Birth Mother's Day

I had not heard of this until today.  Evidently, a group of birth mother's in Seattle begin remembering this day, the day before Mother's day, as Birth Mother's Day.

A friend on facebook shared the Everything to Me music video by Mark Shultz, a message of thanks to his birth mom.

I am bringing back one of my favorite birth mother videos - Can I Live by Nick Cannon


And of course, especially remembering in prayer those who still long for motherhood.

reflections on Anima Christi

Thank you for the beautiful and heartfelt reflections following my last post.  It can be challenging to be  publicly honest...especially in the world of foster/adoptive parenting.  I felt the risk was worth it and your responses affirm that for me.

I was gifted with this lovely little reflection book to process the beautiful prayer that I mentioned, The Anima Christi.

I am going to try to share some of these beautiful reflections for my benefit, and possibly yours.

Anima Christi, Sanctifica MeSoul of Christ, sanctify me

"Our weakened and damaged soul, yet so beautiful and glorious and full of potential for eternal perfection, must find the strength to actuate its potential, not in itself, but in Christ....Perfect human fulfillment is to allow one's self to be completely taken over by Christ...The more Chrirstlike we are, the more animated we are...We are progressively "dead" insofar as we do not live in Christ."

Last year there was a "children's" book relased.  It's crude title related to an attitude that parents may regress to while dealing with a tough bedtime.  It trended on facebook.  The title stuck in my head and unfortunately now enters my mind on occasion.  I wish that I could erase those words from my mind. 

Without Christ we are dead.  We need to seek to be "taken over by Christ." 

"When we pray 'Anima Christi, sanctifica me' we are indeed making a bold and dangerous prayer, a tremendously exacting prayer.  We are saying we want to be emptied out, to experience our own kenosis as Christ experienced his, totally given, totally spent.  'Soul of Christ, sanctify me.'  It will not be painless.  No passion ever was."from "Anima Christi, Soul of Christ" by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C (an Abbess of the Cloistered Contemplative Poor Clare Nuns)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints

and with Thy angels
Forever and Ever
Amen

This is part of a series, click Anima Christi under tags to see additional blog posts.

steeped in motherhood

When I had my daughter after 5 years of infertility, motherhood was sheer bliss.  It was incredible!  I was sleep deprived and it was challenging - but I WAS A MOM!  I had given birth to a precious teeny little angel.  I was the source of comfort, nutrition...love.  I carried her in a sling.  I used beautiful new cloth diapers.  I nursed on demand.  I co-slept.  Attachment parenting to the fullest! 

And then my beautiful, teeny angel became a toddler. 

She was very loud.  She did not love to sleep.  She pulled out all the toilet paper, spilled out all the dog food and wrote all over herself...daily.  At one point she even added a LARGE family portrait to her bedroom wall in marker.  One of her many graffiti art projects.  All the while, she was so precious and, though challenging, we wanted to add to our family more than ever.

 After secondary infertility, we were so blessed to become parents again through foster care. 

Augie came in with a bang.  He was sick.  He took out our whole family for the first month.  As a foster mom the bonding came slowly.  We were not permitted to co-sleep.  Slowly, those not so new cloth diapers were more of an inconvenience when dropping him off for family visits.  My hands were full.  I was content and for the first time ever in my married life, I was not actively seeking to conceive. 

After another year, I had another toddler on my hands.  This one particularly loved to eat dirt.  Also coal, stink bugs and dog food. 

And slowly my desire for motherhood again grew stronger.  I refused to get a family picture because it seemed a spot in our family was missing.  Rosie was praying for a sister.  My heart was open to another child.  And with that, Catie arrived.

Catie can scream like nobody's business.  Same as before, no co sleeping.  By now cloth diapers are lucky to be used as rags once in awhile.  Graffiti is a regular part of our home decor.  And sadly, cry it out is often all we can manage.  By bedtime, i am done. 

With her recent adoption, following Augie's 2011 adoption, my hands and my heart are overflowing.  Six years ago, I would not believe this could possibly be my future.  I am so blessed.  It is helpful for me to take a minute, sit back and see this.

"I know that God won't give me more than I can handle"

And God trusts me quite a bit.  Rosie is 4, Augie is 2, Catie is 1.  All that suffice to say the glow of new motherhood has worn off and I am now fully steeped in motherhood. 

When Augie reached that lovely age of toddler, I felt the strong need to address my PMS.  I added an anti-anxiety med and for awhile that seemed to take the edge off my mood swings.  Well, meds like that add a host of other troubles.  For example, NEVER try to just stop taking them.

After time, that little blue pill wasn't helping.   It was increasingly difficult to respond calmly to a stressful child situation.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to stop spanking.  I am against spanking for so many reasons.  IF (and I don't believe there is) a legitimately good reason for spanking, I was not using those reasons.  I was spanking because I was angry.

Recently I stopped by the Padre Pio Shrine to thank him for interceding and bringing Catie into our family.  I had two kids in the car and really only stopped because I was driving by.  I did not enter a building.  I simply pulled up to this statue, said thank you and touched the stigmata in his statue hand. 

Before my car even got back to the main road, I was sobbing.  Suddenly, the state of my soul was apparent and I had an immense need for confession NOW.  As I continued the drive to see family I was crying an ugly, purgative cry.  Fortunately, I know a few priests and I was blessed to find a confessor and attend adoration...while my family visited with the kids.  Confession is the big opportunity for reset, as my confessor encouraged. 

So now, I am struggling through this.  My greatest hope and prayer is to love my kids with a positive, affirming kind of love.  It has been a good week...but PMS is looming (side note, I am free of the little blue pill (yay!) and working with a NaPro MD on a more natural PMS treatment) I put this out there because I need to.  Accountability?  Prayers?  Yes.  The reality of my parenting is not as beautiful as a blog always seems to indicate.  And so I pray.

Padre Pio, please help!  Help me and all the mothers who struggle to be patient and kind in the midst of stress.  Help us to find the grace necessary to walk away.  Help us to build up our children and not tear them down. 

One of my favorite prayers and the one I am praying for this intention.

The Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen

Baptized

It looks like she has been put through the wringer.  Well...I guess, technically she was.

1213 Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."

A few weeks ago I was concerned about  Catie's conception and birth circumstances.  I was worried that her past might have a negative impact on her future.  I was worried about the evil that may have entered her life through those circumstances.  I was considering how we might be able to bring her to be prayed with.  


Then my brother in law taught be a very important lesson.  Within the Sacrament of Baptism, an actual exorcism is preformed as a part of the ceremony.  Prior to the water washing away all her sins, she is exorcised of any evil spirits. When I learned this I could not wait for April 29th to arrive!!  


Today Catie was baptized into the Catholic Church.  Adopted as a daughter of God.  How cool is that?  Our gotcha day was April 25th.  God's gotcha day was today, April 29th.  :)  I love how He loves us!  \

Baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . .We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God's Lordship. St. Gregory Of Nazianzus, Oratio 40,3-4:PG 36,361C.

it's official

and forever!

Adoption Day, 20 hours to go!

Maura Catherine...welcome to our family! 

On April 28th of last year I prayed at St Gianna's shrine, on her feast day and with her relics for our family to grow.  One week to the day later I met  you for the first time and fell madly in love.  It was a bit of a roller coaster, but you were truly meant for us.  You have filled our lives with so much joy and love.  We love you and are counting the minutes until 10am tomorrow when it is finally and forever official.  Wednesday you will become a part of our forever family.  Saturday, St Gianna's feast day (April 28th) we will be giving thanks for you.  Sunday, St Catherine of Siena's feast day, we will be baptizing you (on your name's day) and you will forever become a part of God's family. 

XOXOXO
With all our love,
mama & papa

home improvements

With spring in the air and company arriving soon, comes the motivation for home improving.  My first project was powerwashing and restaining our deck and playsets.  I found this great product at Lowes called Restore that made our icky old deck seem like a Trex deck.  It is not cheap (1 gal covers 50 sq ft, versus 1 gal of stain covering 250 sq ft) but I am so happy with the results.  I also slip-proofed the stairs and bridge on the playset by painting them with this prduct as well.

Next.  The Basement.  Finally.  The Basement! 

Our house is forever a work in progress.  It is nice to finally be making some.  Slow by sure.  While my husband worked on studding the wall and doing the electric, I worked on trimming out our fireplace.  This is officially my second wood working project and it is completely addicting.  So many more pinterest possibilities now that I can cut my own wood! 

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, this is what I am doing with the fireplace.  I still have a bit of work to do, but it is coming along.  I will try to get some actual finished pics up soon!

My next Pinterst project is this fantastic ruler growth chart. 

dear lillie

And then possibly this mat:

from Martha Stewart

Oh...and the garden. Once we have the adoption and party out of the way...the garden needs some love.

the gift of open adoption

Head on over to Foster2Forever to check out my guest post.

The Gift of Open Adoption - even in foster care

our pic...for now

16 days and counting until adoption day!