Second Week of April

This week began with our Parish mission.  The experience was both prayerful and impactful for our family.

On Monday night, we had another counselling appointment, and we made it to the mission right when Eucharistic adoration and confession began. God was so good to plan for us to arrive on this schedule. These moments were a small rest and calm in the presence of the greatest power in the universe - such a contrast to the powerlessness we felt earlier discussing how helpless we feel at times. Sitting there in the real presence of our Lord, there is so much hope in God's mercy, so much peace and comfort in these moments where He helps lift the weight from our souls. This week we really felt that hope - not only from our own prayers, but inspiration from how many other people were joining us in praying for our Caroline. As we approached the novena to Blessed Margaret, we also had hope in the intercession of our family and friends in heaven - that they can help carry our prayers to God and advocate on our behalf.

This was also the first time we saw the prayer table for us that our parish had set up in our church lobby.  The table was beautiful with a picture of all of our hands surrounding Caroline accompanied by the novena cards and a short message about our family.  We wanted to mention because it looked like it could come straight from Pintrest and were wowed by such attention to detail.

On Tuesday, Tom had another work meeting, but Jessica had the chance to attend mass with the Parish mission. In his homily, Father talked about the importance of praying for others. When we pray, if we don't have a specific person in mind, then he suggested we pray for the first person we see. It is part of our normal morning routine of praying a decade of the rosary with the kids on the way to school. Father's homily inspired us to start a new tradition. When each of the kids share their intentions, now they also each pick out a random car driving by to pray for the people in it. It has been beautiful to witness how this has impacted their prayer life and planted another seed in their hearts.  In his homily, Father included a brief moment talking about praying for Caroline and mentioned the novena that will begin shortly for Caroline--asking God for a miraculous healing through the intercession of Blessed Margaret of Castello.

God works through our suffering and the suffering of others.  During the mission, we also had a chance to hear about some other people in our parish and broader community who needed prayers - some with health issues, strained family relationship, and some whose faith has been challenged. While there is much suffering to share, we find it encouraging to offer some hope and prayer in return for those who are supporting us, and to unite our prayers for more universal means.

Tom, continues to struggle as he goes out into regular society, and sees a different side of this, particularly among the stir from the release of the movie "Unplanned," and the passage of Ohio's heartbeat bill last week. As we mourn what our child won't have and what we want but can't have, we know that we've given our daughter another day of peace and comfort in a mother's womb. And another day of life is all each of us can ask for every morning that we wake up.