Expecting miracles.

This weekend was a flurry of activity, so I apologize for not posting anything over the last several days. My parents came into town on Friday afternoon. A quick trip to Walmart had me in tears because while we were in line Isabel saw a baby and immediately started telling Grammy that "when Mary Grace plays with Roscoe (Grammy's cat) she would laugh and laugh". I lost it right there in the checkout line, pulling out kleenex and wiping my eyes- people must have thought I was looney.

That evening my parents watched Isabel while Rob and I went to an intimate gathering of prayer warriors who wanted to pray for Mary Grace and our family! These are friends of Rob's mom (whom we had never met!) and we felt so blessed and humbled to be prayed over by them. I cannot express again what it means to us to have this prayer support from people all over- friends, family, friends of friends, people we don't even know! Every little prayer lifted up for Mary Grace is so important, so please whenever you think of us just offer up the quickest little prayer! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

On Saturday, my Mom and I attended a Catholic conference called "Ignited by Truth" with some amazing speakers. I asked God to reveal something powerful to me about what we're going through and He did not let me down. The most striking speaker to me was Imaculee Ilibagiza (www.immaculee.com) who survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide of 1 million people in just 100 days. Her entire family was killed, most everyone she knew and loved had died and yet she told her horrific story with this joyous faith in God who truly performed miracles to keep her alive. I thought to myself, "if she can make it through such a horror story and come through it with an even closer relationship with God, praising Him in all things and forgiving her enemies, then surely Rob and I can make it through this difficult time with renewed hope."

I had this thought in my head that I should ask her to pray for Mary Grace. But I also had all these doubts...there are over 2000 people at this conference, even though she will be signing books how could I even wait in a line that long? But God opened a door for me because after we ate and browsed the vendors we bought one of her books and she was there signing books with only 2 people in line and she was about to take her lunch break! So I jumped in line and shakily approached her. I think I was shaking because: A. I'm shy. and B. It's been alot harder to actually tell people about Mary Grace being sick than it has been when I've rehearsed telling people in my mind. I told her that I was very touched by her story and that I felt led to ask if she would pray for me. I told her about Mary Grace and Imaculee's face was compassion, sorrow and kindess all at once. She touched my belly twice and asked how far along I was and if the doctors were sure she would not live. She said that miracles do happen...ask Our Lady to pray for Mary Grace and pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary for her.

Then another speaker kept saying that miracles were happening today like we haven't seen in 2000 years. And wouldn't you know that Sunday's readings were about Jesus healing the leper?? Healings! Miracles! I mean is this stuff just coincidental?? Or is God trying to send me a message to have great faith, and expect miracles! Check out these verses from Matthew 15:
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.(NIV)

A small miracle is that my belly is finally at 19 weeks starting to pop out (since I've been paranoid that it was actually shrinking after The Ultrasound.) Also another small miracle is that I've felt Mary Grace become alot more active again; more movement and stronger kicks. Maybe it's the new optimism I am feeling, this renewed hope that I have that is rubbing off onto her. Maybe all the positive vibes are actually doing her good!

So that has been our weekend. It's now Monday evening and we did not hear today from genetic counselor. I'm kind of expecting her to call tomorrow with the full amnio results. I'll update again as soon as we get those.