Need a Rainbow to Brighten Your Day?

This was in my backyard Tuesday morning.

Gorgeous!  And I needed it because my day was just one battle after another.  Poor Ian has had insane constipation from his high calorie formula, and we have been dealing with lots of issues with that, like:  screaming baby while trying to pass a BM,
shoveling all kinds of prunes, plums, pears and other make-you-go foods down him,
killer diaper rash from going a tiny squirt at a time- all the time,
finally a 15 inch poop.  Yes, since your wondering, I measured it. 
(Since you're now questioning my sanity, I thought it might be necessary for the pediatrician to know exactly how much poop).  
The cat decided to throw up twice that morning.
Did I mention we are trying to sell our house?  Yeah, cat throw up and selling your house don't go well together. 
Luckily, God has already erased from my memory the other trials of that day, but He left me with one lasting photo of that glorious rainbow!

I certainly needed it to brighten my day.

And if you need a good laugh, search "yosemitebear mountain giant double rainbow" on you.tube.  Another gorgeous rainbow and double rainbow guy makes me laugh every. time.

Three Year Anniversary 2/28/2012

Mary Grace, we remembered you in a special way yesterday.

And at the same time, we move on. 

We keep walking forward; time doesn't stop when someone passes. 
Although it can feel that way for awhile.

But the rest of the world continues on.

Yesterday, we went to the cemetary and for the first time, brought our newest little guy. 
It was a gorgeous day; warm and windy for February.
Isabel ran up and down the big hill that is littered with gravesites; looking for those tiny purplish-blue flowers that she had found just three years ago. 

And Ian crawled up and down the hill, leaving little time for reflections of grief.  Instead my thoughts were occupied with making sure he didn't crawl over graves, or pick flowers out of the vases.  So it was a much different kind of visit than we had had before on her anniversary.  But in the same breath, it was lovely.  It was lovely to be in this place now, having another precious child in our arms, alive and well.  It was a reminder of how God saw us through loss, and blessed us with new life. 

I didn't cry yesterday, which surprised me a little.  But I definitely felt the prayers of friends and relatives who remembered our family yesterday.  Thank you for continuing to bless us with your love!  We love and appreciate you!

Pittman Family: Devastating Fire

Please pray for this homeschooling family here in NC who lost three of their eight children in a house fire on Thursday.  This is so tragic.  Jesus, help them!

http://www.agapeleadership.com/pittmanfamily.cfm

The Best Homily Yet on HHS mandate.

We need more priests like this one to stand up for religious liberty.

**Make sure you mute Audrey Assad's song at the bottom of the page**

I need to get back.

Back to blogging, that is.

Life has gotten so busy with two kids!  It's so busy, and it's such a blessing.  It's hard to believe that in less than two weeks we will pass the three year anniversary of losing Mary Grace.   There were times when I think back to the year following her death and what a rollercoaster of emotion it was.  There were some days when there was so much pain that I thought it would be easier if I were dead.  Not that I could have ever done that, but I remember thinking, "all this pain would just go away", or "it would be so much easier if..." and now, look where we are!  We have added a beautiful, thriving, vibrant baby boy who is coming up on his 1st birthday in just a matter of weeks!

Look what I would have missed out on, if I had given up then.

Look at what God had waiting for me, just around the bend...just beyond where I could see at the time.  He kept leading me, and if I hadn't followed...I would have missed out.  I would have missed all these gifts, graces and blessings that He has allowed in my life since losing Mary Grace.

Today I sent Isabel off to her first Daddy-Daughter Dance.  She has been talking about it for weeks on end.  And she was so delighted that her special day had finally come.  The preparation for this special daddy date has been a drawn out process.  I took her to a consignment sale with the hopes of finding a really special dress for her to wear (at a reasonable price)!  I was looking for something a little fancier, like a flower girl dress...Isabel had something else entirely, in mind!  From within the depths of the racks of hangers and clothing, she pulls out this pink, rose-patterned dress that could have come straight from my 1980s closet.  Rob calls it a little "Little-House-on-the-Prairie-ish".... It has poofy sleeves and a white lacey collar.  And it was about three dollars and fifty cents.  In my head I thought "you'd have to pay me $3.50 to buy this dress", but instead I said, "Let's hold that one and keep looking".  Surely I could convince her that a more modern, glittery bridesmaid dress would be more fitting.  After turning down several more of my selections I knew I had lost the battle when Isabel said, "Mom, this is just the dress that I've been searching for."  Sold.  "Okay, Isabel, if that is the dress that you want to buy, then I think it will look just lovely on you, and we can get it."

She looked just beautiful in it.  And it did bring me to tears to see how thrilled she was to be going out in such a special dress with her Daddy.  It also brought me to tears to think that we had a daughter who never got to go to a Daddy-Daughter dance.  She is probably dancing in heaven.

So there are still those moments that the memory of Mary Grace slips into our life here and there. 

The last two Sundays at Mass, they have played songs which were sung at  Mary Grace's funeral.  Right after communion, both weeks, I have practically burst into tears trying to sing along.  I give up and am thankful that Rob is out of the sanctuary tending to Ian, so he doesn't have to see what I mess I am. 

Time has helped to heal my wounds.
Ian has helped to heal my wounds.
God has given me both Time and Ian to help heal the loss of Mary Grace.
And Faith helped lead me around the bend to where I could not see.

Read this.

I haven't posted in awhile and I hope to soon.  Lots going on here in NC.  And so much going on in the news this weekend that I can't say it any better than this blogger did.... so please go read her post!  And even if you are not Catholic, you should be upset by this, because your liberties may be next in line.

Wow...2012 is here, and neat things are happening!

2012 feels like the beginning of something....yes, the beginning of a new year.  But something more...
I'm not sure what, yet.  But I have this hopefulness about this year...I guess that's what I'm feeling.

One thing I'm really excited about is this book I found over Christmas at my parents' house.  Actually, I didn't find it.  Isabel did.  It had been kicked under the couch in the family room, and she was peeking under there looking for cats.  (We had 3 cats merge their lives over Christmas, and it went exceptionally well, I might add).  But back to the story:  So she finds this book tucked away under the couch, pulls it out and hands it to my mom.  My mom in turn, finds a chapter and gives it to me to read.  Well, it was like Jesus speaking to me from the pages in that moment, regarding a certain situation I was going through!  And I was hooked.

It's called My Daily Bread and it's a tiny, pocket-sized book by Anthony Paone, S.J.

The book is in fact, what I would call the original version of Jesus Calling....just written by a Catholic priest back in the 1950s.  And it's fantastic.  It is just what I needed to start off this new year.  To have a moment of reflection every day to bring me closer to God.  It's written as if Jesus were speaking to you, and then it has a passage to think about, and a prayer passage.  I'm feeling hopeful that it is going to really help me in my spiritual walk.

We had a good Christmas.  I really felt the joy of His birth at the Christmas Vigil Mass we attended!  Even though I was a little anxious about how Ian would do during the extra long service...usually I would have been much more stressed, but I was able to relax and really enjoy and participate in the Mass.  It was great.  Other parts of our Christmas vacation did not go as I had planned, or as I could have even begun to anticipate (!) but, I am thankful for those moments too.  God has a plan for every moment and every single thing that we might experience as "going wrong"...and we can find meaning in those moments too.  So I am thankful for that, because it has given me more focused intentions to pray for in this new year!

Speaking of prayer intentions, we are really grateful to any of you who might have offered up a prayer for Rob's dad.  He is out of the hospital and in a specialized nursing facility, and we are now praying that he will get transferred to a facility that is closer to the area where we live.  It is currently about a 40 mile trip (one way) to go visit him.

And finally every now and then I wonder if it's time to end this blog.  Just because I wonder if it's useful to anyone, or if it's now just me rambling about random things.  And today God revealed that it is still useful.  Even though our experience with losing Mary Grace and the other pregnancies is in the past, that experience is still helping others!  And that is really just amazing and humbling to me, that God could use our pain and heartbreak for His purposes and draw good from it.  It is just such a neat thing.