A Prayer Request...

++St. Christopher, pray for us++

An Announcement and 7 of My Favorite Baby/Children/Pro-Life Quotes

Due Date:  November 28th

Expected Arrival:  around Halloween

(doc will take babe a month early to minimize the stress on my uterus that last month of pregnancy)

This will be my 9th c-section.  Very risky as I've mentioned before, so please pray for us.  We love this little one to pieces already and trust Our Lord who allowed me to get pregnant again.  Obviously we are hoping and praying to have a beautiful baby to hold and snuggle and a healthy and happy family of 11 by the end of this year!!

So, onto seven of my favorite children/baby/pro-life quotes....

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

~Matthew 19: 14

“How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”

~Blessed Mother Teresa

“When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown!”

~Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

"The greatest gift you can give your child is another sibling."

~Pope Saint John Paul II

(although I just found this and now wonder if he really said this.  Does anyone know?)

"Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong."

~Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

“All of us must care for life, cherish life, with tenderness, warmth…to give life is to open (our) heart, and to care for life is to (give oneself) in tenderness and warmth for others, to have concern in my heart for others.  Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing..So, go forth and don’t be discouraged. Care for life. It’s worth it.”

~Pope Francis

“A person is a person no matter how small.” 

~Dr. Seuss

********************************

And I'm going to add in an eighth quote as prayer for myself and my little one in womb...

"0 Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to happen to me, make me only know Your Will".

~Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

********************************

Linking up with 7 Quick Takes.  Click on the image below to join in on the fun!!

Baby novena - day 4

We're getting there!!  Tonight I go in for my second round of steroids to pump up this little guy's lungs so he is ready and good to go to be born a month early.  Thanks again for all your prayers - we know they will be answered in accordance to Our Maker's perfect and beautiful plan!!  Here is the novena prayer for day 4...

Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.   In every age, You raise up men and women outstanding in holiness, whose faithful service has contributed significantly to the mission of the Church.  In this very way, You used the life and work of Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen.  He inspired great numbers of Catholics and other people of good will to grow in virtue and lead lives pleasing to You and of service to their brothers and sisters in need.  He encouraged them to embrace the 'Gospel of Life' by recognizing that in all its circumstances, 'Life is worth living.'

If it be according to Your Will, Eternal Father, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession
 for a safe and healthy remainder of the pregnancy and delivery in 6 days of baby Young one.  
I make this prayer confidently in Jesus' Name, through the merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection.   

Amen.



For today's sharing on October's Respect Life month, I wanted to share the story of a good friend of mine, Miss Teresa!!  (scroll down and read "Teresa's life story")  She is the sweet momma who cuts my hair, encourages and prays with me and some other wonderful women weekly during our prayer group, a fellow homeschooler, but most of all just a delight of a friend and sister-in-Christ!  Love her to pieces!!  You can read about her pro-life story here at Christie's blog, 10 kids of one mom (who is an amazing momma too!)

Baby novena - day 3

Thank you for stopping by our blog and praying for our little guy's delivery and the remainder of the pregnancy (only 7 more days to go!).  I go in tonight for my first round of steroid shots to help pump up our sweet little guy's lungs since he will be born a month early.  My awesome doctor consulted with a larger hospital nearby for Rose's delivery and they suggested taking her a month early with my risks. Since things went very well and looked much better with her c-section versus the one before it (which happened as at 38-1/2 weeks), we are going to continue with the same plan and take this guy a month early too. So although I will have ouchie sore arms, they will be doing amazing things for my baby.
Today is day 3 of the novena, asking for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen's intercession....


Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.   In every age, You raise up men and women outstanding in holiness, whose faithful service has contributed significantly to the mission of the Church.  In this very way, You used the life and work of Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen.  He inspired great numbers of Catholics and other people of good will to grow in virtue and lead lives pleasing to You and of service to their brothers and sisters in need.  He encouraged them to embrace the 'Gospel of Life' by recognizing that in all its circumstances, 'Life is worth living.'

If it be according to Your Will, Eternal Father, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession
 for a safe and healthy remainder of the pregnancy and delivery in 7 days of baby Young one.  
I make this prayer confidently in Jesus' Name, through the merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection.   

Amen.


And, to continue the sharing on this month's theme of pro-life, I want to share a very special video with you today.  My youngest sister actually participated and performed in this group, Mime For Life, when she was in high school and college.  This video is the complete and same performance she once did many years ago, and it's done by our local Mime For Life group.  What a beautiful message they share!! Enjoy!!

Baby novena - day 2

Please continue with us in the novena that we are praying for the rest of this pregnancy and delivery of our little guy in 8 more days!!  Today is day 2 of the novena, asking for intercession of Fulton J. Sheen....

Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.   In every age, You raise up men and women outstanding in holiness, whose faithful service has contributed significantly to the mission of the Church.  In this very way, You used the life and work of Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen.  He inspired great numbers of Catholics and other people of good will to grow in virtue and lead lives pleasing to You and of service to their brothers and sisters in need.  He encouraged them to embrace the 'Gospel of Life' by recognizing that in all its circumstances, 'Life is worth living.'

If it be according to Your Will, Eternal Father, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession
 for a safe and healthy remainder of the pregnancy and delivery in 8 days of baby Young one.  
I make this prayer confidently in Jesus' Name, through the merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection.   

Amen.


Thank you all for joining us in prayer!!!

And, since October is known as the pro-life month and we treasure the gift of life that God has given us in each other, I wanted to share the sweetest video that we found the other day.  It is made by CatChat, which we were blessed enough to go see one of their kid concerts last summer.  Enjoy....

We sure can't wait to meet our little guy and celebrate his birthday in 8 more days!!!!  

A novena for a special little guy (and his momma)....

As soon as this sweet little guy woke up, he came to me and said....

"9 more days until *baby* is born!!!! And then after this day, 8 more days. And then 7 days. And then 6 days. And then 5 days. And then 4 days....."

If you know me or have read my blog before where I have shared about my multiple c-sections and pregnancies, then you know we are in need of prayers.  There are many, many risks involved both right now, up until delivery day, and also during the delivery, as this will be my 8th c-section.  Because we live in the Peoria Diocese and are huge fans of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, we have chosen him as our little guy's heavenly patron.  Throughout the pregnancy, we have asked him to intercede for us and for you to jump in and pray for his intercession as well.  And, as amazing as it is to share - this pregnancy HAS been easier than my last 2!!!  A lot fewer trips to L&D and other than normal pregnancy pains/complaints, no crazy scares related to my high risks.  We are trusting Our Lord that these next 9 days and delivery will remain the same, and can thank Ven. Fulton J. Sheen for working hard up There praying for us!!

When I posted that cutsie picture and quote from above, a good friend reminded me of the significance of 9 and needing to start a novena to our little guy's patron, Ven. Fulton J. Sheen.  Will you join us??  Today is day 1....


Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.   In every age, You raise up men and women outstanding in holiness, whose faithful service has contributed significantly to the mission of the Church.  In this very way, You used the life and work of Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen.  He inspired great numbers of Catholics and other people of good will to grow in virtue and lead lives pleasing to You and of service to their brothers and sisters in need.  He encouraged them to embrace the 'Gospel of Life' by recognizing that in all its circumstances, 'Life is worth living.'

If it be according to Your Will, Eternal Father, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession
 for a safe and healthy remainder of the pregnancy and delivery in 9 days of baby Young one.  
I make this prayer confidently in Jesus' Name, through the merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection.   

Amen.

++Thank you, God, for the strength and ease you have brought to this pregnancy so far and our beautiful little blessing you have given us and all of our young ones.  Thank you for all the people praying and interceding for us for a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery, especially Venerable Fulton J. Sheen!!++

NOT an April Fool's joke....

I promise you!!  

I was one of those "naughty" people who claimed on Facebook that I was pregnant with twins on this day last year.  

I thought I'd better redeem myself this year....

EDD:  

November 9th, 2014 

(our little Rose's second birthday, actually!)

Will be closer to:  

the first week of October though (5 weeks early)

Prayers needed: 

This will be my eighth c-section.  I was breaking records with little Rose's delivery at our hospital but God decided that we should have another one.  It is all part of His perfect plan.  We know and trust that.  We will most definitely need another miracle, and we hope you will lift our beautiful baby and myself up in prayer along this journey, and most especially when the time comes closer to delivery.  Specifically, please pray for "a uterus of steel and healthy tissue".  I would greatly appreciate it if you spread the word with this prayer request as well - we need ALL the prayers we can get.  Thanks bunches!! 

And, as shown in the JOY our children shared with us about this beautiful, wonderful, amazing news, we can all use a little reminder....

"The greatest gift you can give your 

child is another sibling."

-Pope John Paul II

++Thank you, God, for this baby, whom we already love so much!!  We know and believe and trust in Your perfect plan!++

A "not so perfect" end of Lent and Holy Week

Phew!  It truly is Holy Week and the end of Lent, huh?  We started this week (or rather ended last week) with me fighting severe hives and an allergic reaction and I ended up being hospitalized Saturday and Sunday evening.  I came home Monday, but am fighting symptoms still, not to mention the nasty side-effects of being on steroids.  I had a kidney stone (blasting) surgery two-and-a-half weeks ago, and it's still unsure if medication given to me from that is what triggered my body to explode like this.  I am a mystery to the doctors right now and have many follow-up appointments in the next couple weeks to try to figure things out.  I was covered from head to foot in hives (literally!) and here a two pictures of my legs to show you how beautiful they were and a picture of my sweet little visitor who came in to say "hi" and bring me good cheer.... 

sweet smiley Rose....   it was SO hard being away from her those 2 nights while I was in the hospital! 

God is so amazing and wonderful, and comes to us "in flesh" when hard times and CrAzInEsS like this hits.  My family was amazing -- helped with kids throughout the day and overnight.  My mother and sister took me to the ER after my family medical doctor shooed me out of her office and sent me there right away.  My mom even stayed the night with me the first night (like she says - "once a mother, always a mother" - thanks, Mom!  I love you!!!!).  My older sisters ran Ariel's birthday party, which had to change last minute and only include cousins.  My sister-in-law brought a meal to feed our crew, a sweet friend stopped by to visit while I was in the hospital and left food/goodies at our house, another friend made a yummy meal, and not to mention, the countless emails, phone calls, messages from all our other family and friends.  God truly made His love and presence known and made bearing this cross much lighter and easier.  Thank you, God!!!

Now, like I said, all that happened at the start of the week....  Then we were hit with many deaths as the week went on.  Two of them were sisters that our children train with and are part of our TKD family - truly heartbreaking!!  Please pray for their family - their mother just gives and gives of herself for our TKD family and is almost always present when we are there for classes.  Her girls were always bouncing around and bubbly as ever, and will truly be missed.  The other death was the husband of our local Pro-life NFP doctor, and had a tragic death as well.  And, then we also found out that a sweet friend of mine lost her brother-in-law and we lost a wonderful lady from our parish.  May God send His love and presence to all the families involved in these deaths and may the faithful departed rest in peace....

We really went "all out" last year for both Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and enjoyed our Liturgical Teas to bring such beauty and meaning to these Holy Days.  But, being on survival mode all week and still today, we had to simplify our plans quite a bit.  For Holy Thursday, we thankfully made it to Mass and our sweet baby Olivia was one of the twelve to have had her feet washed.  It was absolutely *precious*!  She totally lit up when Msgr went to wash her piggies and of course, Msgr and the two deacons were all smiles as well.  What a beautiful bonding and gracefilled moment this was.  Probably similar to the gesture of love that our new Pope Francis made when he washed the feet of two women and shocked the world on the same day.  For today (Good Friday), I made a breakfast egg "crown" (made from crescent rolls and scrambled eggs), the kids colored some pictures and we were able to pull off a very simplified version of a Good Friday Liturgical Tea for dinner.  This added some comfort and tradition to our celebrations and although was served on paper plates (again -- we are still on "survival mode"), it was still very nice. 

a breakfast egg "crown" bake

crucifixion coloring pages

crucifixion coloring pages

crown of thorns (see this link from our 2012 post for more details)

crown of thorns refried bean dip (see this link from 2012 post for more details)

Here are some more pictures that show our "not so perfect" end of Lent and Holy Week.... as you can see, we became WAY behind on our Jesus tree with the CrAzY last couple weeks.  And, not all the kids got their coloring done on our REPENT cross....

2013 Jesus tree (looks like we'll still be adding a few pieces throughout the Easter season)

our 2013 REPENT cross and calendar

Although the last couple weeks haven't gone according to *our* plans, we still give our thanks and trust to our wonderful God, because all is perfect in His eyes and He always works everything out according to His plan. 

Very late update on our Max....

I had posted a prayer request for our Max back in April, asking for prayers since he woke up one day with crossed eyes, glasses didn't do anything to fix the crossing and the next stop was an MRI with contrast to rule out a lesion and the quick onset.  The MRI came back normal as can be - praise God!  And, the next step was to attempt eye surgery to correct the crossing.  What a blessing it was to be facing eye surgery instead of brain surgery!  Thank you, God!  Anyways, it's now been a few months since his surgery at the end of July, and I realized that I haven't shared an update - doh!  I am SO sorry this is late getting out.

Here are some pictures with his crossing (pre-surgery)....

Day OF surgery...

right before surgery

Home and resting after surgery - he slept almost all day and didn't open his eyes up 'til evening

Finally - eyes open, but still pretty squinty

 Days after the surgery/healing process....

day after surgery - note the sunglasses because of all the light sensitivity

5 days after surgery - still pretty sensitive to light - he loved his shades! 

Some recent pictures to show his straight eyes!!!  Amazing! 

 

Max has had two appointments with his eye doctor since surgery and the doctor is happy with his healing and how straight his eyes are.  He doesn't want to see him back in the office until the end of December.  Yay - because this kiddo needs a break!!  :)  

Thank you all for your prayers!!  

God has been so good to us and wrapped His arms around our wonderful Max in his time of need.  

Thank you, God!!!  <><

Update on our sweet Max

Last week, I posted and shared a prayer request for our Max.  He did AMAZING during the MRI.  He held so still and only moved when a Shrek song came on over the headphones ("Accidentally In Love")... he couldn't help himself and made an air guitar.  Hee, hee!!  They told him to "hold still" and he was a champ for the remainder of the test.  We are SO proud of him!  And, the best news of all is that it came back normal - praise God!!!  We went back in yesterday to his eye doctor and have eye surgery scheduled for July.  We'll gladly take eye surgery over brain surgery any day!  And, we have lots of time between now and then to see if his eyes shift any more.  Thank you all SO much for your prayers.  They were heard and answered!  We have one happy guy and a much relieved mom and dad!  Thank you God!!!!!!

Prayer request for our Max

About a month ago, Max started wearing glasses to help correct some eye crossing.  He developed his crossed eyes almost overnight a month before we took him in to get glasses.  I was very nervous because all the other people in my family (myself, my brother, my niece, my nephew) who have crossed eyes were born with them.  It was just worrisome to me that our Max never had crossed eyes at birth and the onset was very sudden.  When I called the pediatrician about it, he said the first step is always to try glasses and referred me to an eye doctor.  So, that's why he started wearing glasses in the first place.  It was a very light prescription, and was the first attempt to correct the crossing.  That was a month ago.  Here's a picture of him now....

The crossing has became drastically worse.  So, we went back to eye doctor this week.  He said to stop wearing the glasses - the prescription was very low anyways, and it was only given as an attempt to stop the crossing.  He said that his crossing jumped from a 10 degree to a 25 degree in a matter of a month, and we need to see if there is another cause.  So...  he ordered an MRI with contrast for this coming Monday to rule out a CNS lesion.  This was actually my first worry at the very beginning of why his eyes seemed to cross overnight....  Obviously, God is watching over Max and has a plan, regardless of what is found Monday.  We are hoping nothing is found and then just continue with a simple eye surgery to correct the crossing.  But, we know and trust God has a plan in this all.  We will update as soon as we have information.  Until then, can we count on Max being covered in prayer by all of you??