Pondered In My Heart

On this Ash Wednesday

In your charity please pray for a family who lost seven of their eight children in a farm house fire last night. God help them through this unspeakable grief.

 

ATC Update

 

Edited to Add: Please don't worry if you didn't get your cards mailed by the 31st! Several folks are sending them out on Tuesday, June 1st due to the holiday weekend and that is fine! This is supposed to be fun, not stressful, and we are most certainly flexible! Thank you all for joining in!

Cards for the Marian ATC swap are starting to arrive in our mailbox! It's very exciting! And so much fun!

You can peek around at some blogs to see what other artists young and old have been up to.  It's not too late to join in - the more the Mary-er! (see my original post for details) Check out these beautiful cards Lacy's four year old daughter made (scroll down to see the ATC's). They are so sweet - I want to trade with her! J I especially enjoy seeing busy mothers taking some time to create artwork for Our Lady. Relaxing a bit and engaging in creativity and beauty is always a good thing. Just shoot me an email to join the swap.

And here's an ATC Lydia made to remind us all to pray often for sweet little Lily who has been through so much. And she's still smiling! Can you say a few prayers for her and her mama too? They still have a long way to go. I'm sure Miss Lily would be so grateful.

  

 

Of the Cross

With Christ I am nailed to the cross: but I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself for me, alleluia, alleluia. Introit (Galatians 2:19-10)

If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Alleluia. Communion (1Peter 4:13)

I went to Mass this evening with the intention of praying for the grieving mothers who are right now mourning the loss of their dear wee babes whom they will never get to meet here on this earth, and found these words of today's propers for the feast of St. Paul of the Cross most fitting. May they feel Our Lady's comfort where she is so often found, at the foot of the Cross.

More Heartbreak

 

Please pray for yet another grieving mother left holding her beloved son in her arms. Dear Colleen's sweet baby Bryce has died in his sleep this afternoon. May Our Lady, who knows the exquisite pain of this piercing sword so well, wrap this family in her loving care. Let us keep this precious family uplifted in prayer - prayer that sustains and buoys and brings peace and comfort in the midst of so much pain.

There is also a memorial fund established to cover material needs at this time.

Requiem Aeternam

Just a little reminder to please keep the Barretts in your prayers today especially as they bury their beloved son, and pray for all of their local family and friends attending the funeral as well. Their community has come together in such a loving and supportive way to sustain them through these difficult days, but the final closure of a funeral can be the hardest. So many young people are mourning the loss of a friend as well, many of them facing the death of a child for the first time. Most of you have already read Mary Ellen's beautiful and gracious words and know of her compassion even in this time of excruciating pain. Please let's keep them lifted up and bathed in prayer throughout this day, and as they begin to live the rest of their earthly lives without their dear boy.

Also, don't miss this beautiful story of the bishop at his wake, and information about where to send donations is here. (How can you not love supporting a group called the 'Friar Suppliers'?) You can also read some of Mary Ellen's previous writings about Ryan here and here.

from the Collect of Mass on the Day of Burial:

O God, whose property is ever to have mercy and to spare, we humbly entreat Thee on behalf of the soul of Thy servant Ryan, whom Thou hast bidden this day to pass out of this world: that Thou wouldst not deliver him into the hands of the enemy nor forget him for ever, but command him to be taken up by the holy Angels, and to be borne to our home in paradise, that as he had put his faith and hope in Thee he may not undergo the pains of hell but may possess everlasting joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost God, world without end. Amen.

from the Epistle:

Brethern: We will not have you ignorant concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope; for as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them who have slept through Jesus, will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who have slept. For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven, with commandment, and with the voice of an Archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord. Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Tears

Please continue to pray for Mary Ellen and her whole family as they mourn the loss of their beloved son Ryan. It was with devastating shock and sadness that I read the news of his passing. I have been praying all day for Mary Ellen and Dave and the children as they undertake this most heavy burden of sorrow and grief, the pain that every parent hopes and prays to be spared in this life. I daresay losing a special needs child gives the grief an even greater, more poignant sting if that is possible, because the natural desire to love and protect our children is magnified with the child who needs us more, who is understood only by us. I've had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Mary Ellen and hearing her speak of her unique parenting journey with her special son. Oh, how she loved her dear, sweet boy, always striving to understand him and meet his needs and devoted to helping him make his way in this confusing world. She embraced her special mothering with such fervor and devotion. My heart just breaks for her aching, aching heart. I pray Our Dear Blessed Mother, who knows this pain and sorrow so well, wraps Mary Ellen and her family in her loving arms and comforts them in the folds of her mantle. We do not know why they have been chosen for this particular heavy cross, but we do know God provides the grace to abide in His will. Mother Mary keep them close and hold them tight as they endure this most exquisite grief. May they know peace in the midst of this deep, deep loss.

Urgent Prayer Request!

Please pray for Mary Ellen's Barrett's autistic son Ryan who left on a father /son campout on Thurs. morning and as of Thursday evening at 5:00 PM he has been missing.

I expect any new updates will be posted on Mary Ellen's blog.

Devastating Sadness

Offering prayers and sympathy for Amy Welborn whose husband died suddenly this morning.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.

And grant unto her, O Lord, the faith and the strength, the trust and the peace, and the grace, so much grace, to face the rest of her life, and her children's lives, without her angel, her Michael.

Thank You and More Please

Eliza has stopped vomiting but isn't taking in much yet. Josiah got sick last night and remains quite ill. Mary Rose just started. Thank you all so very much for praying and please don't stop. This is one wicked bug.

Update

This is Josiah posting- Eliza is getting better, but now Dad and Jonathan are sick.

Prayers Please

Kateri and I are recovering from a nasty stomach virus that struck us on Friday. But today Eliza woke up with it and it is hitting her with a fury. Any prayers you can offer for this sweet one who is suffering so would be greatly appreciated.

Deo Gratias!!!

She's here!

Praising God for another little one safely delivered into the beautiful and loving Foss Family!

And Thank You to Our Lady and St. Joseph and good St. Anne and St. Elizabeth and St. Therese and St.Gerard and St. Padre Pio and St. Faustina and... well it's All Hallows Eve so why don't we just thank them all!

Prayer Request

Please pray for the repose of the soul of James, the beloved teen aged son of friends of ours, and for his parents and sister as they suffer the grief of his tragic sudden death.

Our homeschool community is just filled with so much sadness. And please just hug your children and hold them close and love them well - the cute little baby ones and the great big hairy ones and all the others in between.

O gentlest heart of Jesus,

ever present in the Blessed Sacrament,
ever consumed with burning love
for the poor captive souls in Purgatory,

have mercy on the soul

of thy departed servant.

Be not severe in Thy judgement

but let some drops of

Thy Precious Blood

fall upon the devouring flames,

and do Thou, O Merciful Saviour,

send Thy Angels to conduct

Thy departed servant to a place

of refreshment, light and peace. Amen.

May the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Heartfelt Prayers

Please pray for seven year old Kathryn, Jenn's niece, who will be undergoing heart surgery on Monday February 4th. This will be her fourth open heart surgery. Previous attempts to repair her valve have not succeeded and she needs to have it replaced. Please keep her and her family in your prayers as they endure this painful and frightening time. May the Lord give them peace and strength and Our Lady keep them comforted in her loving care. Pray also for the surgeon and other doctors, that the Great Physician may guide their hands and minds as they perform their life saving work.

Jesus, I trust in You!

Pray for the Princess!

I just peeked in at the Castle and it seems like Helen might be in labor! Please keep these dear ones in your prayers throughout the day. May Our Lady bless and keep Helen and Baby safe within her care.

Edited to add this wonderful update from Alice:

Our Lady of Altagracia's gift to Helen's family arrived today. Here is the joyful message sent by Helen's husband:

Ave Maria! Baby was born at 2:40pm, after a 6 hr labor. She weighs 7lbs14oz and looks great! She is already nursing peacefully. Helen has a tremendous sense of relief and is doing great. Thank you for your prayers!

God is good!!!!!

Sick and Back Again

I walk down the hall carrying my clipboard of med sheets, thermometer and box of assorted drugs. I glance at the name on the medication bottle, making sure it matches the name on the door. I knock quietly, announcing myself as I enter the room, "I'm your night nurse and I'm here to check your temperature and give you your meds."  "Would you like a compress for your eyes? Is there anything else you need? Goodnight. Sleep well." I jot notes on my paper and move down the hall to the next room.

This isn't some sort of flashback to my night nurse days. I do after all kiss each patient goodnight (well, I rumple the hair of the male ones), and the young ones giggle while the big ones smirk at the routine. This is a snapshot of life around here the past ten days or so as we've all been rather ill. I think I've finally stopped coughing enough to be able to type and even make sentences.

The essentials: thermometer, Tylenol, holy water, honey.

And this time last Sunday we were in the middle of our nine and a half hour marathon visit to the Emergency Room.

Eliza had been enduring a nasty cold, but it hadn't really affected her behavior. In fact, I had planned to take Kateri (who had been running a fever) and her in to the pediatrician on Saturday morning, but when they woke up afebrile and were happily singing and dancing around together I changed my mind. On Sunday Eliza woke up her usual jolly self. I put Rachel on and was getting her yogurt ready when she suddenly got all weird - there's no other way to explain it. She sat down and started to cry and wanted me to hold her and she clung to me alternatively whimpering and sobbing. It was very sudden and very strange and very scary given her cardiac history. When I tried to put her back down she wouldn't stand but sat down crying. The only clue she gave us to her ailment was to say 'knee' while she rubbed it sorrowfully. But it wasn't like she could have injured herself, as I was with her the whole time. Michael came home from church just then and I gave her to him and he was surprised at how limp she was, not even lifting her head to greet him. He really started to worry when he realized she would not even turn her head to look at Signing Time. Her condition did not seem to be improving so we dashed her off to the ER. She whimpered and moaned and cried for the whole ride, rubbing her knee, totally pathetic.

At the ER they x-rayed her knee and leg and also her chest to rule out pneumonia. When they tried to make her walk she cried and limped. Her blood counts and electrolytes were normal. They gave her IV fluids as she was somewhat tachycardiac and dehydrated. She was examined by a parade of doctors who took their turns trying to figure out what was wrong. Her knee x-ray did show a small abnormal area, so orthopedic doctors were brought in for consultation. They feared an infection had settled in her bone- quite a serious condition.

During all of this she remained a limp dishrag; her sad little body conformed to her dear Daddy's big strong one. If Michael tried to adjust or reposition her even the slightest bit she would wake up and cry. After many hours like this he was finally able to put her down. She sat on the bed and looked at a book, the most active she had been all day. But it wiped her out and she fell back to sleep. After a time she woke up again, and this time she really started to perk up. She had some yogurt and started talking. She colored and chatted with Kateri. She got out of bed and was able to walk fine, investigating the room and even kneeling down to peer under the cupboards. She didn't appear to have any type of pain or discomfort at all. It was evening by now, and the doctors wanted to admit her and observe her overnight and do a MRI on her knee in the morning to investigate further. She really surprised them when she went padding down the hallway, all smiles, as they stood there writing up her admission papers.  As they weren't planning any treatment for the night they agreed she could go home and come back in the morning for the MRI. We were overjoyed to take home our happy, smiling girl.

On Monday our pediatrician put Eliza on antibiotics for a sinus infection and tonsillitis, but she thought the knee problem was most likely a benign bone cyst. If she really had osteomyelitis (bone infection) the knee would be red and swollen and far too painful to walk on, but Eliza has had no further knee pain. She has been feeling better every day and is now back to her happy, active self.

Kateri had started spiking fevers again, so she was put on an antibiotic and is now mostly recovered from a nasty croupy cough. The older children just had regular cold symptoms and low grade fevers. The big girls all had the added infirmary of conjunctivitis. Not the pink-itchy-watery-eyes kind, but a horribly-bloodshot-very-painful-terribly-swollen-eyelids- kind. And I was sick too on top of it all - very unusual as I can't even remember the last time I've been sick. So we were a sorry sight and sound - Eliza, Kateri and I waking every hour or two throughout the night to sit up and cough together. Kateri lived in the sling for a solid week. You know what it's like - thermometers and Tylenol and tissues (one day Josiah used 172 of them - he was so bored just blowing his nose all day he counted) and orange juice and trying to get sticky medicines into screaming coughing babies and your brain is a blur of thoughts held together only by one long never ending string of Memorares winding through it all.

I almost forgot the other exciting part. On Tuesday they called from the ER to tell us Eliza's blood cultures were positive and we should bring her straight back to the ER for IV antibiotics. The doctor who called must not have known her history, because when he heard she was already on a strong oral antibiotic he thought that was adequate. We called our pediatrician to let her know, and she promptly sent us to the cardiologist for an echocardiogram to check things out. This is where my nurse brain and mommy brain collided in a most horrible melange of thoughts and fears; terms like acute bacterial endocarditis and septicemia whirled through my brain while I visualized bacteria colonizing on the leaflets of Eliza's little makeshift mitral valve. But her cardio exam proved totally benign and the doctor felt the cultures must have been contaminated as Eliza had no physical evidence of such a serious infection. We practically jumped up and down in the office as the cardiologist declared the situation a "false alarm."

We are finally (almost) all better! It could be tempting to be frustrated that we really don't know what was wrong with Eliza last week but we are just so thankful that whatever it was, it has resolved and she is well. Michael and I were completely overwhelmed with gratitude last Sunday when we got home and found that so very many dear blogging friends had been praying fervently for her, as well as countless others who read those posts. The Lord is kind and merciful and we are ever so grateful.

One thing is certain, Michael and I will not soon forget the picture captured only in our minds of sweet little Eliza sitting on the hospital gurney.  Several times throughout our stay she spontaneously folded her little hands as best she could with the awkward IV board, bowed her fatigued little head and said 'pray', and then recited the Hail Mary. (She's improved quite a bit, and can say about every other word now.) It was too precious, and I believe Our Lady surely did hear her and everyone else's prayers.

I will end this already too-long post with this most appropriate prayer of thanksgiving sent to me by dearest Alice:

"O Jesus, eternal God, I thank You for Your countless graces and blessings. Let every beat of my heart be a new hymn of thanksgiving to You, O God. Let every drop of my blood circulate for You, Lord. My soul is one hymn in adoration of Your mercy. I love you, God, for Yourself alone."

--from Saint Faustina's diary

Jonathan takes back-to-her-smiling-self-Eliza outside for her naptime walk. She's waving her thanks for all the prayers!!!

Another Soul

Michael and his Grandma, circa 2000

In your charity, please pray for the soul of Michael's grandmother Bernice who passed away just past midnight last night. She would have been 99 next month. She will be greatly missed.

Following the great feast of All Saints on November 1st is the commemoration of All Souls Day on November 2nd. After attending Mass in the morning we visited a cemetery in the afternoon to pray. Father T. blessed the graves of the priests and bishops buried there and we prayed for all of the dead.

Catholics continue to pray especially throughout the month of November, the month dedicated to the Holy Souls, for the souls of all our loved ones and those who have no one to pray for them.

Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Sadness

Please keep dear, sweet Bridget and her family in your prayers as they mourn the loss of another precious little one. Mothers are given the privilege of bringing new life into the world and experiencing one of the deepest joys on earth. But that leaves us open to the risk of the deepest, darkest sorrows as well. This is one of the hardest times to say not my will but Thine be done. May the sweet peace that passes understanding be her balm.

Prayer Request

Sweet Muddy Mama has asked for prayers for this Sweet Baby who will be having heart surgery soon. One of the greatest joys of our Faith is joining together in prayer for those in need. When our Eliza had her surgery so many, many people prayed for her and it was such a comfort to us. Please keep little Erin in your prayers that her surgery is successful and without complication. Thank you, and I'm sure little Erin would thank you too if she could from the bottom of her soon-to-be-mended heart.