Welcome, Jackson William Mayer! Little Jackson was born to Amelia and Bill this morning at about 9:30 AM, weighing 5 lbs. 2 oz. and 19 inches long. Amelia, Jack, and Bill are doing well and are recovering after quite the adventure...
A couple of weeks ago Amelia had appendicitis and had to have an appendectomy -- and so far along in to her pregnancy the doctors weren't sure if it could send her in to labor. Adventure #1.
Fast forward to Friday and Adventure #2. Bill & Amelia decided to drive 8 hours to Denver to spend time with family for his nephew's First Holy Communion, even though Amelia was 35 weeks pregnant. Well, her water broke on Friday night - 8 hours from home and earlier than expected! They were admitted to the hospital where they awaited little Jack's arrival anxiously. She started contractions last night (Saturday - after a day at the hospital) and was able to have him naturally without having to go in for a C-section (thank God!).
Fortunately they are near family and Bill's parents rushed out to get them a car seat so they'd have something to bring the baby home in -- all their baby gear is at home in Dubois. Amelia says that they are doing well, exhausted, and so thankful for the support they are receiving from friends in prayer and family who are with them in Denver.
Keep Bill, Amelia, and Jack in your prayers as they wait to see when they can take him home to Wyoming.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A Living Pro-Life Legend
Tom and I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle this past weekend to attend the Knights of Columbus It's All About Life Conference with Father Frank Pavone.
Andrew posted about meeting Fr. Pavone over on the Anti-Choice Project website here.
Not only was Fr. Pavone an inspiration to continue the fight against abortion, but perhaps the most exciting moment for Tom & Andrew was when they got an "Atta boy!" from him regarding their work with the Anti-Choice Project. He was excited about the work that they have started and even offered to have them on his radio program. Quite a shot in the arm for this little pro-life organization.
Andrew posted about meeting Fr. Pavone over on the Anti-Choice Project website here.
Not only was Fr. Pavone an inspiration to continue the fight against abortion, but perhaps the most exciting moment for Tom & Andrew was when they got an "Atta boy!" from him regarding their work with the Anti-Choice Project. He was excited about the work that they have started and even offered to have them on his radio program. Quite a shot in the arm for this little pro-life organization.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A Father Frank moment
All of you old Shalomer friends of mine will likely appreciate this...
This is today's Gospel reading:
While I was doing my meditation this morning I just couldn't get out of my head one of Fr. Frank's most famous homilies: "Jesus as Light, or Jesus with a Clipboard." As I was praying I came to the conclusion that there really is a lot of wisdom here, mixed in with Fr. Frank's classic humor, of course.
Jesus as Light: As we draw closer to Christ, the Light, our lives necessarily become permeated more and more by His light, which exposes those blemishes and sins which keep us from Him. But it's a purging which is driven by love; sometimes no less painful, but motivated by love for the One who gave Himself for us.
On the other hand we have "Jesus with a Clipboard." This image of Jesus has as its motivation for pefection the fear of Christ's judgment of our sins. (Insert mental image of Fr. Frank pretending to pose with glasses on the tip of his nose looking down at a laundry list of our sins)
While I think it's good to have a healthy fear of Christ's just judgment, it's not enough to simply be afraid of doing wrong; we need to work toward that "perfect contrition" for our sins which has at its root pure love for God as the motivation behind our desire for pefection and all our good works.
Anyway, just a few things I've been thinking about today.
This is today's Gospel reading:
Jn 3:16-21
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light,so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
While I was doing my meditation this morning I just couldn't get out of my head one of Fr. Frank's most famous homilies: "Jesus as Light, or Jesus with a Clipboard." As I was praying I came to the conclusion that there really is a lot of wisdom here, mixed in with Fr. Frank's classic humor, of course.
Jesus as Light: As we draw closer to Christ, the Light, our lives necessarily become permeated more and more by His light, which exposes those blemishes and sins which keep us from Him. But it's a purging which is driven by love; sometimes no less painful, but motivated by love for the One who gave Himself for us.
On the other hand we have "Jesus with a Clipboard." This image of Jesus has as its motivation for pefection the fear of Christ's judgment of our sins. (Insert mental image of Fr. Frank pretending to pose with glasses on the tip of his nose looking down at a laundry list of our sins)
While I think it's good to have a healthy fear of Christ's just judgment, it's not enough to simply be afraid of doing wrong; we need to work toward that "perfect contrition" for our sins which has at its root pure love for God as the motivation behind our desire for pefection and all our good works.
Anyway, just a few things I've been thinking about today.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
I know, I know, it's been a month!
Well, I figured that after a month of not posting it was probably time for me to put some pictures on here. After doing one of these monthly update-type blogs I always kick myself for not keeping up better on our blog and resolve to do better...and I'm usually back here a month later. Maybe one of these days some of my friends will rub off on me and I'll do it at least weekly.
That said, here are some pictures from the past month.
Clare's in the phase where picking out her own interesting outfits is better than putting on anything that Mama could have picked out. If it gets quiet, I can usually safely assume that she's in her bedroom tearing apart her closet and dresser (yes, this is a daily occurence) and finding some really cute combinations. Here are a few:
Dressing up in Grammy's shoes and scarf
Wearing my sweatshirt -- and pretty darn proud of the fact that she got it over her head by herself
Her shirt is around her waist and she loves oven mitts
How in the world does bedhead like this happen?
Our trip to the park with Mary, Dominick, and some of her Herring aunties
Dom loved the baby swing. Clare...not so much. She wanted to swing by herself in the big kid swings. Independent little thing.
At the top of the big slide with Bex and Anna
Giving Daddy a daisy that she picked
She got on this rocking car thing all by herself and now it's her favorite thing to play on -- unless you count climbing on the monkey bars that are meant for big kids
Dom loves Tom and mauls him almost every time he sees him
We spent Easter with the Herrings and went to Mass at 8:15 (the girls' choir sang - they sounded like angels) then over to Tim & Theresa's to take a nap and get ready for the indoor egg hunt and afternoon dinner with the Sniders and our friends the Spinners whose whole family entered the Church just the night before at the Easter Vigil.
Clare and the beautiful Herring girls
Both grandbabies were ready for a nap and tired of this photo shoot in their Easter outfits. Thanks Uncle Matt & Aunt Jenny for the Easter dress -- Clare screams, "Pretty!" every time she sees it.
How do you get annoyed with the milk mess the kid makes with her cereal bowl when she's turned it in to a mini holy water font and is "blessing" herself with it?
Anna feeding the seagulls off the ferry on our way to Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo. We created quite a stir on the ferry and had people gathered at the windows watching and taking pictures of us feeding the birds. Apparently it wasn't something they'd seen before.
Clare and Dom got the best view of the elephants from atop Maddy & Angel's shoulders
It was a long day of walking around in the sun. I don't think Angel knew what she'd volunteered for when she offered to put Clare in the Ergo -- she ended up taking her nap here on poor Chich's back. You're a trooper!
That said, here are some pictures from the past month.
Clare's in the phase where picking out her own interesting outfits is better than putting on anything that Mama could have picked out. If it gets quiet, I can usually safely assume that she's in her bedroom tearing apart her closet and dresser (yes, this is a daily occurence) and finding some really cute combinations. Here are a few:
Dressing up in Grammy's shoes and scarf
Wearing my sweatshirt -- and pretty darn proud of the fact that she got it over her head by herself
Her shirt is around her waist and she loves oven mitts
How in the world does bedhead like this happen?
Our trip to the park with Mary, Dominick, and some of her Herring aunties
Dom loved the baby swing. Clare...not so much. She wanted to swing by herself in the big kid swings. Independent little thing.
At the top of the big slide with Bex and Anna
Giving Daddy a daisy that she picked
She got on this rocking car thing all by herself and now it's her favorite thing to play on -- unless you count climbing on the monkey bars that are meant for big kids
Dom loves Tom and mauls him almost every time he sees him
We spent Easter with the Herrings and went to Mass at 8:15 (the girls' choir sang - they sounded like angels) then over to Tim & Theresa's to take a nap and get ready for the indoor egg hunt and afternoon dinner with the Sniders and our friends the Spinners whose whole family entered the Church just the night before at the Easter Vigil.
Clare and the beautiful Herring girls
Both grandbabies were ready for a nap and tired of this photo shoot in their Easter outfits. Thanks Uncle Matt & Aunt Jenny for the Easter dress -- Clare screams, "Pretty!" every time she sees it.
How do you get annoyed with the milk mess the kid makes with her cereal bowl when she's turned it in to a mini holy water font and is "blessing" herself with it?
Anna feeding the seagulls off the ferry on our way to Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo. We created quite a stir on the ferry and had people gathered at the windows watching and taking pictures of us feeding the birds. Apparently it wasn't something they'd seen before.
Clare and Dom got the best view of the elephants from atop Maddy & Angel's shoulders
It was a long day of walking around in the sun. I don't think Angel knew what she'd volunteered for when she offered to put Clare in the Ergo -- she ended up taking her nap here on poor Chich's back. You're a trooper!
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