God bless,
Dana
Waiting in Faith |
21 years ago, today, I lost my dad to cancer. I've written a blog post about my mom, but I don't think I've ever written one about my dad. I thought this might be a good day to finally do that. I was only 13 when my dad died, so I don't have a whole lot of personal memories of him, I mostly have facts and stories that I've heard. The few personal memories that I do have are of a wonderful, loving father. My dad's name was Brent Alan, and I altered his middle name to Alyn for Bella's middle name to make it more girly. I remember that he always used to smell like freshly cut grass and sweat in the summer. I still cherish that smell, and often sniff my husband all over when he finishes cutting the grass. I think I was 9 or 10 when my mom graduated from nursing school, and she went right into working nights. So, between her needing to study, and then sleep in the daytime, I remember hanging out with my dad a lot, because he played the organ at church, taught piano lessons, and tuned pianos, so his schedule was pretty flexible. We used to play a lot of board games, especially Monopoly. He always kicked my butt at it until the cancer reached his brain. We also used to watch German opera while snuggling in the recliner. My favorite was Das Rhinegold, probably because it had mermaids and gold. ;-) In addition to those memories, I also know that he often played the piano for different theater productions, like A Christmas Carol (I was Tiny Tim), Once Upon A Mattress (the Princess and the Pea story - I have that one on VHS), and others. He loved being outside, working on the yard, and our yard always looked like a park. On to the prayer request. *Deep breath* So, last cycle, my Napro dr had me start taking a progesterone supplement. I hadn't been holding out much hope for this cycle, since I thought our timing had been less than ideal, but last night, as I was tucking Emma in, a bout of nausea hit me like a freight train. It was so bad, I had to go downstairs and eat some crackers before I could sleep. Today, it's been off and on, but just as bad. This is how my pregnancy with Michael started, but I'm trying not to get too excited or scared yet. However, if I am pregnant, I'm on much better supplements now for my body, and a baby aspirin, so this one would have a much better chance than Michael did (I found out about my MTHFR the same day I had my blood drawn that would inform me of my miscarriage 2 days later, so it was already too late for him, I just didn't know it yet). Please pray for me to have peace with whatever will happen in the next couple of weeks, and that if I am pregnant, that God will let us keep this one. Thanks!
God bless, Dana
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Wednesday morning, I finished reading A Single Bead. Later that same day, I started reading The Miracle Ship by Brian O'Hare. I had gone on a mom's night out with some other homeschool moms the Friday before, and one of the moms had gotten me alone, and told me about this book. She briefly described it, and the man that the book is about, and said she felt called to tell me about it, and have me read it. I immediately bought it on my Kindle app, but wanted to finish reading Stephanie's book first. Anyway, by Friday, I knew I wanted a physical copy that I could write in, highlight things, etc. By Saturday, I decided to buy 2 more copies to give to other people. Today was nothing short of God affirming to me that this book is every bit as awesome, and needed as I thought it was. I wanted to be able to go to confession this morning before Mass, which meant that I wanted to leave home by 10:30 instead of 11:00. Emma was in absolutely NO hurry to get out of the house. We finally were pulling out of the driveway around 10:45. As I was backing out of the driveway, I noticed Amazon packages on my porch. One of them had the book that I had ordered on Friday (I wasn't expecting it until at least later in the day)! I was so excited, and was looking forward to giving it to a good friend of mine at church (they normally go to the same Mass as us). As we were pulling into a parking spot at church, my friend and her family were walking to their car (they had gone to an earlier Mass today). I grabbed the book, hurried over, and caught her just in time to quickly describe the book, and give it to her! If I had gotten there when I wanted to, I wouldn't have seen her, and would've thought they just weren't there. If I had been 30 seconds later, I would've missed them! I don't want to do a full book review (yet?) about The Miracle Ship, because I've only read about 25% so far, but I will say enough to help you understand how cool the rest of my morning was. :-) So, the whole book is about this (REAL) layman who lives in Ireland. He had a hip deformity that wasn't caught early enough to be healed in conventional ways, and he suffered immense pain and disability from it for years. He never lost faith that God would heal him, and prayed for years. Anyway, one day he finds a book at a library that changed the way he prayed. His hip was eventually healed, and God asked him to heal other people. He can apparently just talk to a person on the phone, and know if there is a demonic element to their suffering, if there was a curse put on an ancestor of theirs who needs a few prayers or a Mass said for them, or if they just need physical healing, and he can pray for them, and they miraculously are healed, or are at total peace with whatever it is until they are healed, or until the end of their earthly life, whichever God Wills. Anyway, the main themes of this book are love, charity, faith, hope, and gratitude to God. Anyway, the opening hymn at Mass today was "Lord of All Hopefulness", which, if you don't know, is set to an Irish folk tune. Then, we immediately went into Psalm 31:2-3, which reads "Be unto me a God, a Protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for You are my strength and my refuge: and for Your name's sake You will lead me, and nourish me." Then Psalm 31:1, "In You, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in Your justice, and save me."
The first reading was from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, which is when Paul talks about the importance and characteristics of charity (love). Even the Gradual and the Tract were echoes of the messages in the book, from Psalm 77:14-15 and Psalm 100:1,2 respectively. Psalm 77:14-15 reads "You are the God Who alone does wonders: You have made Your power known among the nations. With Your arm You have delivered Your people, the children of Israel and of Joseph." Psalm 100:1,2 "Sing joyfully to God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness. Come in before His presence with exceeding great joy: know that the Lord is God. He made us, and not we ourselves: but we are his people and the sheep of His pasture." The Gospel reading from Luke 18:31-43 had Jesus healing a man, and telling him that it was his faith that had saved him. The homily was about the importance of charity. Even the Communion verse from Psalm 78:29,30 "They did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and the Lord gave them their desire: they were not defrauded of that which they craved." It isn't often that EVERY aspect of the Mass feels as though it were meant specifically for me to hear. I can't wait to get my other two books, so I can share them too! I'll see one of the intended recipients tomorrow afternoon. Wouldn't it be cool if I got it delivered in time to give it to her? I just had share how AWESOME I felt today. I can't even describe the level of joy and gratitude to God that I felt during the Mass today. It was almost to the level of distraction. :-) God Bless! Dana I've loved books and reading since I was very little, but I'm not normally a "book review person". I might tell a friend or two, but I think the last book review/book report type thing I've written was probably in high school. However, after just finishing my friend, Stephanie's book A Single Bead, I just had to share in a more public way! I'll try really, really hard not to spoil anything. It all starts when 16 year old Katelyn finds a bead from her grandmother's rosary a year after her grandmother's plane crashes, at a memorial. Her grandmother had prayed the rosary nearly constantly, and had a special rosary made with all of her children's initials on a bead, and then their spouses', and then their children's. Not only does Kate find A bead, she finds HER bead. Right away, as she's trying to process her discovery, the family goes to eat at a real restaurant in Danville, Indiana, the Mayberry Cafe, which I've driven past many times and eaten at once or twice. There, she meets Chelsea, an employee who sees Kate's bead, and mentions a similar bead that she found and gave to a friend. After talking to Chelsea later in more detail, Kate finds out about a miracle connected with the bead, and attempts to find more beads. Meanwhile, her mother is not very strong in her faith, and her dad appears to be an atheist, so her cousins, aunts, and priest uncle help her in her search the most, although, her dad does help her create flyers. Her mother is battling severe depression, and Kate hopes to find her mother's bead, thinking that it will boost her faith, and help her get back to being herself. Several more miracles are found, and by the end of the book, I pretty much had tears in my eyes the whole time. It's really, a very beautiful, inspiring book! The ending begs for a sequel, which I hope Stephanie will be able to write at some point. It's aimed at teenagers, but this almost 35 year old LOVED it! It does deal with depression, and there is a small section about drugs, so if you have younger kids, I would read it first (honestly, I would anyway, it's AWESOME!), and decide for yourself if you think they could handle it, or maybe read it together and discuss. I'm just bursting with pride that my daughter's godmother wrote just a beautiful book! I'm so proud of her, and so happy for her that she was able to get it close enough to published that she didn't have to do much other than advertise before her husband's heart attack.
I hope you all read it, and enjoy it as much as I did! God Bless, Dana |
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September 2017
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