Thank you!

My prayer buddy Faith Makes Things Possible sent me the sweetest gift in the mail! She sent me a lovely bracelet with images of the saints and the Holy Family; three holy hour prayer cards (one for me, my husband and Tommy) and the most adorable frame for Tommy's room. I absolutly love this quote from 1 Samuel and was hoping to find it for the nursery. Thank you so much!

Dr. Gianna - your gift will be on its way shortly. Time has really gotten away from me. :(

My new normal

I continue to settle into my new normal life with Tommy. It's been a wonderful summer just hanging out at home. I am curious about the transition now that school is about to start. I was there on Monday and Tuesday for the catechist class I'm teaching, on Wednesday for the opening faculty meeting and tomorrow for another meeting. I won't have to go in at all next week, and then the students arrive after Labor Day.

I am blessed to be involved with so many different ministries - I'm giving a talk to engaged couples this Saturday, we have youth group this Sunday night and of course cantoring for Mass. I enjoy them all and thankfully I can stay connected and still be a full time mom. My husband is amazing and he loves taking care of Tommy when I have other commitments.

Tonight was my Women's Prayer Group and I just love those gals. We have all gone through various struggles and obstacles over the past two years. Tonight we were rejoicing in God's faithfulness and mercy. We have each found joy in God's blessings and it was so beautiful to share it together. God is good.

Tommy continues to grow and change so much each day. He is the sweetest little guy and I love watching his personality develop! I can't wait to see the person he grows up to become.

Lately he can't keep his fingers out of his mouth. He's almost always sucking away at them! He has also found his toes and grabs them all the time. He's getting pretty good at grabbing lots of things - toys, books, and pretty much anything. He loves to lay on his mat and grab and kick at the toys dangling above him.

The most fun development is how much he interacts with us. He is constantly smiling and even giggling now. He "talks" (coos) all the time - especially when he's alone. I think he likes to hear his own voice when it's quiet.

This week he graduated from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his nursery. Ahh! He has adjusted pretty well for the most part. He weighs almost 14 pounds and he's getting so heavy to carry! I love him more and more every day.

Here are a couple of videos that my brother took during their visit.

Catching up....

Whew! We have had an incredibly busy couple of weeks! Now I am trying to get caught up on life, and it's going to be another busy week ahead. I am teaching the catechist class at my school today and tomorrow. Then Wednesday is the beginning of the back-to-school meetings for all teachers. I'm not sure how much I have to be there since I'm only teaching one class this year, I guess I will figure it out!

Tommy's Baptism was so special. My brother and sister-in-law were in town from Thursday to Monday and my parents were in town from Friday to Friday. It was so great to spend time with them, relax and just hang out together. They were a huge help for the party at our house! I am so grateful they traveled from CA to share this time with us.

My brother S and sister-in-law N

Tommy with his Godmother

Tommy and Grandpa

Before the Sacrament...


The Baptism


It was great to have both Fr. B (new priest at our parish) and Msgr P (priest who married us and has been my spiritual director)

Tommy was so good during the ceremony! At first he was asleep, but then he woke up when Msgr. P was speaking. Tommy sat up straight and stared at him with his big, blue eyes. It was so funny because I think it caught Msgr off guard - he kept saying, "Wow, Tommy is really listening to me. I think we have a future priest on our hands." :)

He didn't make a peep the entire time and seemed to enjoy the water and the chrism. Is there any sweeter smell than chrism on a baby's head? We enjoyed it for a couple of days! Oh, and I already posted a picture of him up-close in the gown. I think I've mentioned this before, but it's been worn by four generations. My husband's great-grandmother made it for his grandma to wear. Since then it has been worn by almost all his uncles, cousins and their children. I had to drop it in the mail this week because another cousin needs it in two weeks!

The Baptism was short and sweet and then we came back to our house for a little lunch. Here are a few pictures from the party.


Tommy looks a little nervous with these big kids

My cousin and her family drove down from PA to be here and meet Tommy!

I was praying for...

...Doctor Gianna at The Children I Cannot Hold!

It was a joy to pray for this lovely blogger, mother and physician. I offered up novenas, Masses, Rosarys, and morning prayers. I prayed especially through the intercession of St. Gianna (for obvious reasons!) I have a lovely prayer card and medal from the Shrine of St. Gianna that I kept in my Magnificat. She was on my mind a lot and I offered up a quick little prayer every time she crossed my mind. I prayed that the Lord would bless her marriage, son, pregnancy and her work as a physician.

I also prayed through the intercession of Our Lady - she is such a powerful intercessor! I wanted to make a novena leading up to the Assumption, but I have been pretty distracted with Tommy's Baptism and house guests. So I still owe Doctor Gianna one more novena.

I will leave you with a picture of Tommy from his special day. I will write more later after my family leaves.

Three Months

Tommy is three months old today! It's hard to believe how quickly the time has flown. We are busy around here because his Baptism is this Saturday. My brother and sister-in-law arrived this morning and my parents arrive tomorrow. It's going to be a great weekend!

Good Friends

I am so blessed by the wonderful friends in my life. It has been a whirlwind of visitors during these past couple of months since everyone has been excited to meet Tommy. I don't think we've had this many people over in the previous five years of living in this house! I love spending time with these great people and am so grateful for their friendship.

I used to work with my good friend C before I started teaching. I'm so glad that we've stayed close and that he finally met Tommy!


My friend A was a teacher at my school and she came over yesterday with a delicious lunch. We love going out for happy hour and I look forward to sharing our next bottle of wine!


And I can't believe I forgot my camera today when I spent the afternoon with Mrs. Mike!! We had met once before at a dinner with a group of ladies last year (see this link) and have always wanted to get together since then. Today it finally happened!

She is the sweetest gal and we could have chatted forever. Her two sweet boys greeted me at the door. They were a little shy and yet I could tell they were excited to have visitors and to meet my little Tommy.

Mrs. Mike's house is lovely and there was fresh bread and cinammon rolls baking - yum! She made the most delicious lunch (I need that recipe!) and we talked all afternoon about infertility, adoption, motherhood, suffering, faith, etc. She showed me her collection of slings which she makes - I was so impressed. I look forward to getting together again - especially once her baby girl arrives in just a couple of weeks!

I will leave you a picture of Tommy's latest obsession - his fingers! He can't stop sucking on them. :)

Pilgrimage: Part 8

I have decided to finish blogging about our pilgrimage. Tommy's arrival interrupted my posting about our trip. Hmmm, I wonder why??? ;)

We had such an amazing experience in Rome. I would love to share it with you and also write it down for posterity sake. I linked my previous pilgrimage posts on the right side under my profile in case you want to read or re-read about our time in Lourdes, Toulouse and Roma.

Thursday, April 1st - Holy Thursday
Our international cell phone came in handy a few times on this trip. We also used it each morning as our alarm clock, so that was really helpful. We quickly got ready that morning so we could meet Fr. Charlie at 8:15am outside of St. Peter's. (We had just arrived in Rome the night before and were too late to pick up our tickets to the Chrism Mass. Fr. Charlie was a friend-of-a-friend living in Rome that we had never met, but he helped us get tickets. In a crazy turn of events he is now back home and assigned to our parish!)

We easily spotted Fr. Charlie in our meeting place - one of the Bernini fountains - and he gave us the tickets. A line was already forming, so we quickly joined it. After chatting with him for a bit, he realized that the priests were entering through a separate door. Apparently the Chrism Mass is the one Mass all year that any priest can con-celebrate with the Holy Father. We said good-bye and he went in through the special entrance.

Before coming to Rome we had been told that the Chrism Mass is one of the least-attended of all the Papal Masses during Holy Week - especially since the Mass of the Last Supper is the same evening and most people want to attend that one. It was relatively easy to get into this Mass: the line was orderly and moved quickly, we easily went through security and a metal-detector, and found pretty good seats inside St. Peter's. (We didn't know it at the time, but it would be much more difficult to get into the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services.)

This view never gets old: They are pretty strict about the dress code in St. Peter's. This sign was posted near the entrance - apparently no bathing suits allowed! Ha ha... The famous Swiss guards are stationed everywhere. It was pretty surreal to enter St. Peter's for Mass. We had visited the night before, but it was different this time knowing we would be celebrating Mass with the Pope! We were given Mass programs when we entered - really they were little books. It had all the music, readings and parts of the Mass written in both Italian and Latin. Even though we don't speak either of those languages, it was pretty easy to follow along. It helped that I had brought my Magnificat with me, so I was glad that I could follow the readings in English.

We don't attend Mass in Latin very often, but it was so beautiful to experience it here - especially with the Holy Father and during Holy Week. I was so overwhelmed thinking about the hundreds of years of Masses that were celebrated in this very place. Our faith and our Church is so beautiful!

As you can see in this picture we got there pretty early and sat as close as we could, but a TON of seats in the front were reserved for the priests - since so many were con-celebrating. (Notice all the nuns??? You'd be amazed at how pushy there were!) Before Mass began it took at least 30 minutes for all the priests, bishops and cardinals to process in. I couldn't believe how many there were! I spotted Fr. Charlie processing in, although it was tough to get a good picture. (He's the young priest with glasses.) You can see the long line of bishops wearing their miters (tall hats.) Once Mass was ready to begin all the lights came on. It was breath-takingly beautiful! One thing I realized during this trip (after visiting TONS of churches) is that most churches leave the lights off unless Mass is being celebrated. I was so grateful that we could see St. Peter's in all its glory. Another piece of advice we were given is that if you can't sit near the front, you should at least try to sit as close as possible to the aisle - this way you can be close to the Holy Father when he enters and exits. We ended up sitting four seats in - not too bad - and we had a SPECTACULAR view of the Pope!

The procession started and more bishops and/or cardinals processed in. At last the Holy Father entered! Everyone was cheering, standing on chairs and taking pictures! You can see that his secret service stays very close to protect him. We were so close to him! I couldn't believe it.
The Swiss guards processed in and out with him. Seriously, I will never get over the size and grandeur of this place. Just look at how huge the walls are compared to the people! Can you see the Pope on the altar in this picture? Obviously we were pretty far back, but it was so thrilling to celebrate Mass with him!
Since it was the Chrism Mass the holy oils were blessed. Can you believe the size of the vassel that they rolled in? Recessional
My husband got some video with his phone at the end of Mass.

I love watching this video because it brings me right back to that moment. People were very respectful and orderly during the processional. But at the end of Mass it got a little chaotic. (It seems that this happens each time.) Even before the Pope exited people began picking up chairs and stacking them so they could move as close to the aisle as possible. People began standing on chairs to have a better view. (I almost fell off mine, to the complete embarrassment of my husband!)

I couldn't believe how pushy the nuns were! It was hilarious to watch them, especially once the Holy Father was gone - we watched these really old nuns stack chairs and push their way towards the doors.

To be continued...

Date Night

Well, actually it was a date afternoon... but we went out for the first time without Tommy! My husband got me tickets to see "Mary Poppins" (the musical) for Valentine's Day. It was sooooo good!

We love going to the theater whenever we can, especially the Kenn.edy Cen.ter - it's a special place to us because my husband proposed on the rooftop terrace! It has the most beautiful view of the city. When we were dating we would often go there to see the free shows. Here is a picture of the theater at night. As you can see it overlooks the Potomac River.


Needless to say, last February 14th we had no idea that Tommy would be in our lives on July 31st when he got these tickets. Since he is 11 weeks old and has been such an easy baby, we thought it would be a good time for his first babysitter.

My dear, sweet friend S offered to babysit him and I can't thank her enough!! She is a Nurse Practitioner and has worked as a Pediatric Nurse. It doesn't get much better than that. My husband was joking with friends that she meets our "minimuim standards" for babysitters. :)

But more than that, she is a good friend and was so kind to offer up her day. We have gotten to know each other in our women's prayer group and she is just so sweet. It was such a gift to know that we could get out for a few hours and feel totally comfortable with her watching him. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life.

Thank you S!!