Prayers Needed

Beloved friends and family, please join me in prayer...

* for the Yllescas Family, who lost their brave soldier yesterday.  He was fighting an uphill battle recovering from an IED incident in Afghanistan when a blood clot in his brain took him too soon.  They are so dearly on our hearts.  Rob served with a friend of ours from Fort Carson.  He leaves behind a wife and two daughters, along with many friends and family.

* for friends of ours, Quinn and TJ, who just learned their precious babe in utero (~14 weeks gestation) has a potentially life-threatening condition.  Nothing will be certain until birth, but they are currently overwhelmed by statistics and fear, clinging to hope in our Lord.  They would *love* your prayers for each moment they have with their baby.  

On Joy

Joy.

It comes from an outpouring of spirit... of goodness... of light.

It comes from knowing Christ.  

I am convinced our world needs more of it.  Quite simply, if we all spent 1 additional minute being a little more joyful, a little less impatient, a little more benevolent, our communities would be a more joyful, pleasing places to dwell.  

Mimi reflected on this sentiment today after hearing a wonderful homily on being more joy-filled.  How often, the priest reflected, do we allow joy to infiltrate only certain areas of our lives, while suppressing it in others?  Take, for example, his joy in celebrating the Mass, but his undeniable New York road rage.  Did he really have to be that stubborn in preventing the other car from merging into his lane? 

I can totally relate.  While certain parts of my day-to-day are quite joyful--i.e. breakfast with the kids, outings in the car, storytime at night--others pale in comparison.  And while I would argue that I don't have to appear outwardly joyful at all times (who can really accomplish that anyway?), I can allow more joy into my tougher moments, which might help to soften them and make them more Christ-like.  

Battling for the shortest line at the grocery store = an opportunity for joy.  

Offering up a closer parking spot to the lady in the SUV = an even greater opportunity.

Loving one's children through the ups and downs = joyjoy.

Have a blessed, joyful Sunday!!

A Great Morning!

Hello dear ones!

I am happy to report a wonderful visit to the doctor today and a negative ultrasound scan of the breast lump I found. The doc said he has "no reason to be concerned" and we're going to keep an eye on the spot as the pregnancy progresses. Thanks be to God and thank you for your prayers!

While lying on the scanning table waiting for the doctor to arrive, I have to say I found much comfort in offering you all up in prayer. Your prayer requests have been resonating inside my head and shooting forth heavenward as often as I'm able to shoot them! Just know you've been prayed for today... :)

And one last prayer concern, if I might add. This beautiful girl's story came to my attention via the blog of a friend of a friend. Her family is Christ-filled and seeking to find all sources of comfort through their trials. I would especially ask for prayer for Katherine's husband, Jay, and 7-mos-old son, James. Thank you.

Blessings to you today for a beautiful Monday!
Blue skies and light hearts are with us... Praise God!!

Prayer Changes Things

1) My grandfather, Mickey, received the news today of lymphoma. We are singing praises, though, in discovering it is one of the most treatable and curable kinds.

2) On Monday, I will be having an ultrasound to examine a breast lump. It is very similar to one I had before in my last pregnancy, but worrisome nonetheless.

There you have it--Gasperini-Ville vulnerability at its best;
vulnerability for which we would LOVE your prayers.

You have been prayer warriors for us on many fronts over the past year and we so appreciate it! Thank you!!

As of my last Sitemeter check, Gasperini-Ville fields 150+ readers-a-day (I know some of you are repeat viewers--thank you! :) So many of you I know so little about, yet I feel a strong need to pray for YOU. How can our family be lifting up your needs?

I know this may be asking a lot, but would you consider posting a comment with a prayer request? It can be something as simple as, "Please pray for John." How blessed we would be to commune with all of you in prayer... Thanks for your readership and thanks for your vulnerability. Let's encourage one another!

God bless!

Because I may not be able to log on in the morning...

Could you please join me in prayer for my grandfather tomorrow/today?
At 10am Thursday he'll be having a lymph node removed to test for the possibility of lymphoma. His current symptoms, unfortunately, are not boding well for the outcome.

My parents are out in Pennsylvania now for support and we will all be waiting to hear of the doctor's prognosis. We'd so appreciate your prayers!

Thanks a bunch...
I'll be checking back in later with updates and stories of our morning "field trip" to Amish country. We'll be sure to have lots to tell.

God bless!

UPDATE Friday 4/25: Mickey's surgery went well, though we won't know anything now for another week due to the extensive lab work needing to be done. Thank you all for your prayers! You are so gracious to us... Hugs! :)

Meditation for a Busy Day

After a busy, family-filled weekend, here is a favorite scripture passage I came across tonight. Blessings to you as you begin your week...
I promise weekend pics and updates tomorrow!
God bless.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Updating Prayers

As I know you all walk along this prayer journey with me, thank you for your steadfastness! I have recently updated Gasperini-Ville's prayer requests and wanted to take the opportunity to praise our Good Lord for his Mighty Hand lately...

*praises for the health and growth of little Frederick (1lb. 13oz.), a twin born at 25 weeks to two of GG's high school friends. While sister, Delaney (1lb. 8oz.), sadly passed away in January, baby Freddy has done remarkably well and has grown in strength and stature. He was recently taken off the ventilator(!) and was transferred from Virginia to his new hospital home in Charleston via helicopter (covered by insurance--praises!) His parents, Lee and Jay, were having to be separated during his hospital stay in Virginia while also mourning the loss of their baby daughter. The saddest! We are so glad they are now reunited and continue to pray for the strength of baby Freddy. As of a recent update, he is almost weighing 6lbs! They are waiting for him to master simultaneous sucking, swallowing, and breathing before he will be allowed to go officially home.

*praises for other friends of ours, who just learned that their husband and daddy won't have to return to the Army! Former Army friends, Sarah and Dan, were notified that he was granted a year-long exception to allow him to finish the Police Academy and start work as a police officer! The Army will re-evaluate their need for him a year from now, but for the time being, we are all thrilled! Dan was also recently assigned to their neighborhood's precinct, another amazing blessing! On top of all this, the family has welcomed precious baby boy #2, Max, into the world in the last week. What joy all around!!

*and not to forget our personal praises for another healthy baby boy! While we continue to remember sweet baby Jude, we praise God for His Will and Purpose with our new baby J! Thanks be to God for this rich blessing.

More

Heavenly Father,
As a new year begins, I commit myself more deeply to Your Will. Change me, mold me, and use me more for Your Almighty Purpose. Inhabit more of me this coming year so that I may be a vessel of Your Love and Grace. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I may walk in Your Ways more in the coming days.

Help my life to be less about me and more about You, dear Lord.
Amen.

********************************************************
Happy Feast of the Motherhood of Mary, a beautiful celebration of Mary, who not only birthed, but raised the Son of God! What a responsibility. To imagine Christ as a whiny (yet sinless!) toddler only helps me adore our Blessed Mother more. She was undoubtedly amazing.

Thank you, Mary, for your devotion to Christ.
Thank you, Mary, for safeguarding the Salvation of our world.
Thank you, Mary, for serving as an inspiring example to me and all mothers.

God bless you today and in the coming year! Happy 2008!
*Also, please take note of the new prayer additions under "Prayer Requests". There are some desperate situations in need of your prayers. Thank you and God bless!

Working for the Good

Last week a friend and I discussed how beautiful it is when a family is blessed with a child with special needs. The whole family always seems to be humbled by the miracle of the person; the siblings particularly sensitive to giving outside of themselves and loving despite appearances.

My father's family was aptly blessed by the life of my Aunt Pam or "Pammy". She was born with a severe case of spina bifida and the doctors thought best to let her life pass. You see, Pam was a twin, her brother Steven born perfect and whole. They were the last children in a family of five kids, my dad the oldest; and from the docs' medical perspectives, it would have been easier to avoid the myriad of problems that would result by keeping Pam alive. Praise God for the nurse who continued to feed her... and my dad's mother, my nana, who fought relentlessly for the life of her daughter! Watching their little sister fight for life, fight to walk, fight to use the bathroom, fight to drive a car, fight to live a normal life, and ultimately, fight a battle with cirrosis (due to medication) that took her life at age 39, my dad and his siblings were humbled, changed forever by Pam. They grew to be kind, patient, gentle adults. I believe it is no coincidence that my dad is one of the kindest, gentlest human beings I know. He knew God's grace through Pam... What a blessing.

And so yesterday in church, while sitting and meditating on the Mass, I couldn't help but look over and see a family with four children, the youngest in a wheelchair. And all I could think about was my little Jude. Why God? Why did you have to take him? I would have loved any child, even one with special needs. Why? I tried desperately to wipe away the questioning, along with the tears, knowing full well that God had already answered my thoughts. It was not meant to be. It just wasn't.

A friend reminded me today of the passage from Romans 8:28-- "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." She reminded me that though the situation may not be good, that God has promised to use it for the good. Yes.

And in the meantime I shed tears for Pam and Jude and another friend today who lost her baby at close to 20 weeks.
God's working for the good,
God's working for the good...

There's another piece of my heart today. Thanks, as always, for listening.
Hugs and God Bless.

1 J Down

2 J's Still Needing Prayer

The "Julie" found out today that spots in an x-ray of her chest are not a return of the Hodgkin's Lymphoma she had (and beat) 9 years ago!! Praise God for this healthy and Godly mother-of-three. Thanks for lifting her up. What a relief...

The "Joe" has an MRI tomorrow to investigate some significant hearing loss/ear static (always scary when it's that close to the brain!) Joe is the hubby of one of my best college friends and the father of three beautiful babes. Prayers, prayers...

The "Jennifer" is a dear friend here, who has contracted a virus causing Bells Palsy/partial facial paralysis. (Not to mention she's a mother of four, amazing Christian woman, and new homeschooler! Doc's orders are to get sleep and avoid stress. Yeah right! Prayers, prayers...)

Instead of blogging

I'm going to use this time for prayer...
for three folks, inparticular. Their names are Jennifer, Joe, and Julie.
The J's could use our petitions today.

Will you join me?
Thanks and God bless.

"O Jesus, I promise to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me, make me only know Your Will. My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls, and in a particular way of the most weak, most miserable, most infirm which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms, I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart, the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy Will, the grace to confide in You, the grace to rest securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms."

-St. Gianna Beretta Molla

A Precious Life

I sadly write to say that our sweet baby is no longer with us.

But I rejoice in saying he is now a beautiful soul in heaven.

I miscarried this morning, but GG and I were gratefully able to meet our little one and together praise God for his precious life.

From here we plan to grieve, bury, and pray... a lot. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such a warm, Catholic community here, who value each life to the fullest. Also, my parents are now here to love, hug, pray, and grandparent our wonderful boys.

And while so much of me just wants to cry, the rest of me feels so blessed to have known this child; to have joyfully carried him; to have provided him a place to begin and end his time here on earth.

Thank you for joining us in praising God for him!

Thank you for your continued prayers...

Nothing Like Prayers

So I'm back, once again asking for your petitions...

Not for the Army this time, but for a small, growing baby.
I am 11 weeks today and am experiencing some uterine achiness and light spotting.

Thankfully, my midwife has allayed alot of my fears and wants me to have a nice, relaxing weekend before seeing her on Monday, where I'll have my first exam and an ultrasound to boot! She wants to assure us that all is well with the little one. Praise God for her today. Her words were like salve to my worries.

And in the meantime, we'd love your prayers.
They are so very effective.
God bless you this Friday...

Immaculee Inspiration

I began Left to Tell with no awareness of how immersed and entrenched I would become in it's tale. By the end of the day, I was finished; unable to extract myself from its pages...

Immaculee writes a firsthand account of being raised in a loving, Catholic Christian home amidst her upstanding, educated parents and three strong, faithful brothers. Her world was a Christ-centered dream of innocence... only to be shattered by a genocide killing of over one million Rwandans in 100 days. She survived by hiding in a bathroom with 7 other women, praying fervently and relying on her Lord to see her through to victory, which He did.

While the book portrays every atrocity and brutality at the hands of the killers, I was never fearful. More was I completely overcome by the evident spirituality springing forth from Immaculee while she suffered. She prayed and prayed and prayed. She believed. She battled the enemy. She fought loneliness and resentment. She forgave her hunters. She found Godly closeness. She lived to tell.

As you know, I've been dealing with my own prayer journey, grappling with the meaning of prayer and how I fit into the Divine prayer picture. What a blessing this book was to me in the midst of my re-discovery!!! I was so struck by Immaculee's belief in the effectiveness of her own prayer. She prayed with her whole heart and acted with her whole being to meet God in His provision. And He always met her. She always had reason to rejoice in answered prayer. It was pretty overwhelming and very humbling to this saved-by-His-grace mama!

Overall, I totally recommend this read. I'll venture to say you'll come away with a lot more than just a provoking story. God might just use it to teach you something as well.

Happy immersing and entrenching (you really won't be able to put it down!)

God bless and TGIF.