Happy Birthday to my God-Daughter!

Today is the 1st birthday of my God-Daughter. So please say a prayer for both her and I. It really is a heavy duty to be a God-parent. What makes it so heavy is that during the first few years there is so little you can do... there isn't a lot of formation, so the duty rests in your prayer as a God-parent.

So humor me for a minute and read a prayer/letter for my God-daughter. I got this idea from Dan at GLACC.

Dear God-daughter,

As you turn 1years old today, I wish you could know how many people are praying for you, for your health, and for your spiritual growth. You have a very loving and faithfully Catholic family, and I know that each one of them prays for you often.

Also, I ask Mary, ever virgin, for her intercession. Much like you love your mother, and she cares for you and attends to your every need, there is another Mother that we can appeal to for spiritual needs. She was given to us by Christ, Her Son, so that we would never be absent someone to help us... so as I appeal to Her on your behalf, for Her constant intercession with Her Son, the same Lord Christ, let her into your heart.

Let too, the Holy Spirit descend into your heart. As you get older you will feel things, whispers, and inklings to move in the Spirit. Follow these things... they are not feelings, they are The Spirit; it will make all the difference.

Finally, appeal to your Guardian Angel. They are real, and yes you have one. I have seen your eyes in church, and wondered if you caught their gaze. They are more concerned for your souls well being than almost anyone else. Use their protection, appeal to their love, and don't lose your belief in them. They will protect you from evil and from danger, but you must be the one to let them.

And again, know... that we are praying for you.


Your God-father.

Miracle Baby! (QP)

Rarely do I just quick-post (QP) but on this one I have to, because there is so little to say except MIRACLE!

Miracle Baby: 9oz - 25weeks

9oz!!!
25 weeks!!!
Surviving......

Now, nine months after his birth, doctors have allowed the unnamed boy's parents to take him to the family home in Eighsfeld, central Germany, after ruling that he is strong enough to survive.

Please pray!

The Joys of Fatherhood...

So I came across this post at Cottage Blessings:

First the good news...


This pretty much sums up parenting during the first few months of your child's life. One giant contradiction :)


What a joyous contradiction though!



-Posted by: Joe

Not Typical Parents...

Sometimes being different is good. A recent conversation (summarized) with our Pediatrician is a good example:

Us: "Sorry we are asking so many questions."
Dr.: "Relax, questions are good."
Us: "We just want to be good parents."
Dr.: "You are good parents."
Us: "Ok... if you say so."
Dr.: "Don't worry, you are not typical parents, by any means."
...
...
Us.: "Um... we will take that as a compliment...?"
Dr.: "[laugh] You should, you wouldn't believe, you obviously are very concerned on doing what is best for your child."

-Posted by: Joe

Baptism - UPDATE

I am VERY EXCITED! My wife and I just finalized plans for our daughters baptism. It will be in the usus antiquior!!!

Aside from my affinity for the usus antiquior in general, the decision was actually very intentional and prayerful. My wife and I discussed it at length, compared both the Modern Roman Rite and the Tridentine Rite, and decided based on more than just the "style" of the rites. In other words, the decision was more than just a substance vs. style, or style vs. style determination. In fact, my wife is more comfortable with the Modern Rite than the older rite, but she really appreciated the side by side comparison of the two forms of Baptism. 

I will update more as we get closer. I would like to have someone video it, but I think video taping religious events whether it be a Mass, Sacrament, or ritual, should be done with the same sort of reverence and preparation that one undertakes in terms of conducting the said event.

There are some questions lingering in my mind, which I may pose on here in regards to having such a public/family event in the older rite knowing that none of my family is very familiar with it.

Life.

A lot has happened in my life in the last 40 hours. The best of which was the birth of my first child - my daughter.

I will update soon, but I am at the hospital with wife and daughter while they sleep and rest. I will get back to regular updates soon - as long as the little girl lets me :) I will have a few big updates once I do about everything... as there is more to this story.

Right now everyone is just resting... we are watching the March for Life on a live stream online, and just resting.

I leave you with a picture of my wonderful little monkey girl:

"Our light in the darkness"

7lbs 5.5oz

20.5 inches

Born: 5:20am AKTime

Baby Watch: Update

 No news. Seriously, nothing. My wife says she doesn't feel any different. So......... we wait. Her due date is tomorrow (her "cycle" date was last week) so we are just on standby.

My wife's sister arrives tonight, and my sister should get here monday. My dad came down with pneumonia, so as long as things are stable with that, my sister should still be on her way.

So we wait.... :) I did get my new lens - just a low end 28-80 f3.5/5.6, but at least it will work in the hospital. I will get pics up as soon as we have anything worth shooting :)

Pregnancy is like bowling

So I had to write this post because it made me chuckle on a day where I have been a little blah and quite contemplative. I called my mom who was at the hospital as usual, my dad was sleeping so my mom and I just quickly chatted as we normally do in that situation.

She asked how my wife was doing and asked if there has been any "signs" of progress recently. I told her no, but that she was comfortable and just waiting for whenever God and baby decided it was time. My mom laughed and said the following:

Yeah, pregnancy is a lot like being in a bowling league - 1 month too long!

I laughed because she is so right. You are all excited at the start and can't wait to really get in the thick of things. But by the time the end is nearing you just want it to be done! At that point it's also like a long ROAD TRIP. Sure the journey is half of the adventure but there is something oh so fantastic about the destination. All in all though pregnancy is an interesting event. It really does prepare us for the arrival of our children in a very special and unique way. There is something so Godly about the concept of 9 months and what a life can learn and grow to in that amount of time. It is one of those signs that makes me realize how precise God was in the creation of the world and especially us as humans.

But I might agree with my mom... it might be just one month too long :)

Baptism Class

My wife and I are going to our Baptism class at our church tonight. It should be interesting because it is the first bit of formal instruction we will receive in our new parish.

I have done some reading on it recently in preparation, but granted my reading has been focused on the older Tridentine Rite. So that could prove interesting come tonigh.

I don't really know what to expect. I don't know if one of the priests is going to do it, or if it is one of the lay leaders. (Hopefully a priest.) I also don't know to what extent we will be instructed. Since I have never gone through this before, I really don't know what to expect. As I said, I read through the older Rituale Romanum from 1964. So the background and commentary from that is part of my knowledge now, so I will be interested to see what we learn tonight.

I should read through the current rite of Baptism to be at least equally prepared. Especially since the Tridentine Rite is quite sparse here Alaska. I will update in a future post our experience... but in the meantime feel free to describe your experiences in the ComBoxes.

((**UPDATE**)):
The Baptism class was really nice tonight. One of the priests did it and everything he said was right on track. He even covered the fact that the FORM of the rite must be done PRECISELY and you can't just "make up words" to say.

Because we aren't 100% sure if we are having the Baptism here or back in Michigan, I am a little torn. If we have it here, we get to be with our new parish, friends, and we get to introduce our child PROPERLY to their parish. If we go home, we get the Tridentine Rite, our family, and our friends. I know God will make everything work perfectly, I think I am just getting nervous!