"you will have joy and gladness"...New LIFE is a gift!/a week til Christmas still blessed Advent!

 2 years ago the three 5 year olds with baby Jesus.

 Therese and Mary will not share time at the craft table this year either.

 Patrick, Bernadette, and Rose 2 years ago...

 Evangeline is now 3 and quite a wonderful girl to hang out with!  She was my special companion when I was there for some weeks after her baby brother was born in March.  When she came this summer she warmed the cockles of her grandpa Pat's heart!

 Joy was about 8 months and will be 2 1/2 this year, and will have to show her baby cousins, Jude and George how to learn to love their first ever CCC/Cross Christmas Camp 2019!

Loving baby Jesus for another year lies ahead.  So sad that Evie will be missing from the little 2-3 year old girls, Patrick will be missing from the 7 year old bunch, Romeo will be missing from the 5 year old boys, Therese will not be able to see her other 11 year old, Big Dave, Little Dave and Big Dave will not dance and battle, and that my 3 new baby boys will not be crawling in 3 different directions and needing constant grandma supervision!

Ruth and Paul 2019 at CCC.  I checked with 15 year old Simon, and 14 year old Mary... they continue to love CCC and are excited to see what another year holds.  Mary even stated that she wishes it could be longer..."It used to seem like it went on for a long time, but now it is over so quickly!  I wish that it lasted longer!"

The two Bandzuch girls, Josephine and Bernadette, with baby Jesus last year... this year Jesus awaits and 2019 will be another year to celebrate Family sharing the coming of Jesus!

Mom and I last year.. I am hoping so hard that my parents will travel the hour to come and share with us this year!  I reminded them over and over last weekend that it would please me to the highest heavens for them to come and share with us for the amount of time that they can enjoy and handle!  Lord, hear my heartfelt prayers for our family to come together in JOY!

2018 family picture!  Great-Grandchild #57 was born a few days ago, and we are reaching 140!  How I hope that my parents will be in the center this year - the first year they are living more than half hour away.

 These look much sweeter to see them as I found them on the girl's birth certificates in our lock box yesterday... tiny little precious feet of Maria at her birth in August 1983.

So beautiful and amazing to find them and now reading the wonderful readings from mass read and preached all around the world today of Samson's call from his conception in the womb and also John the Baptist.
LOVE these words from the angel to Zechariah today...
"...And you will have joy and gladness,
and many will rejoice at his birth,
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
He will drink neither wine nor strong drink.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb..."
Luke 1

 Nancy's sweet newborn feet from her birth certificate in April of 1982!

I must say that I experienced JOY and gladness from the moment I knew there was a new life in my womb!  And there was great rejoicing when those lives in my womb resulted in a birth!  With the 7 losses throughout those years - the pain of loss was shared as a family which brought us so close!  How we value LIFE and each other!  The JOY turned into pain often, but now I see how that has brought us all to find the Truth that LIFE is a gift even if it is only weeks or months short in the womb!  Christopher, Thomas, Joseph, Paul, William, Robert and Mary are making our family complete in heaven and keeping our journeys in their prayers!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

 Now our first child - baby Ruth in January of 1980!   It looks like she has her mom's flat feet or foot!

More glorious words about LIFE from the Psalm 71 reading today!
For you are my hope, O LORD;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
R. My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

Yes, the Lord loves us and cares from us from conception to natural death!  How can that LIFE be trampled upon so callously by abortion at any point, but up til birth?  The worst nightmare we are living through in this country and world!  How I wish I could wake up and find that it was all a nightmare!  How can the Truth be trampled underfoot?  How can we that value ALL LIFE be belittled and looked down upon.  I can live with that if only LIFE could be protected under all circumstances!

 My Most Cherished Cross with our youngest grandchild, Jude, yesterday...

 Yes, that is a Trump hat!  There is no other way to turn, if you are Catholic and value LIFE!

Advent is still all around us and leading us onward reminding us that we need to be prepared at all times for His coming into our lives with each moment of each day!  We are only a week away from the Christmas Season in The Church!  All I wish for is that LIFE can be valued and protected and that we can spend time with our family here and there and share our Faith with JOY!

 Rosy cheeks from 2 1/2 hours over the Luken iron and the mountain of Belgian cookies that are for family and friends...

Jesus, each life brings with it a whole variety of emotions and ups and downs called the journey of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  How we pray that ALL LIFE may be cherished and protected from conception to natural death!  St JPII and St Mother Teresa of Calcutta save lives and end this lie of Satan that it is our right to take innocent lives in the womb!  Send him to Hell with all the evil spirits that prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls and taking the lives of the innocent in the womb and destroying families!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Cousins with baby Jesus 8 years ago!  May the Holy Family come and heal the wounds in our families this Advent/Christmas time in The Church!  We are given so much by The Church to help us!

This final week of Advent is an ideal time for approaching

our Savior, full of tender mercy, in the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Let us prepare for good and grace-filled holy Communions.

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"A contrite heart implies the turning away from sin,

and in this way a sacrifice is offered to God 

on the altar of the heart." - St Vincent Ferrer

"Everyone say to himself: 

'When was the last time I went to confession?'

And if it has been a long time,

Yes!  Why hide our sins - He knows them anyways!   Humble ourselves and lay them at his feet!  Leave there forgiven and begin anew!  Bless-bless, Barb

I look upon the Host whenever I am at Mass,

speechless and struck with awe at such humility.

My life is so full of me - so full of pride -

so full of the need to keep my identity. 

You are willing to hide Your Glory and Majesty

behind this wafer, so I may gaze at my God and not die.

You want me to be comfortable in your Presence -

to speak to You unencumbered by the difference in our natures.

Oh Love, that is not loved,

how can I return Your love?

Wash me clean, dear Jesus, clean of every sin and weakness.

Cover me over with mercy and forgiveness."

Mother Angelica

The Mass is My Life

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Wonderfully made - Danielle Rose
Psalm 139

Nothing compares to you - Danielle Rose

Breath of heaven - Amy Grant

Casting Crowns - Angels we have heard Gloria