The Pat and Barb Verly family and their 5 children, in laws and grandkids along with many prayer warriors have been drawn together by John's cancer... sharing daily for 8 months started this blog- Family Soul Story - Our faith, family, farm and now our cancer journey called HEALING have colored and deepened our world. WE continue to share and depend on the support of our prayer warrior community, that has lowered us into the Lord's presence for His healing!
Ruth is home with her new little son! I thought I would be helping her as a mother does with her daughters when they come home with a new baby. But my farmer husband has other plans, so we will figure it all out. The main thing is to keep Ruth and her little guy safe and doing well - better and better with each new day. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
A happy and peaceful picture that hopefully is how things will be for the adjustment and healing and getting back on her feet.
Ruth holding her two babies - Rose 18 months and Luke 3 days - truly shows the world that being a mom is a beautiful calling and that you can "be in love with being a mom!"
Pat and I just shared morning prayer an hour later thanks to daylight savings time! I remembered a wonderful note from a very special friend that really touched me yesterday! She spoke of her JOY that all the prayers she has said for Ruth and the Baby were answered... "I am happy and singing praises with you that Ruth and Luke are doing great. She will certainly be busy, but it so obvious that she is in love with being a mom."
Stopped in after mass to see the little new grandson and his mom... all is going so well! He will come home tonight after mom and dad can have their romantic special supper together at the hospital tonight. It is true that Ruth is a poster woman for someone who is "in love with being a mom." She loves and values life and finds it precious and to be protected no matter what the cost! To "see" a beautiful example of a woman, who is "in love with being a mom" is so important this day and age when the beauty and JOY of family is under attack! There is a lie out there that the perfect size of family is two, and that your kids should have everything that you never had - speaking about material things. I have heard a person, who grew up with 10 siblings say this exact thing - "I want my kids to have all that I never had due to all the brothers and sisters." This is so wrong and completely backwards - siblings are so much more important and will give us so much more in our lifetime than things! The Church asks us to be open to LIFE and Family is what marriage is all about. As Pat Verly shared the Truth with me at our engagement weekend 36 years ago - "The world needs LIGHTS!" This makes perfectly clear the need and greater good that comes from being open to a large family as the Lord plans each of our family, if we are open and listen to HIM. As we follow after HIM - carrying our Most Cherished Cross and going through the narrow gate that is shaped like the Cross.
Jesus, we thank you for the great JOY we find in Family and each new member brings bigger and bigger LOVE for us to share! May the example of those who embrace their Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE - "in love with being a mom and dad." Reveal the Truth of what we are truly called to - be open to LIFE and nurture family in your Church - raising LIGHTS for the darkness. We thank you for all new life, and protect all that in the womb. WE lift up our newest grandchild in the womb of Nancy. Just talked to Hallel in France, and knowing of her prayers and care for all her family is very special and important to us. Jesus, we trust in YOU! As we learned today in the Gospel from LUKE 19 - it was super cool to have Paul reading the intro today and when he spoke the word "LUKE" loud and with great enthusiasm - all of his kids sitting around us smiled as dad said their brother's name from the front of Church! Today in the Gospel we read about Zacchaeus - the small tax collector... he shows us that first comes the grace from Christ and then comes the moral reform in us... "The Lord accepted Zacchaeus, even though he was unacceptable... The tax collector didn't merit Jesus' love with his display of moral excellence; rather, his display of moral excellence followed Jesus' unmerited love. To get this principle is to get practically the whole of spiritual LIFE right." Very Rev Robert Barron It sounds like the Cross to me! Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barb
"In love with being a mother."
May many come to see the Truth that will bring more happiness and JOY to this world!
This is what the morning started with - little Bernadette looking too cute through her barn she was playing with!
Pink sweater girl in the morning light... going to see her new cousin, Luke!
Two babies to love and so sweet!
Getting to know a new member of the family - Life is a gift!
Paul and his 3 sons... it is a new farmboy for the family!
John and a yawning little Luke!
A beautiful day to pick up bales - 400 in the field on a beautiful day!
John home to see his new nephew and hauling bales for the day.
Rose and Gus playing with water in the bird bath on a beautiful day...
Lilly getting brushed by two kids - jackpot!
Paul's putting the kids to bed, so that he can go in and spend some time with Ruth and his new son, Luke! Such a wonderful special new LIGHT has entered the world. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Goodnight, Sweet dreams and Bless-bless little new grandson, Luke, and beautiful wonderful mom, Ruth Ida Rose!
He is perfect and wonderful and we had a room full for this morning - Ruth was happy to see us leave for some quiet time as she and Luke adjust and get some mom/baby time! I have a house full on this glorious day and much activity inside with the grandkids and outside with the farm/bales coming home from the field. So I will just get some pictures on here - they are worth a thousand words anyways, right?
Ruth with her two babies - Rose 18 months and Luke 1 day
Love grows bigger - not stretched more thin...
A good of the group
LOVE/LIFE/LIGHT! Jesus, we remember all our dead this day. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Luke Paul Lanoue was born at 12:30p today. He is so beautiful and perfect and big! Ruth is glowing and did so well too! We are so grateful to all those that have lifted us up in prayer and for the Saints, who were all around us this day! Luke is my patron saint and we had Luke for our boy's name for at least the first 3 girls, then we let it go, and discovered our John - influenced by Pope now Blessed John Paul II! It is a generation later, but now we have our little precious lamb, Luke Paul! Jesus, we thank You and praise you! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Rose is not sure what to think...
The little pumpkin is here safe and sound and so wonderful in every way!
Grandpa climbs out of the tractor to find Dorothy and the flying monkey greeting him! Ruth amazed us all with the wonderful costumes she made for her kids in the Oz theme last night. She has been very busy as she knows with her Csection today she will be limited on what she can lift and do. Plus there will be a new little baby to take up a lot of her time.
Today the little pumpkin will be born at noon! It is a hugely exciting day for us, and such a glorious one too! It is All Saints Day! This is the day that all the amazing Saints are honored - all those that surround us and intercede for us and give us such amazing examples of how we are called to LOVE and follow Christ down the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross!
The Saints are huge for me! We shared them a lot as a family/domestic Church. We had a children's saint book as the kids were growing up and at night we would read one or two to them. They wanted some of the difficult ones, like Maria Goretti, read on a regular basis. There is no sugar coating the Saints! I see many of my grandchildren's saints represented here - St Therese and Bernadette for sure! I love to do the litany of our immediate family - Patrick, Gerard, Joseph, Barbara, Luke, Ruth, Ida, Rose, Paul, Simon, Patrick, Mary, Angela, David, Lawrence, Rose, Ida, Nancy, Anna, Joan of Arc, William, Augustine, William, Bernadette, Anna, Maria, Theresa, Clare, Joseph, David, Elijah, Therese, Marie, David, Joseph, Patrick, Joseph, Susan, Angela, Agnes, Little Sister Hallel, John, Patrick, Augustine, Christopher, Thomas, Joseph, Paul, William, Robert, and Mary... All you Angels and Saints, pray for us! After I end my rosary and say the Hail Holy Queen - I do the litany of our family and feel that the Saints we honor with taking their names are all looking down upon us with LOVE and concern for us on our journey of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!
So our sweet little pumpkin will be in our arms today! We will start the day with 8:30a mass at the school... then I will bring home the kids, and light the candle to pray without ceasing! I know of Hallel's prayers surrounding us, and probably many in her Community of the Lamb! What a big day for the Community too - "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Rev 7: 14 from the first reading at mass today. We feel the strength and support of the Saints this day, and throughout this entire pregnancy... there is no doubt that our new grandson will have the name of a great awesome Saint to look to and emulate as he goes through this LIFE he has been given by God! It truly seems that God wanted him here as this is a surprise, yet a joyfully welcomed one - knowing that Jesus is in control, and has a great plan for this new LIFE!
Rose has been practicing with dollies and her Toto/puppy. It will be interesting to see her reaction to the new baby. I predict LOVE and awe!
Jesus, you paint a picture of a Saint for us in your Gospel today - the Beatitudes! Help us to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be clean of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for the sake of righteousness, may we take it without complaint when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of YOU, Jesus. "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in Heaven." Matthew 5: 1-12 Just as when we read the litany of humility and wonder how anyone could ever ask You for those things to happen to us... it seems that asking for these things is an impossibility! Yet, with your example on the Cross and carrying Our Most Cherished Cross as we follow YOU down the narrow path - we encounter all of these, and we ask that we give without counting the cost. "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE." The motto that the Community of the Lamb lives by, and truly is putting each of the beatitudes into practice in our lives! We know of Hallel's prayers this day, and we will be talking to her soon after he is here! Our LOVE grows bigger with one more to LOVE - new LIFE is a glorious gift! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barb
Don't you just want to color them?
In vibrant color!
"May God, the glory and Joy of the Saints, who has caused you to be strengthened by means of their outstanding prayers, bless you with unending blessings. Amen
Freed through their intercession from present ills and formed by the example of their holy way of LIFE, you may be devoted to serving God and neighbor. Amen
So that, together with all the Saints, you may possess the joys of the homeland, where Holy Church rejoices that her children are admitted in perpetual peace to the company of the citizens of heaven. Amen"
The final Solemn Blessing from mass today!
Jesus, we trust in YOU!
Danielle Rose - the Saint that is just me
The Narnian royalty awaits the arrival of our newest little member pumpkin/prince!
Patrick the dwarf looks ready for the battle for all that is good and right!
