Love - the language of PRAYER

My friend Scott Hahn put this on his sharing today, and it was so perfect as I had just prayed for the intercession of Saint John Paul II from a prayer card that was included in the Columbia magazine put out by the KCs.  Two amazing Saints that shaped my first 25 years of marriage, and there could be no better examples of LOVE without counting the cost or without judging.  How can we even begin to think that we know the mind of God?  That is just a huge wrong... yes, we know right from wrong and strive to follow the example of Christ, and trust in the magisterium of The Church to guide us down the narrow path to Heaven with the unchangeable dogmas and laws.  One of the themes from todays readings from mass read around the world - we cannot put God in a box or even begin to think we know HIM!  "Familiarity can breed illusion.  Let us not imagine we can plumb or manage the mystery of God, even by prayer and penance.  Jesus reminds us in today's Gospel that there are depths to God we cannot fathom but in which we put or trust."  see www.magnificat.com  Oh, Lord, I am so ready to leave the mystery of your Unconditional LOVE in your hands and TRUST!

Yes, this is my world today!  Ruth and her 3 that aren't in school yet are to be stopping in shortly to enjoy (?) the snow.  I guess for a 5 year old boy, with a snowsuit and sled it looks like fun out there!  And we can gain some JOY in sharing it with them.  Little Rose, who will be 2 in a month, loves to get out there too!  I am sure grandpa will be buckling her into the seat of his tractor with him.  "She just sits there and smiles ear to ear at me every time I look at her, and then she falls asleep."  says farmer grandpa Pat about his little Zesty Zita! 

Ruth just got called into work, so the kids will be going home to stay with their other grandma instead.  Little Luke does fine with the grandmas and daddy while mom is working, but it is kind of hard for him to be without his best mommy!
Life is full of sacrifices and even for those little ones in life.  It tears me apart when Ruth has to return to work at 3 months - yes, it is just for a couple days a week and now she has gone to casual so it is only 4 days a month, but that first time away is so sudden and hard.  But little Luke has done amazing and I hear about the work that Ruth does - how difficult and important it is to serve those that are so sick and hampered by horrible addictions.  I am sure that she is an angel of mercy to many, and is doing a work of mercy for those that are in such dire straights.  It allows both grandmas to have special time with our grandkids and we know them so well!  It is delightful to us, and such a gift.  Luke is such an easy baby and delightful... his smiles and love are unconditional and without judging who this new person is... "You look at me and I will smile and smile and smile!"

Little Luke having Grandpa time and Simon time - doing religion homework a couple nights ago while mom and dad were teaching Faith Formation to older kids.  Someday they can have Simon and Mary and all the rest in their classes!  We did that with our kids as they graduated Catholic School and started to have Faith Formation on Wednesday nights... we are in this for the long haul and forsee that Ruth and Paul can do that with their kids too!
Well, I am off to work a Together Encounter Christ retreat for 3 days... So powerful to have this experience during Lent!  TEC has become a very big part of my life since my 3 girls asked me to go 15 years ago!  Each had gone and come home and asked me to go, and finally after #3, Maria, I could no longer say that I was fine with my faith and didn't need to go.  It was amazing for me and taught me the reality of PRAYER!  Prayer is not just something you say you are doing for someone - it is real, and alive, and our communication between our loving and forgiving and mysterious God and our humble selves! 

A special picture from about 7 years ago - Little Simon in the mud puddle in early spring.

 

Pat attended the next retreat after I came home and told him that he had to go!  Pat encountered Jesus more personally and powerfully at that weekend, and he also fell in love with this amazing Catholic weekend... and how it is an amazing tool to evangelize the wonder and glory of Our Holy Catholic Church!  Through our involvement in TEC we have brought prayer solidly-shared together in our marriage.  We discovered The Magnificat - see www.magnificat.com , and share morning prayer and evening prayer plus the Gospel is shared the night before and also in the morning!  We speak our intentions during the prayer and many are lifted up by each of us.  We recognize all those we have shared this experience with as our family, and how they lifted us up in constant prayer through our battle for John's life against brain cancer four and a half years ago!  A week of prayer was set up right when John was going to have to start his whole brain radiation - something we feared as it could cause John to have future dementia-  many signed up to pray around the clock for all 168 hours of the week!  Some hours had one praying and some more - it added up to megawatt prayer power and took the fear out of our lives and allowed to Trust - "Jesus is in control in the midst of the storm, mom."  Hallel to me when we called her in France.

The 5 with baby kitty just about the time Pat and I went to TEC...

John and I will be praying and serving together this weekend, and we need to cling to that Trust as the news at Rochester last time was hard!  No!  The cancer continues to be gone, but there seems to be some darkening and changes that could mean what we had feared - losing some of this brightness.  This news made John, once again, take a look at his life from where God wants him.  He admits that the "call" could still be there to the priesthood or the brotherhood, and really it puts the values of the world in a light of why pursue money or prestige.  John sees classmates married, buying houses, getting good jobs, and it is just not where the Lord seems to be calling him or of interest to him.  Yes, he knows he probably needs to work and make a living, but on the other hand if he wanted to go and check out some religious communities we would be totally supportive.  His life has been altered, yet we continue to see that PRAYER is called for and so needed as we continue to HOPE and TRUST in his future and the protection of his brain!  We need to cling to all that prayer that protected him back during that week of prayer, and know that God is more than we can understand so all we are called to do is humbly pray and Trust in HIM!

Jesus, we trust in YOU!

Jesus, it will be so good to come and fall at your feet for the next 3 days as John and I have the gift of sharing this retreat together as those that pray and serve!  I will always remember John's TEC weekend - his family was much of us there working for him to encounter YOU, O Lord.  He had always complained that he had no faith as it had never been tested.  "I don't know what I believe.  I don't feel anything."  Something happened there, but he was not able or willing to turn to You, our loving and forgiving Jesus.  He was not able to die to self until he was struck with brain cancer about 4 years later after he half-heartedly prayed for Faith...  http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html  Here is a page I devoted to that journey called cancer/healing/now where do you want me Lord?  It is so good to have the power of prayer always with us!  I long to communicate with You everyday and in every moment, my Jesus!  I am filled with wonder and awe as I know there is no understanding the mystery of God... except to know that I am small and weak and poor and lowly and need only Jesus and His Bride, The Church to give me all I need with each day and hour and minute of my journey of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT.  Jesus, I trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

John's cancer brought this into reality - his sisters all around him in prayer and support!

Prayer for the intercession of Saint John Paul II

"O Blessed Trinity, we thank you

for having graced the Church with

Saint John Paul II and for allowing

the tenderness of your fatherly care,

the glory of the Cross of Christ

and the splendor of the Spirit of love

to shine through him.

Trusting fully in your infinite mercy

and in the maternal intercession of Mary,

he has given us a living image of

Jesus the Good Shepherd.

He has shown us that holiness

is the necessary measure of ordinary

Christian life and is the way of

achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by your intercession,

and according to your will,

the graces we implore,

through Christ our Lord.  Amen."

He will be canonized on April 27th - Divine Mercy Sunday!  We were blessed with relics of him to have on our journey to healing!  He was with us on our journey in a very powerful way!  Soon to be St John Paul II will be very much with me this weekend of Lenten journey called Together Encounter Christ! 

The Church of St John, the Evanglist in Rochester - daily would be spend time there to find the strength to go forward trusting in HIM!

Daily mass fed us!

Michael W Smith - Above All

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Isidore of Seville, whom Pope John Paul II named "patron saint of the Internet" in 1997.

The pope chose St. Isidore because of his prolific output of information. Nicknamed "the schoolmaster of the Middle Ages", Isidore wrote numerous books in the seventh century, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, and even a comprehensive history of the world.

St. Isidore, pray for us! 

This was posted by Fr Barron - how we need to have a Saint of the internet... St Isidore, we need your purity and goodness to abound! 

Working a retreat

Two year old Mary with her loving Mother Mary.

Looking out at a white world outside - Pat and Paul spent the day getting the calves all under a roof as a big storm is forecasted.  It should be long gone by time I have to leave for a retreat tomorrow night.  I am working one of the TEC retreats and it will be special as John and I will be able to work together.  I had to take a year off TEC when John and I faced his brain cancer about 4 1/2 years ago.  We were very focused on the battle, but there was a huge wind beneath our wings from the many prayers that were all around us! 

Fr Craig baptizing Therese about 6 years ago in April! 

Blessed by all the Church has to help us on our journey.  TEC certainly is an amazing Catholic retreat that follows the path to Easter with Die Day - Good Friday complete with reconciliation, Rise Day - Easter and Rising with Christ to newness of LIFE, Go Day- taking it with you out to evangelize the world we came from.  Jesus, thank you for the gift of TEC in my life.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

Easter décor at Therese' Baptism 6 years ago and two year old Mary.

Haven't seen one of these yet this year...

Mary and her mud- rubber boots don't help when you are laying on your belly, Mary.

Pat with baby Therese 6 years ago... April 2008

John and I - winter 2010 fighting the battle for LIFE!  Hopefully it won't be this white tomorrow, but it is Minnesota after all.  Lord, we place this weekend in the palm of your hand.  May we all grow in our LOVE of You!

Wrestling with the mysteries of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT

5 month old Luke was so sweetly content and happy to be laying across the big arms of grandpa while he helped Simon with his religion homework last night.   Before them was Ruth's TEC Bible and Simon had a list of verses to look up and discover the answer to questions on his sheet.  It was an eye opener to grandpa to discover how much of the Bible stories Simon knows as they went from Samson to Jesus.  Luke seemed to find great JOY and peace in the sharing...

Pat noticed that when he would talk loudly to some of the kids in the next room that it would scare Luke and make him jump, so then Simon tried to scare Luke to no avail!

It is different to put this cute giggle fest here, but it just seems right to start on a light foot this day.  Little Luke adores his big brother and feels no fear at his in fun attempts to make him jump with fright!

There is much filling me this day after sharing morning prayer with Pat as we look at the daunting winter storm that is to hit us today.  I am also in the last days of prep for working a TEC retreat this weekend about an hour away.  I am excited to be working with John and cooking with a great friend from our Church.  It will be a weekend unto it's own, as they all are.  I know that I am a poor servant in many ways, so to be the Cook in the midst of this Lent is, I am sure, a gift from Jesus to me!  What started out as dread has grown to become an excitement to know that a work is going to be done in me!  Thank you, Lord!

As I was getting Luke ready for bed last night - we watch Ruth and Paul's 5 so that they can teach the youth!  We taught for years and were told that we were boring, so we realized they need to see a vibrant young couple, who would be too busy to teach with 5 under 9 at home, but they even got to watch Ruth grow in her pregnancy #5, have Luke, and bring him along for a month or so...such a beautiful LIFE lesson... this is what we do for Faith Formation, and it is perfect for the kids there to learn about the beauty of The Church!  As I was getting Luke ready for bed - he kept looking up at his special Cross that lights up on his changing table.  Looking to the Cross and the LIGHT all in one!  I have no doubt that, just as his older brother Simon is familiar with the Bible and the Mass and comfortable in Church each week with his family, so too Luke will know and LOVE Jesus and His Bride, The Church!  Each of our 10 grandchildren is a delight to us, and the two in the womb are beloved and prayed for daily... We have such JOY and Peace knowing that we are united in our family of Faith raising each one to know and LOVE Jesus and find the Truth in The Holy Catholic Church!

A beautiful Ruth and Luke moment... The mother and child is the most beautiful sight ever!  The precious gift of LIFE and given the ability to carry that new life in our wombs to grow and develop under the loving and watchful eye of our God - now that it the most amazing special wonderful part of being a woman/wife/mother!  I wanted each one the Lord would give me, and it added up to 12 but I needed 7 in heaven to pray for me, and the precious 5 here to share Faith/Family/Farm with!  The Lord's ways are mysterious and merciful and total LOVE!  I have only peace after the pain of loss - knowing that someday I will be united with ALL my children, and that isn't a soap opera!

  Two sisters trying to get some tramp time in this less than springlike weather.

I have a dear young friend who has started a blog - sharing The Truth - http://choosingtruth.weebly.com/  There is something she shared yesterday that I have a lot to reflect on and decided to do it here.   Her feeling, and I have definitely shared this, that we are too quick to console people by saying that their loved one is "in a better place" or "they are in heaven."  I, personally, after years of working for hospice, have seen much of the pain suffered as death comes near.  Many asked me how I could work with death all those years, but it was my calling!  Even as a nurse in HCMC as a young girl in her 20s just out of nursing school, I was drawn to share very closely with a man and his family through the dying process.  They were Moslem.  He was a wonderful man, and a man of faith, and his family embraced me and allowed me to come and take part in the last months of his life outside the hospital where I had met and cared for him.  I even was given a copy of the Koran and spent time reading it... I discovered, just as has been shared by Matthew Kelly and others, Mohamed never claimed to be God... only Jesus did.  I was a new Catholic and very deeply in love with The Church and head over heels enamored with the Truth that Jesus and His Bride, The Church is THE TRUTH, yet we did not look down upon each other or try to change one another. 

I have shared numerous times over the years that the beauty of working with death is that it takes all the meaningless fluff out of the way - it gets down to Faith and Family, and I love that.  I am a person, who is not afraid to share deeply and meaningfully with others.  Superficial bores and saddens me.  There is much satisfaction in helping one facing death deal with the things that truly matter - their physical needs, mental needs, and spiritual needs!  Much of our life flashes before our eyes as death draws near - in a way a long slow illness like cancer is a blessing in allowing us to get our house in order! 

Babies - kids and kitties

Personally I agree with my friend that I am taking very seriously my path to Heaven as I follow Christ carrying my Most Cherished Cross and going down the narrow path.  I do not hide this fact from all I love in my extended family and friends, along with the fact that this is seriously important for our life eternal.  Yet, I also adore Jesus and am drawn to come weekly to adoration and place each one of those the Lord has given me in the monstrance with HIM - praying without ceasing that they may come to know and LOVE Him and leave all the false gods behind them.  How can I not hope and pray for them even after death?  That is the beauty of Purgatory and being called to pray for our dearly beloved dead.  I have taken the chaplet of Divine Mercy and pray it for my dead as well as all those that are dying and have no one to pray for them. I did too read St Faustina's diary, and gained from that the endless LOVE and Mercy of our unconditionally loving and forgiving Lord.  I feel that it is my calling to lift up and pray for my dead, as I agree they were far from perfection when they died.  I find a freedom in not judging as I know of the infinite mercy of God... I just know that I find comfort and HOPE in praying without ceasing in the silence I can find in my inner sanctuary/chapel.  I find great terror filling me and sadness when people say that they know the mind of God and this group of people or that group of people or this person or that person is not in heaven.  We all know that God is mysterious, so how are we to say those words of judgment?  I see that just saying the pat response - "Be comforted in your loved one being with Jesus in Heaven."  rather "I am praying for your loved one and for your family at this difficult time."  So powerful to say those words and mean it!  To fall on our knees filled with HOPE that Jesus presented himself to them at death and they loved and recognized him - much as St Paul blinded on the road after all this time spent persecuting HIM! 

Lord Jesus, today in the Gospel you remind us that we need to come to Jesus to have LIFE!  (John 5:31-47)  How we weep for all those we love that turn their backs on You as you reach out to them with open arms filled with LOVE and unconditional forgiveness!  True Happiness is there to fill their lives and their domestic Church/family if only they leave their selfish desires behind and allow YOU to fill them and use them - giving without counting the cost.  The Truth will set them free to recognize the lies of Satan and of this world...  Jesus, we see the daily minute by minute job we have to pray without ceasing - with every breath that we take and every beat of our hearts - "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and Mary save souls!"  This is what my daughter Maria told me to repeat over and over after praying the family litany and placing each one in the monstrance with Jesus.  "Maria, there are so many needs, what should I do?"  "Mom, repeat these words - 'Jesus and Mary, I love you, save souls.'"  I truly find HOPE and Peace and Trust in saying these words with all my heart, O Lord.  My feeble prayers are what I have to give without counting the cost!  Then the motto of the Community of the Lamb - "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE."  The Lamb has shown us how we are called to die to self and give our all!  May I do that for those closest to me in my domestic Church/family, those that we treat the worst.  For all our dead in purgatory as they continue to look towards heaven - forever is a long time!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

"There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God. I follow Christ:
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All;
Jesus is my Everything  Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Johnny has his heart set on this black kitten growing to be his new pet/friend.

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

"You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing.
Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.
Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little
child, you receive me."   Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

She models for us how we are called to LOVE all and carry HOPE in our hearts that Jesus is at work!

Come to Jesus Chris Rice

Casting Crowns - If we are the Body

Just went to Maria's blog and now have tears of JOY in my eyes at this sight!  The kids just discovered that their baby in the womb at 15 weeks is the size of a lemon or an apple!  Look at the JOY and recognition of the miracle of LIFE!  And please join me in prayers for Maria and her baby - keep them safe, O Lord!  Amen

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Mother Teresa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html#eXc7SPjGL1wP4PB9.99

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Mother Teresa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html#eXc7SPjGL1wP4PB9.99

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Mother Teresa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere142106.html#pkYzpvE2fX6h9x1v.99

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Mother Teresa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere142106.html#pkYzpvE2fX6h9x1v.99

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Mother Teresa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html#eXc7SPjGL1wP4PB9.99

Rose and the baby kitties

A conglomeration of kids baby kitties and momma cat, Cookie, coming to the rescue!  Luke seems to be enthralled by the meows of the baby kitty and momma there to save her from the clutches of Rose!  There was high drama the first day they were born... Rose grabbed the two orange kittens - one in each hand and her siblings came when they heard the loud meows.  They started yelling and the more they yelled the harder Rose squeezed, finally all 4 kids were crying and yelling and the kittens were crying loudly.  "I had to go and pry Rose's hands open to get the kittens out.  Now she is on supervised visits only." reported Ruth the next day.  I pointed out that the kittens were getting pretty squeezed in mommy's tummy before they were born...

Older sister, Mary, and mommy Cookie to the rescue.  Rose did get some kitty time today and they do complain when she squeezes them with love.  I think they have just learned how to push our buttons, and they seem just fine after the close encounter of the Rose kind.  Luke hasn't figured out how to grab them yet... soon he can crawl around with the bigger kitties.

Notice the grip and the complaining kitten.  We tried to teach her how to be gentle, but it is hard when others are trying to get the kitten away from you - it makes you hold it that much tighter, right Rose?

 Oh, oh... the one in each hand grip... so soft but meowing like crazy!

Luke looks to the Cross - the Light!  Such a good boy for grandpa and grandma!

But mom's the BEST, and we wouldn't want it any other way little Uke!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

 

A mother's life-giving womb - LIFE of Silence

On the road as the sun was rising - thinking as a mother on her giving birth day would... "It's Nancy's birthday today and that means special in every way!   Look, Pat, at the beautiful sunrise even through the dirty windows of the pickup.  Look at the windmills turning in the wind on this chilly morning before another winter storm is predicted.  What do they say... 'Red in the morning, sailors take warning?'  Remember that her birthday has been on Good Friday a couple of times over the last 32 years, but never on Easter?  Then in 2005 on this day Blessed John Paul II died, and in a few weeks he will be Saint John Paul the Great!  And she had all that dark hair at birth - we called her 'Nanuk of the North' - our little Eskimo girl?  And do you remember how she was so quiet and hardly ever cried - that she slept all night the first night home from the hospital?  I must admit that she was such an angel that I worried that she would be taken from me... how could a baby be so good?" 

Nancy and Bernadette making cupcakes for Bernadette's first birthday in November.  It has been so wonderful to have Nancy on the farm more over the last year.  Since her two, soon to be three, are not in school yet she comes to the farm for part of the two weeks that Bill is away... traveling internationally with his job.  Such a treat! 
I shared before how quiet Nancy was as a small baby... and we eventually discovered that she had thick fluid behind her eardrums, so she was unable to hear much.  We noticed that she was not developing speech as she should as she got close to a year, and that is when this was discovered and after tubes - corrected!  With two calm and quiet girls to begin our family... just 16 months later Maria was #3 and all that changed, as she was a very normal baby and I learned how unusual my first two were rather than Maria being abnormally demanding and loudly crying... that is what comes with a baby usually... it just took my third one to show me that. 

 Nancy has always loved her life on the farm, and it is special that she can share it with her kids. 
As Pat and I were traveling this morning - it gave us time to do morning prayer together, and once again I was listening with those mother's ears on her giving birth day!
From the first reading in Isaiah 49:8-15  How could this not resonate?
"Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child in her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you."  So special to read on this day - forever filled with LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

Then we read the Gospel from the amazing Gospel of John - the Gospel of LOVE!  "whoever hears my Word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal LIFE..."  John 5

Then to read the meditation for the day by Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel (1964) - how my heart soared when I read her addressing "Whoever hears my Word"

She speaks about the importance of silence... "It seems impossible to me to imagine a life lived in accordance with the Gospel that does not include both a wanting a life of silence and knowing that such a life is essential."  Wow!  How I begin to question the desire I have to find silence in my life and to sink deep into prayer and study there.  It seems that I am being a drop out and lazy when I crave this and try to carve it out for myself.  Yes, I have found a car ride a half hour each way to work with the radio off is a glorious place for this silence and prayer.  And, of course, life is not a place of silence for the most part, but if I can manage it I long to sit down with my rosary for an hour or more and truly sink into the silence of prayer and meditation! 

Yes, I am just back in from helping Pat and Paul record numbers while they vaccinated 19 calves - we are up to 110 now!  I, of course, had my camera along to record this giving birth day!

"If we pick out from the beginning of the Gospel to the end all the statements Jesus makes about the 'Word' of God- all that he says about the conditions needed for it to be 'received' and 'listened to'; for it to be 'kept,' for it to be 'done,' for it to be 'announced';- we will quickly realize that for the 'good news' to be known, lived and communicated it must be welcomed, recollected, and carried in the depth of our being.

And if our whole lives have to be made subject to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if we desire to make all his words as far as possible our guide in the circumstances of our life, this will only be possible if we make creating silence an integral part of our life."  Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel

In the calf hut - a cute one!

Jesus, I am filled with such joy at the flavor of this giving birth day!  It is a rich and wonderful taste added to all that I see and do this day!  I ask that you hold our sweet Nancy, who showed us the beauty of silence even with a newborn in the house.  Her adopted Godfather, Uncle Jerry, was so impressed by her peacefulness, that he spoke of her with great love and amazement, when he visited shortly after she was born.  She did find her voice and used it to bring LIGHT into the world as she embraced teaching high school, alternative American Indian School, and now through her blog - http://www.dosmallthingswithlove.com/, and teaching her children the JOY to be found in being creative, as well as the wonder of this world as shared on the farm and at home!  By doing small and humble sharings she is lighting a candle of Faith in her projects and crafts as well as in her personal sharings!  Dear Lord, give our Nancy and her family great blessings as they are soon to welcome a new son.  The best gift ever for a mother - that closeness she knows and loves each day of carrying him in her Life-giving womb... we are so blessed as women called to marriage and family!  Jesus, may we come to you in the silence of our hearts and grow in our knowledge and love of YOU.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

This nice heifer was born this morning just before we left for Pipestone.  Her name will forever be Nancy!  Another wonderful way to remember your day - come soon to meet her - her number will 110D!

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke/mom

My dimple girl, Nancy, with her little angel, Bernadette, who actually has two dimples too!  Happy Birthday!!!!  We love you so much!!!  Bless-bless, mom

Your TEC song - Testify to LOVE by Avalon

Happiest of Birthdays Nancy Anna Joan of Arc

Nancy introducing Bernadette to a newborn calf last week.  The farm is so busy for us this time of year with calving and all that goes with it.  Pat is out pulling a new calf, and then we are leaving with the trailer and a cow.  Happy Birthday dear farmgirl at heart, Nancy, I will gush more later!