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!
Dad and Joy heading out to bale corn stalks behind Ruth mom raking them into a winrow... Family job shared with JOY! The lunch pail had snacks for Joy and dad including candy!
Joy has her own seat and seatbelt to share the farming experience with her dad. Her cow boots and her sweet smile come easily as she gets to be part of this big job. They did 100 bales in a few hours with 400 more to go!
Joy and Dad in the baler...
Ruth leads the way with the rake... teamwork!
Today is the ending of Job's story of losing it all only to regain what he had lost and more... the final words reminds me of my father living here with me now for going on 6 months on the farm!
Job 42...Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Then Job died, old and full of years.
Very true of my father, with whom I just shared morning prayer. He always ends our prayer with placing his "children with their spouses, grandchildren with spouses, and my 58 great-grandchildren." He lifts up each one of us, and on Monday he prays for them using their first and middle name!
A gift to see our newest great-grandchild... Baby Birdie smiling for all of us in this special picture with her mommy!
Joy Jean here with grandma watercoloring a picture of her with Birdie, grandma, cows and kittens, and the barn behind!
Praying with dad this wonderful Saturday morning a bit late due to picking up Mary from swimming and bringing Joy home while they preg check about 150 cows this morning in a big family job! My part is to help my father and Joy here, and also some possible running with kids. John got the job of watching David play his football game this morning! A good Godfather job indeed!
3 years ago it was applesauce day... this year it is preg checking day for the family!
Joy loves her blues in her painting!
Joy is so adorable that I just had to get closer to her sweetness!
It has been so special to have my father meet and watch my newest grandchild and his newest great-grandchild grow and develop! Such a gift to the two of us to have new life to celebrate - our love grows bigger with each new little one!
Using mom's prayer book with her looking on as we share prayer! She is so very much with us as we have her in this wonderful picture taken just 2 weeks before she died quickly in a day after a fall. How I miss her, but know that she is keeping one foot in heaven as she intercedes for her huge family of 140+.
With mom praying with us we are reminded on a close personal level that we are striving to join her and that we cling to this truth in the Gospel today - Jesus telling us that..."rejoice because your names are written in heaven." Yes! Lord!
Ruth visiting great-grandpa with Joy...
Over to help Pat... prayers while he climbs grain bins over and over this time of year! Lord, help him to be safe!
This is too scary for me to do!
Pat putting in a fence around the corn field... the 170 cows will be there tonight after the preg checking it done!
I drove the 4 wheeler with the posts and the step downs to hold the wire.
More teamwork on a pretty afternoon.
15 paces between posts...
Ruth and Paul were raking and baling on the other side of the field while we put in the fence on the other. Then Ed came and started combining between the two jobs!
The cows lined up at the fence thinking that Pat would give them more grass... they have to wait a day and then they will join the others on the corn stalks... such an amazing sight to see all those cows out on the pretty stalks grazing.
A big space for them to spread out!
Bringing across the cows from the back pasture is another family job...
Here come the cows!!!
Joy and I help them turn into the yard...
David and Paul did a lot of leg work... running to get them where we wanted to have them. Pat and Rose walked behind them all across the field!
Luke and Joy get the last one in...
Gathered around mom after the job was done. Now today the family is working together seeing if all our cows are pregnant with a calf to be born in late winter and early spring.
Learning how to help on the farm is so great to have this young family living there now and not this old woman. I can still help, although with my dad here it is more limited. I did call dad a few times over the afternoon, to make sure that all was well. His job is prayer and staying safe in his chair!
Joy is a nice friend to my kitty, who came in for some snuggles.
Jesus how we love our farm family time doing work together allows us to accomplish the job of feeding the world. Keep all farmers safe and sane and may we always strive to reach our goal of being forever in heaven with mother, Mary, the Mother of God, Jesus, the Saints, and angels. Lord, hear our prayers! Bless-bless, Barbara and Joy Jean
It is a huge day today! My amazing mother-in-law's birthday today - she would be 101! The first year of my mother being there to share her day, and of course the mother that is the BEST of ALL - Mary, the Mother of heaven and earth!
Joy never met her, as she died just months before Joy was born. I know that she is happy to know Joy and her happiness we are given by her sweet smile and love! How Pat's mother was a lover of children! My kids are all devoted to her and how wonderful she was in their lives. As I was gathering pictures from around the house for this... it is only right that two of them are with John and Susan/Hallel!
I have been working on a fall arrangement with leaves, corn and soybeans... the wooden hosts and soybeans are also appropriate as my mother-in-law loved her Catholic Faith and sharing that together was a deep bond between us! It also led my husband to proclaim to his sisters - "I will only marry a Catholic!" And the result of those prayers - all 13 of us swimming against the tide at Vatican 2 and coming into The Church! Each day since has been a gift and a delight!
No better snack than an apple fresh off the tree this time of year!
The 139th Psalm from mass today is amazing and speaks of how we are never alone on this journey "along the everlasting way." A special friend on our journey is our individual guardian angel which is the Feast day today!
Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence where can I flee? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast. R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way. Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works. R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way. Psalm 139
Fall and a sweet red haired girl!
Such a party in heaven today... we love you mom!!! I am forever grateful for how Pat's mother with great patience showed me how to be a farmwife. I am sure there are still times that she shakes her head at me with that smile on her face! My favorite story was as a newly wed - about 2 months a farmwife after being s city girl for my life up til then...
Mom was helping me clean out the garden and asked me if I had a potato fork. I said "sure" and went and got a fork out of the silverwear drawer, which I handed to her. She took it and dug in the dirt, and finally sweetly told me that actually a potato fork is a big tool! LOVE you so much mom! You are the best!!! You taught me how to can, make bread, and being loving and forgiving, and welcome new life as a gift!
Everytime I make my bed... I think of my special sister-in-law, friend, Raterra, who is Pat's sister and is the whole reason for my life here! She loves this bedspread, so I think of her especially on this day which is her mother's birthday!
Taking the corn out around us - dad is interested in watching from the kitchen windows ... chickens, cat and I are interested!
Harvest on mom's birthday is so appropriate! Praying for all the farmers most especially her two sons and grandson, Brad! She was a farm woman for all her days - 97 years +! We know her prayers are with and her guardian angel now has joined forces in keeping the farmers safe and sane! Bless-bless, Barbara, farmwife for 42 years with the help of Anna Verly!
The two Davids with Therese a few weeks back! Both Big Dave and Therese are now 12 together, and Little Dave will be 11 just about Christmas time. Yes, we have 2 David Grandsons just a year and a half apart!
Today many special thoughts are heading way on this Feast of St Therese of Lisieux! It was no surprise that Maria's oldest would carry this name, as Maria had a profound conversion and call come from reading Story of a Soul on her way to study in Rome for her Sophomore year at St Thomas. As a result she entered the Poor Clares and discerned for 5 months in January of 2003! Very powerful time for us!
Visiting Maria at Easter time! Behind the enclosure that protects them from the world, and allows them to do the work of prayer with mass, adoration and prayer throughout the day and night!
Therese carries her name in such a beautiful way in her sweet service to her family and to the poor! She gardens, makes wonderful food for her family, cares for her younger siblings in such a loving way, sews and does needle work including making cross stitch families in the corner of the blankets she and her mother make for any new baby they get wind of... sharing their value of LIFE!
Maria and Therese - LOVE!
We had some special times together - shopping for the clothes for my family picture! How she loves my joy of dressing the groups alike and how we rejoice in each new life that enters our growing family - Our love grows more with each new one and not stretched more thin!
The first day they were here from at the end of the summer we did a day of applesauce and John joined and Therese got to hold her newest cousin and care for her!
Happiness for Therese is to have a baby in her arms and Birdie thinks that this is just fine! She resembles Therese as a baby and her sister, Evangeline. They are as close to Verly girls as my granddaughters get along with Rose Again!
Close to a smile for her big wonderful cousin!
Back to school pictures of "T" Therese is homeschooled by her mom, as they are a family and move often. There are fake plans that they could be living with us for 6 months next June through Christmas! Exciting thought with them and dad here!
The Gospel today is about Jesus sending out 72 in pairs to proclaim the Kingdom! The words seemed to speak to dad and I about his being here for the long haul! After making a trip to Sioux Falls yesterday and now bouncing back to his stableness... there is no end that we can see as we take one day at a time. We are now 5 1/2 months into this!
Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.' Luke 10
I imagine her jean jacket will get a lot of use now with fall coming on... I love how she wanted to wear the sweet big white bow along with all the girls except Mary!
Hearing the words of the Gospel about staying in the same house - give me the momentum I need to go forward with my father here. Today we thanked Covid for making this possible for us, and now to know that he will be here as he walks into the sunset of his life. We have no idea of when that will happen, but we love our work of prayer and take it very seriously! Dad was also happy to know that there are now more children going to Catholic school with the epidemic, and that is another good thing!
She chose the 100 year old Cottonwood tree to be her backdrop.
And the golden corn field across the road.
A special watercolor I did 8 years ago while we waited for Patrick to arrive! St Therese is such an amazing Doctor of The Church! She definitely spends her heaven doing good for the world! We now have family stories of St Therese, Bobbi's patron saint, sending her roses over the 10 years she silently waited for John to become her husband!
Therese 8 years ago at age 4 with her Anna Dolly and St Therese and in 8 days the arrival of her new brother, Patrick, born dead and brought back to life after a traumatic birth! Home from NICU just 2 weeks later and his dad came back from Afghanistan! One of our family miracles!
St Therese and Mary over their shoulders and at work in their journey of finding each other after being classmates through Catholic school and beyond!!! Bobbi;s story!!!
After being classmates for all 13 years for them to come together 10 years after graduating is kind of special. She shared to the 300 family and friends gathered at the reception in her sweet humble way about how John Verly popped into her head and heart when they were seniors in HS as her future husband. Time and time again the same answer came to her through prayer and roses from St Therese and opening her eyes to see him right in front of her at WYD in Australia... When we consider what John experienced over those 10 years... brain cancer, seminary, girl friends, ups and downs and how disheartening it probably was and how powerful her prayers were for him!!!! Amazing!!! And how patient and trusting and prayerful and waiting and praying for John, this sweet girl was!
My father at prayer this morning after a big day yesterday! He amazes me! He prayed the office after breakfast this morning and always ending with prayer for his huge family - how we look to him to lift us up in our needs, and we are seeing the results in our lives! For me... each day since he and mother brought our family of 13 into The Church has been a blessing and a gift! He definitely brings Peace into our household and we together proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand!
Big in our prayers today for my sister, Paula Beth, who had surgery on her hand yesterday at the same time we were in Sioux Falls with dad. My chapel on wheels included thoughts and prayers for her!
Jesus, we look to your peace to be in this household as we come to you each day with our work of prayer with the help of hospice answering our needs and wants. May we die to self so that you may live and work in us! May we be your hands and feet and voice proclaiming that The Kingdom of God is at hand! Be with this election and protect ALL LIFE from conception to natural death. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Therese has helped her mom with the care of her younger 4 siblings! She is wonderful with little ones... much like she has cared for her beloved doll, Anna! Bless-bless, Barbara
