New Life

Today, John Mark, Jack, and I went to a wedding of our friends, Nic and Petra. They are such great, God-filled people, and I know God will do great things through them. I can't remember if it was during the homily or what, but Fr. Phil mentioned how through this sacrament, new life is created. Obviously, that could be taken literally, in terms of having kids and such, but I think in a way, you are transformed - become new - when you marry your spouse. Suddenly, you have the responsibility not only of your own salvation, but of your husband or wife's. You must lift him up in prayer, hold him accountable, witness to him, and honor him.

After losing a child, the vows said at a wedding have a greater meaning to me. Three years ago, when John Mark and I stood in front of the altar and committed ourselves to one another, we never dreamed that life would throw us this curve ball. I remember when my sister-in-law (sitting in for John Mark) and I were consulting with the Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at UAB. He said "Now let me tell you something. The majority of couples who have a special needs child end up filing for a divorce because you end up neglecting your relationship. Your baby is not the only important person in your life. You have other family members to care for, including your husband and your son." At the time, I was sort of shocked that he would bring up something so personal, but I eventually realized how easy it was to disregard everyone around you when you suffer a tragedy. I thank God for John Mark's steadfastness, wisdom, and devotion to me and Jack. I think he is one of the main reasons I am still standing and have not lost hope.

So, today, I pray for all married couples - those who are recently married, that they may receive the grace when faced with difficult decisions and heavy crosses in the future. For those struggling with infertility, child loss, divorce, illness, and the caring for special needs children. May the grace that pours forth from the Sacrament of Marriage give them the strength and courage to lift each other up and bring each other closer to Christ.

By the way, here are some pics...the one below (excuse the bad cropping job) was taken on our first - and probably only - snowfall of the year. I swear there are snowflakes there, you just can't see them. ;)

He has a thing for cups that are bigger than his head:
And this one, I'll entitle "Boogers":

Jack the Toolman:
The picture below was taken of our Dogwood after 10 hours of being hosed with water overnight in 15 degree weather. Our outside pipe was freezing, so John Mark let the water trickle through a sprinkler in order to create this masterpiece. We don't get too many naturally-formed icicles in these parts, so we work hard on creating our own. These pictures probably won't interest anyone other than our family living in the deep south where it hardly reaches below 50. My family in Pennsylvania will probably just roll their eyes and move on. :-)




And here are 2 pics from Christmas in Mobile, courtesy of Jen-Jen:


And I apologize for the fuzziness of this next picture (my camera is breaking), but I had to squeeze this one in...after a very hard day of working in the kitchen, Grandma settled down for the night with some Guitar Hero III. How cool is that? I have a hunch it wasn't all that relaxing, though.