7 Quick Takes Friday – Soak Up the Sun

1. No updates on Larisa yet!  Please keep praying for her.

2. Soaking up the sun is what I’ve been doing a lot of lately!  After last week’s snow (first time I can ever recall snow in May), we’ve had gorgeous weather where I live and I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it.  (And as a result, not blogging.  Sorry, folks!)  Luckily, I saved my tomatoes from the snow.  The night before it snowed, DH and I went to the hardware store and picked up a few glass quart jars and used them to cover the tomatoes.  It looked goofy, but it worked like a charm!

3. I got nothin’ else, so let’s talk orphans for awhile.  First up is Shaina, an adorable little girl who needs to be adopted by JUNE 2013 or she will age out!

Shaina already has over $5000 raised for her adoption – wow!  Won’t somebody please take her home?

4. This one is a three-fer: Trudy, Tristan, and Tatiana!  These three are siblings who live in the same region but in different orphanages.  All three have HIV.  Tatiana has FAS, and Tristan has unspecified mental delays.  Reece’s Rainbow is hoping to find a way for them to be adopted together.  Do you know their family?  Maybe you do and you don’t know it!

Trudy, age 15

 

Tristan, age 10

 

Tatiana, age 7

 

5.  Next up is Cate!  Cate is ten years old and has the following heart issues:  discordant atrioventricular junction, corrigent transposition of magistral vessels, coronary-left ventricle fistula, complete atrioventricular heart block.  If she had the proper medical care, she could probably thrive.  She may also have FAS – the records aren’t clear.

6.  Finally, we have Matthew John, who needs a family by September 2013!  He has an absence of skull and congenital dyskinesia of his limbs.  However, he’s described as an extroverted boy who gets along with the other kids in his institution and likes to play football.  (I’m guessing they mean soccer.)  And he has zero dollars in his account – what a travesty!

 

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  As you might have guessed, this week’s song is “Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for orphans!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Spring At Last!

1. Spring has finally sprung, but first an update on Larisa!  Kate commented on my Larisa page that she and her husband had tried to claim Larisa, but the paper trail on her had been lost!  Please storm heaven for her!

2. As the title of this posts suggests, danger of frost has FINALLY passed where I live!  I spent my day off this week getting my tomatoes, peppers, and herbs planted.  Salsa will be a little late this year, but better late than never, right?

3.  Aside from eating whatever I grew, my favorite part of gardening season is going to the garden center and buying new plants.  I love looking at all the little tags and learning about new varieties.  I also love finding the stuff I intended to plant – when I see Jet Star tomatoes or Blushing Beauty peppers, it’s like running into an old friend.

4.  I’m not quite organized enough to have a garden plan.  Scratch that.  I am organized enough to have a garden plan… but I always throw it out once I get to the garden center.  ”Plans?  Where we’re going we don’t need plans!”

5.  I’ve been very active in a statewide professional organization for the last few years.  A few months ago, I became a committee chair for the organization.  I haven’t talked about this on the blog because, well, this blog isn’t about my professional life.  I haven’t talked about it at work either, partly because it never seemed like the right time, and partly because I didn’t think anybody actually cared.  I was proven wrong on that score at staff meeting, when Boss Man gave me a shout-out at staff meeting.

6.  I guess the moral of take #5 is: quietly doing the right thing is more persuasive than you realize.

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  This Friday’s song is “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for Larisa!

Urgent Prayer Request (Promoted From Comments)

Kate writes:

“My husband and I tried to claim Larisa.They have lost track of her paper trail! It’s been a week since they told us. Rosaries UP!”

I spoke with Kate via email and learned that the Ukranian facilitators are looking for Larisa.  Please pray that they find her, and soon!

Intention Fatigue

Those of you who work in healthcare have probably heard the phrase “alert fatigue.”  This is a malady associated with electronic medical records in which providers entering orders on a patient’s profile receive so many pop-up alerts about things that are unimportant (e.g. “Warning: This patient has two laxatives on his profile!  This is duplicate therapy!”)  that the alerts that are important (e.g. “Warning: The combination of these two drugs can cause an irregular heart rhythm and kill your patient!”) get ignored.  It’s like the boy who cried wolf.

I sometimes find myself with Intention Fatigue – that is, I feel obligated to pray for everybody who asks for prayers on their blog, not to mention the Holy Father and his intentions, tragedies such as the Boston bombings, societal evils such as abortion and the death penalty… you get the idea.  Often I worry that I’ve left out someone or something important.

Has this happened to anyone else?  What have you done about it?

RED ALERT!

Adeye (No Greater Joy Mom) has asked all her readers to share the story of Sebastian, a young man who turns 16 (thus aging out of the system) in just nine days.  Nine days to find a family for this young man before he’s cast out of the orphanage with little more than the clothes on his back.

Do you know Sebastian’s family?  Maybe you do and you don’t realize it yet!  Please, share this on your blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook.

Anyone wanting more information from someone who has met Sebastian, please contact Nicole at diveshark@yahoo.com. For all inquiries about his adoption and the legalities, please contact debbie@reecesrainbow.com.  Serious inquiries only please!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Spring Not Yet Sprung

1.  Let’s start today’s Quick Takes with a picture of sweet Larisa!  I Miss Larisa has over $1400 available for her adoption – that’s a head start for any prospective family!

2.  If you haven’t seen the news about Father Emil Kapaun and his posthumous Medal of Honor, I urge you to head over to the Wichita Eagle’s site.  Since Kapaun is from the Wichita area and two miracles attributed to him occurred in the Wichita area, the Eagle has covered Kapaun extensively.

3.  Last year at this time, I was posting pictures of my garden.  You may have noticed that I haven’t done that this year.  Last year was unusually warm (and I jumped the gun a bit on planting).  This year has been about average, which means we’re still in danger of frost for the next few days.  I’d hoped to head to the greenhouse today, but it looks like it’ll be just cold enough tonight that I need to wait.  Bummer.

4.  Also it was cold and wet all day yesterday, which means the garden expansion isn’t quite complete yet.  Guess I should take care of that before I plant anything, huh?

5.  Let’s see, what am I growing this year?  Narrowing the focus a bit – it’ll be tomatoes, jalapeños and at least one other hot pepper (lobbying for habañeros, but DH has a much lower capsaicin tolerance than I do).  Garlic is currently growing – once I pull it up I’ll probably put radishes and salad greens in. Oh, and cilantro.  (Sorry, Jen!)

6.  This happens to me every week.  I get to take #6 and realize I got nothin’.  Sorry, kids.

7. It’s Friday  so it’s time for a song!    I realized I’ve been doing this for over a year and have yet to include one Bob Marley song.  For shame!  I give you  “No Woman No Cry.”

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Camp Patton!

Chreasters…

Simcha Fisher’s post on C&E Catholics reminded me of my reversion story and the fact that I’ve never posted it here.  Since it happened at Easter, I suppose now would be a good time to do so.  (Warning: this just might be the lamest reversion story ever.)

Five years ago, I was in graduate school and our spring break fell on Holy Week.  At the time I hadn’t been to church in about four years (and I had been married for about four years).  Scandals, disagreement with the Church on contraception, and just generally being a know-it-all were part of the reason I stopped attending Mass, but most of it was just no longer feeling the presence of God.

Anyway, my parents and sister decided to spend Holy Week with my grandparents that year, and since I figured I should spend time with my grandparents while I still could, I went along.  We didn’t go to the Holy Thursday or Good Friday liturgies (I forget why), but we did go to Mass on Easter morning, and I knew there was no way I’d get out of it.

That Easter Mass changed my life.

I took Communion and felt God in a powerful way; even now it’s difficult to put it into words.  The only thing I can compare it to is the first time DH held my hand and I thought, “This the start of something big.”

After I got home, I had my doubts.  What if it was just a fluke?  What if I’m just imagining things?

So the following Sunday, I went to Mass at the Newman Center at my university, which is very different from the church my grandparents attended.  My grandparents went to a huge, ostentatious suburban church; the Newman center is small and austere.

And I felt the presence of God again.  And again.  And again, and again.  Then I did what any real nerd would do:  I read.  I read books like What’s So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  I read blogs like Conversion Diary and Jimmy Akin and The American Papist.

DH, of course, didn’t come along for the ride.  Maybe someday he will… but for now, I am content to pray, hope, and not worry.