Godparents

 Godparents truly are a wonderful thing. In my own life I had kind of a sore run with Godparents. My original set from my Baptism lived far enough away that I don't remember them (before they sadly became divorced). I received a new Godfather for my Confirmation. He was a sweet man, but I barely got to know him before he passed away. As for my Husband, his Godparents are family members, so he's been lucky to keep in touch with them. When it was time to pick Godparents for our kids, I wondered if the people we picked would stay in their lives, act as a model and guide for many years to come, or fade quietly into the background.

For our oldest child, we picked my brother-in-law and a school friend of my Husband's who I really liked. It has been beautiful watching their love for her over the years. While she doesn't see her Godmother often enough by far, she knows about her and prayers for her all the time. She knows she is loved in a special way by them.

For our oldest son, we picked the Superior of the religious order where we met and an old friend of mine who I met a hundred years ago at an all city choir. I still remember the day our boy was born. His Godfather came, bursting with as much pride as my Husband and I were, held his tiny Godson and stood there with a look of complete adoration. The fact that our little boy shared his name (less the Italian O ending) was a matter of great joy as well. His Godmother, who has two little boys (and another baby coming!) close in age with him, has been a source of great spiritual support and joy for me. Our boy adores her, asking often to see her. Even though she and her family have followed the call to move to another province, they still feel spiritually very close.

Our middle boy, our darling clown of a child, has for his Godparents my eldest brother and his significant other for Godparents. They live in a different province but visit often enough to be a special part of his life. His Uncle is something of a clown himself, so it's funny to see the two of them together. I know as he gets older he'll appreciate the choice we made for him even more.

Baby girl is lucky to have two dear friends for her Godparents. Both my husband and I knew her Godmother from before he and I had met. He met her at school and I met her through various Church activities. She introduced us to her then fiancé not long before they were married. As fate would have it, we were married in the same parish but a few months apart. Our kids are within a year to six months apart. We were just reconnecting with them as a couple when we found out we were pregnant with baby girl. They were a completely natural choice for Godparents, as they are devoted and faithful Catholics. They have been good friends through hard times and I know as baby girl gets older they will be a special part of how she learns to live the Gospel.

When we found out we were pregnant with baby boy, the first thing we started puzzling about is Godparents. You'd think by the fifth baby the well would have run dry on who to choose. We actually had a short list of no less than three couples that we prayed about. It became clear very quickly that God was pushing both of our hearts towards a particular couple. I found this very interesting as I didn't really know the couple in question very well, but God kept putting them in my heart. I'm glad we let God take the lead on this one as they have become an essential part of our family. I feel like I've gained a brother and sister. The kids all love them with an ease we're not used to (especially from middle boy and baby girl, who are shy pants even with family). Having them in our lives made this pregnancy all the more special. If you read back through the months of the pregnancy you'll see that they were a fixture in many of the updates, from ultrasounds, to date nights, to the night baby boy was born. Their faith is rock solid and they have been a great comfort to us.

As I look back through all these Godparents, I can only hope that our kids will feel comfortable enough to turn to their Godparents for spiritual support and guidance. We have been blessed by the guidance of God who has gifted our family with people who went from friends to family. I thank God for each of them and pray for them every day, as do their sweet Godbabies. May God bless them with firmness of faith to take on the heavy and the life long task of spiritual leadership entrusted to them through the Sacrament of Baptism.

Baby 5: Week 26

How Far Along: 26 Weeks (14 weeks to go!)

How I'm Feeling: It's been snowing here, so I've been finding it tough to get out of the house too much these days. It's not that my belly is so huge that I can't get past the snow banks, but it sure is tough to push the tandem stroller on barely shovelled side walks. Excluding a few very necessary excursions, I've been doing my best to stay close to home. Other than that my husband has been driving us as he can. Baby boy is pushing up into my lungs, so I'm finding it tough to manage walking up and down the stairs too frequently. I'm also finding that the energy I was so enjoying is only coming in spurts now. When I've got it, I feel free. When I don't have the energy, I'm starving. Such is the life of pregnancy!

What I'm Thinking: Today I was at the Baptism for a friend's baby, and I was also fortunate the stand in as a sponsor for a young Mother who needed a faithful Catholic as a Godparent for her baby girl. This beautiful event reminded me that my baby boy is growing just below my heart, already a unique, unrepeatable person with his own soul breathed in by God. The responsibility to pray for him and bring him to God even now was a beautiful weight on my heart today. I feel so blessed that God has chosen to entrust us with five little souls to direct towards His endless love.

What I've Done This Week: I'm impressed that we managed to get through the weather bomb that hit the eastern seaboard without even losing our power. Beyond that, I've managed to cook meals for the whole family that everyone loved seven days in a row. In my exhausted pregnant mind, I'm winning. I also managed to get my testing done for gestational diabetes on Friday. Not my favourite thing in the world, but I'm happy I got it done. I bought some yarn at the craft store while I was waiting, and found time on Saturday to knit the little man a hat. My feeling of accomplishment is pretty high this week.
 

What I Hope To Do Next Week: Sounds silly, but beyond surviving, I'm hoping to learn how to crochet this week. I have quite a bit of yarn around that I'm hoping I can use to crochet a cute blanket for baby boy, and hopefully some cute items for the big brothers and sisters too.

Baby 5: Week 24

How Far Along: 24 Weeks (16 weeks to go!)

How I'm Feeling: I'm feeling good! A little tired for general kick related night-time hijinks (what's up almost 4 year old??? Why all the waking at night, kiddo?), but surprisingly energetic. I was thinking back to not too many weeks ago, when all I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep and eat a little, and sleep some more. I'm finding eating isn't the highest on my list (I'm still eating, just not in all-day snack mode), nor is sleeping (except at night, obviously). During the day I'm up and buzzing about. The TV has been turned off all day for 4 days, and I've been baking muffins, playing with the kids, and simply enjoying them!

What I'm Thinking: My brain has been working double time. We got the results of our ultrasound on Friday, and everything was great. Apparently this baby is a very energetic, healthy baby growing nicely (not unlike my waist-line). We also decided for the first time to find out the gender, and have been spending the last few days passing names back and forth. We were SO sure we were having a girl that we had a perfectly beautiful girl's name picked, so when our doctor said this little munchkin will be our third BOYYYYYYYYYYY, we were stumped. We had a name, but the second it became so real that this is in fact a boy, we ditched it. We have a new name in mind, but we'll be praying hard about it before we make anything official.
 

What I've Done This Week: Besides baking, I also went nuts cleaning in the kitchen. It's not pristine by any stretch of the word, but as of right now there are no dirty dishes. Rejoice! This shouldn't be a big deal, but it totally is. I've also been busy with things at Church, like our Moms' group, the Welcoming Committee, Baptism Formation sessions, and some odds and sods. I've also gotten a pretty cool gig transcribing some audio files of my parish priest's talks down at a conference. He's writing a book based on some work he's done giving presentations on the New Evangelization in the Catholic Church. I've been doing that in the quiet times and enjoying it all.
 

What I Hope To Do Next Week: I hope to finish the bulk of my transcription, and then, (ha, how many times have I said this?) clean up baby boy's bedroom so we can lay the flooring. We're so close to getting it done, but as that room has become a kind of a drop zone it'll take some doing.

Baby 5: Week 23

How Far Along: 23 Weeks and 3 days (16 weeks and 4 days to go! I'm quite behind this week! Oops!)

How I'm Feeling: The cold is really bugging me these days. I'm finding my skin especially dry these days so the frosty chill of a Canadian winter is wreaking havoc on my skin (not to mention my hair, but that's not exactly a crowning glory of mine at the best of times, so mehn). I've also had some itchiness where my stretchmarks are getting their own stretchmarks. Laugh all you want friends, but by the fifth baby the once moderate length and width of my first stretchmarks (which already look like a young Spiderman's elementary school project) have been far eclipsed by the supernova of stretchmarks that come with each new pregnancy. I wonder if Michelle Duggar has any unstretched skin left on her stomach after so many pregnancies... But I digress. On the up side, with only moderate amounts of caffeine, I am much more alert and full of energy. I know the kids are appreciating this upswing of energy. I'm sure the two oldest are very wary by now of this brief spurt of energy, as at least the oldest will remember the down swing brought on by third trimester sleepiness. Enjoy it while you can, kiddos. Daily art projects and monster truck dinky races for all!
 

What I'm Thinking: I've been having lots of wacky and funny pregnancy dreams lately, which have been giving me a laugh during the day. I'm not sure I can even explain half of them as they make no sense to me anyway. Last night I dreamt that I took a pilgrimage to Rome (Rome=Home, as my German friend often reminds me) with my family. We were there to have the Pope baptise this new baby (who was, by the way, born but had neither name nor gender). Apparently in my dreams I have access to the Pope, which is pretty cool and random. For a somewhat normal pretext (especially considering my parish priest is currently in the Holy City, and tweeted some great pictures from St. Peter's square), my dream quickly descended into wacky land. Let's just say it involved one of those wacky British sitcom style chase scenes where people are running out of different rooms in a long hallway (which was, by the way, the Papal Apartments in my dream). Swiss guards, toddlers, a stray donkey. You know, the usual. So yeah, pregnancy brain is hilarious when I'm asleep.
 

What I've Done This Week: This week was our Parish's Stewardship of Talent Fair, so I was pretty busy with getting ready for that. We also celebrated my wonderful husband's 30th birthday. All of this means that it looks like a series of bombs have gone off in my house. It was totally worth it for the sake of all the fun we had! We also got to meet my friend's 2 week old baby boy. He was totally adorable. It's a good thing I'm already pregnant, because for real my ovaries were clenching with new baby love!

What I Hope To Do Next Week: I'm kind of in survival mode right now. If I achieve anything, I will give myself a high five. We have a doctor's appointment on Friday and we'll hear the results of our 20 week ultrasound. That we haven't got an ominous phone call before now means that everything is fine, but I will be relieved when we hear all the details. We also have the chance to find out our baby's gender. We've never had the option to find out for free before, so we will see what we decide!

Taste of Heaven

I don't mean to brag (well, maybe a little), but I'm pretty sure I'm a member of the best Catholic parish in the world. That's a pretty hefty claim, I realise, but I think I can back it up! For one, we have an amazing, engaging, and brave parish priest. He's willing to do things that he know may not be popular, because he knows it's right. His homilies are engaging, and he has no problem speaking difficult truths from the pulpit. He also has no problem letting us know that he's not the reason our parish is incredible. You can have an actual Saint at your parish, and you still might not be a happening parish filling the pews and drawing new people in. Having a great pastor is only one piece of the puzzle. Our priest recognises his primary job is to bring us the Sacraments, teach us about our Faith from the pulpit, and, very importantly, to nurture parish leaders who can raise up an incredible community outside of our Sunday Mass. Which leads to my real point. Yes, we have an incredible parish priest. He's got a vision for what our parish can become and is working so so so hard to help us make that happen, but in the end he's putting it in the hands of the laity to get the job done.

When we moved to this area and started attending this parish, I was a little nervous. We'd been going to a very lovely parish downtown with a pastor who we consider a very close friend and were liking the parish in principle. We didn't participate in any parish activities because we were already commuting to get there and didn't see anything that really jumped out at us. I was also struggling with the idea of going to the Church that was actually in our area because my Dad is a public figure there, and it's an amalgamation including my childhood parish. Not that I don't love my Dad, but he casts quite a shadow, and is there anything worse than having no one know your name except for as "So and So's daughter"? Despite my misgivings, we thought we'd come for one or two weekends to feel the new place out. If nothing else, it would  be nice to check out the swanky new building! The first impression, which has turned into a lasting one, was that this is a vibrant, welcoming parish. Strangers smiled and welcomed us on the way in. Folks introduced themselves out of nowhere when we sat down. And no, they didn't have that lean and hungry look some people get when they see a young family at Church (quickly! Young people! Start signing them up for stuff!). They didn't recognise us, so they wanted to make us feel at home. Some folks who recognised me from my particular childhood parish (the new parish is an amalgamation of 3 smaller parishes) came over and welcomed us back with no judgements (sometimes when you've moved to a different parish, people kind of assume that they you left the Church altogether... haha). Simply just happy to see us! And boy are they welcoming of kids! Your kids screaming his or her head off? That's okay! That's what kids do. Can I help you at all? What a joy to see your family here!

After a few masses, we were hooked on this new parish. We found the particular mass that worked for us, and actually managed to get ourselves a regular spot. It took another couple of months before we really go involved, but after a while people gently invited us (and in the case of my Dad, much less gently) to join a few activities. I took Alpha last year, and this year I'm helping to run it for Young Families in our parish. (Don't know what Alpha is? You're missing out friend! Run to your local parish and if they're not carrying it, they should be!). Our Alpha class turns into a faith based playgroup when we're not running the course, which means we have year-round fun, support, and growth in our faith. Based on the inspiration of my experience during my 4th pregnancy, I started a little ministry called Food for Families that brings ready to cook meals to young families who are greeting a new baby. I've also joined the Baptism Formation Committee, the Pro-Life Committee, and just this past week the Welcoming Committee (a new committee to help people who are new to the parish feel welcome and comfortable). All stuff that's right up my alley, and none of it so taxing that I'm pulling my hair out. And no one MADE me do any of it. I just feel so energised by our parish that I WANT to do it! And it isn't just me! My husband joined the Knights of Columbus, which has him out and about quite and bit, joined the Pro-Life Committee with me, and started doing a retreat series called Moment by Moment, which is a 30 Day retreat stretched out to be once a week for 30 weeks. I think it's fair to say he's loving it to.

The most incredible thing about this parish is that there's really something for everyone! We've got Youth groups, bible studies, faith formation, grief support, playgroups, movie nights, fun activities like knitting or Ukrainian Easter eggs, and just about anything else you can think of! It's so much that we have a person who specifically coordinates all our volunteers! Our parish bulletin is so packed with real activities each month that we're trying to upgrade to a bigger format so we can actually tell folks about everything going on! Our parish is living proof that if you raise up good leaders, they'll go out and raise up more good leaders, and so on! We're all working together, growing together, praying together, and spending a lot of our time laughing. With the strength of God and our desire to come closer to Him individually and as a community, we drawing new people in and helping people find faith, re-learn their faith, and grow in their faith. When you look back across the Church during Mass, it's hard not to notice a lot of shining faces with their eyes fixed on the Cross. Our parish, its staff, parishioners and pastor, are working hard to become a little foretaste of Heaven so compelling that we ignite a fire of Faith so strong we could catch the whole world on fire. Every time I feel the flame of my Baptism growing dim, I can depend that there's someone in the parish who will share their light with me, and help me grow back into a raging inferno of love for Christ.

And that's the kind of parish we could all use.