November 2, 2009
November 2, 2009
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November is National Adoption Month!

I have a dear friend who has hosted an exchange student each year for the past five years or so. She and her husband are energetic, generous people — we truly could not have done as good a job with our kids had they not been so supportive. This year the exchange program has not gone as well as in years past. They had to have a student moved to another home. When this happened, something prompted me to ask … “Have you ever considered taking a teenager from the foster care system? You know, one that wouldn’t go back at the end of the school […]
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November 1, 2009
November 1, 2009
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Miracle Monday: Irena Sendler – In Memoriam

As Father Chas reminded us today, All Saints Day (November 1) is to remember not just the “famous” saints — our brothers and sisters in faith whose life stories and writings are found in hundreds of books, whom the Church has officially declared to be in heaven — but the “little saints” remembered only by a handful of people … and some, not at all. Today my mother-in-law passed the name of one such person on to me. Her name was Irena Sendler, and she worked as a plumber/specialist in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.  Here is what we know about Irena, who recently […]
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October 25, 2009
October 25, 2009
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Waiting for the Light

This week I’ve been thinking about blissful ignorance — the kind of willful blindness we sometimes embrace in our humanness because seeing the truth is just too painful, or unexpected, or unsettling, or, well, icky. Among believers, it can become a kind of spiritual schitzophrenia. The kind that sees with blazing clarity the splinter in the eye of those outside our immediate spiritual circle, but cannot bear to acknowledge our own shortcomings. Scriptures twisted and pulled like so much salt water taffy, or isolated into submission like a single stubborn branch on a topiary. There comes a time, however, when we have to ask ourselves: What […]
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October 22, 2009
October 22, 2009
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Bright Spot of the Day: Extraordinary Maaaaah-m!

My sister Chris sent me this YouTube spot today about a woman who adopted an abandoned horse, and was delivered from a life of isolation and alcoholism through the experience. It is eight minutes long . . . but I smiled through the whole thing. I hope you do, too. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMj2K2-K8wo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
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October 16, 2009
October 16, 2009
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Beatitudes for Special-Needs Families: “Mommy Life”

Today I came across this wonderful post from Barbara at “Mommy Life,” which reads in part . . . Blessed are you when you assure us, That the one thing that makes us individuals Is not in our peculiar muscles, Nor in our wounded nervous systems, Nor in our difficulties in learning, Nor any exterior difference. But is in our inner, personal, individual self Which no infirmity can diminish or erase. Head on over and read the whole thing — you’ll be glad you did!  Picture Credit: Barbara’s son Jesse. Thanks, Barbara, for sharing your world with us!
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October 15, 2009
October 15, 2009
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When Do I Know It’s REALLY God’s Will, Not Mine?

Today I came across this fascinating discussion over at Jen’s “Conversion Diary,” about a mother of three who was about to adopt a child with special needs . . . and is wondering if she was making a mistake. And if so, what to do now? Read all about it here. When we step out prayerfully, wanting nothing more than to do the right thing, what happens if we make a mis-step? Do we retrace our steps . . . or take the next one, trusting God to bring something good out of our own mistakes? A dear friend of mine is struggling with this […]
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October 15, 2009
October 15, 2009
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NCFA President Mary Robinson Reports on China

Today I received this report from Mary Robinson, president of the National Council for Adoption, which will be of special interest for those interested in adopting children — particularly special-needs children — from China. Be sure to check it out!
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October 15, 2009
October 15, 2009
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A Mother’s Pain

Today is the feast day of Teresa of Avila, one of my very favorite saints. This sixteenth-century Spanish noblewoman is patroness of writers and migraine sufferers, perhaps best known to us for three things: reforming the Carmelites, writing The Interior Castle, and her cheeky retort to being summarily dumped in a stream by her horse. Looking up to heaven, she cried, “If this is how you treat your friends, Lord, no wonder you have so few of them.” Oh, yes, and her poetry. In Spanish, of course. Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you. All things pass away, but God never changes. Patience obtains all things She […]
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