Elsa Update...

Elsa continues to be ill and more have joined her so it might be a few days again before I can steal some precious moments to post, especially as I also have much to do for the business.

It happened this morning that as I was walking Elsa about the living room and she was quiet for the first time in a bit with her head resting on my shoulder, that my mind was elsewhere. It was on the merchandise in the packing shed, waiting to be packed. I felt stressed about it and realized that I felt as though I was a failure of a sort, because I had not yet gotten to it. I felt as though I was not accomplishing anything right then.

And then as I felt Elsa's warm breath on my neck and her weight in my arms I realized that I was already doing something of the utmost importance and I was surprised to realize how completly I had lost sense of my priorities.

By that, I do not mean I am not caring for my children, or do not realize the importance of doing so, but rather that I was allowing myself to feel like a failure because I am experiencing such difficulites in doing something in addition to this most important job. In fact, the most important job I could ever be doing.

Meanwhile - I would like to ask for prayers for Elsa and my other children who have become ill (6, in total, at last count). Please also pray for the graces that I need to deal with so few hours sleep, as well as the stress of trying to deal with so many jobs outside a mother's normal responsibilites. Could you also pray that we finally beat this terrible virus that keeps mutating and cycling about the family!

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Blessings
mum2twelve aka Christi Read more!

A Christmas Miracle

A while back Sister Pat of the Franciscan Card site made a plea for prayers for her new Catholic radio station that she was developing and, at the time, told about an old means of requesting assistance from the Infant of Prague.

One was to write on a piece of paper the exact amount of money needed for your project, as well as the date it was needed by, and one was to place this piece of paper under the statue and then wait patiently for the baby Jesus to provide for your need.

When I heard about this, I immediately took a cheque out of my cheque book and wrote a large sum down in hopes of a business loan, or investment, so that we could perhaps finally reach a level in the business where we would not be precariously making it from day to day, often just by the skin of our teeth. I put an arbitrary date on it, wrote the cheque out to our company’s name and signed it from The Infant of Praque. It was a large amount, but peanuts really compared to what most businesses require.

The date on the cheque came and went. Our rent got paid, our lights turned off and then turned back on. We bought more merchandise, sold more and basically continued to get by, still by the skin of our teeth. It seemed that while my request was not unreasonable – God’s answer was either no – or not yet. Apparently we still have lessons to learn, largely the necessity of faith and trust in our Heavenly Father.

Yes, we have lost our house, lost our van and felt a great deal of humiliation about the difficulties we have gone through. But after all – that humility is simply the result of false pride. But while we have gone through these trials and difficulties, we have not yet been out of a home, gone hungry, or not had a vehicle of some sort. In fact we currently have four vehicles. Mind you, they are all going on 20 years of age, but they run – more or less.

Then around mid December my husband decided to put a bid on a 24 foot diesel truck that would save us several hundred dollars a month in rentals. In fact back in November one rental alone had cost us almost 1000 dollars. My husband felt led to put a very low bid on this truck, but still in the 4 digits. He really did not think he would win with that low a bid.

He won.

He was ecstatic.

But there was one problem, he had only ten days to gather this four digit bid together and we were two months behind in the rent. (We have a very patient land lord!) Our oldest son and my husband went into high gear and started really cranking out listings on eBay and our second son hauled merchandise to and fro as they photographed it for the listings.

I, for my part, quietly pulled out the cheque from under our Statue and dusted it off, crossed out the date and wrote a new one in. Crossed out the loan amount we had prayed for, and wrote in an amount sufficient to pay for the truck and two months rent.

We watched our Pay Pal account grow and sink, and grow some more and sink again as we paid for absolute necessities – like food and gas. By Christmas Eve my husband felt somewhat desolate. He said to me: “I was so sure this was meant to be. I really felt called to put that bid in and when I actually won with such a low bid – I was sure God meant that truck for us.”

“Well,” I replied. “Perhaps there is something wrong with the truck and God is saving us from ourselves. Besides – the dead line is not yet past.”

Christmas Morning dawned and we were four days from the dead line. The phone rang and a friend wanted to know if they could pass by. They were sorry for the short notice but they were on their way out of town and would be passing by…

“Of course,” I answered. “Things are a bit messy as we just finished with the gifts, but you know that you are always welcome!”

Twenty minutes later our friend knocked on the door and entered with a huge beautiful basket laden with teas and cheeses and other wonderful treats. There was a card on top with our names on it and my friend was very specific that only my husband, or I, was to open it after she left.

So shortly after she left, I opened the envelope which held a lovely Christmas card and within that – a cheque for the exact amount that was written on ours beneath our statue. This friend had no idea that we had done this.

How fitting that Baby Jesus would answer this prayer on His birthday! It was truly a Christmas Miracle! Thank you Baby Jesus!

Read more!