Saturday, March 22, 2008

Easter Eve

Today is Holy Saturday (Easter is tomorrow!) and I thought it was the perfect time to reflect on the past 40 days. Not to mention the fact that Ella is finally asleep!

Ash Wednesday morning, I woke Ella up early so that we could attend the 8:00am mass at St. Joseph's. Lo and behold - she was the only child under ten! Since the congregation wasn't very large, I decided to forego the crying room and just sit at one of the back pews - right next to a nice older gentleman. He was quiet (duh!) and seemed kind of taken by Ella... that is until she started screaming her protest when I held the man's hand during the "Our Father." Boy, did he drop my hand like it was suddenly on fire! I remember thinking, Oh geez! Is this what it feels like to be publicly embarassed by my child?

The priest's homily especially struck a chord with me. He suggested that instead of "giving something up" for Lent, that we consider "doing something" instead. He suggested praying more. I thought, What a wonderful idea! Since having Ella, life has definitely been busy and it's been difficult to establish a consistent routine with an infant. I feel that I've somehow neglected practicing my faith (albeit unintentionally). So I decided that I fervently agreed with Father and I did not give anything up for Lent. Instead, I chose to pray more.

Three weeks after Ash Wednesday, mom had her (right) knee replacement surgery. A week later (Mar. 2nd) Ella and I flew to Seattle and we've been here for 3 weeks. We leave on Monday! *SAD*

It's been a pretty mellow visit - just hanging out at my parents', helping mom to therapy, chillin' with Joel, a little shopping (sorry hon!), and watching Happy Feet, Finding Nemo and Enchanted over and over and over again. I was able to squeeze in some time to meet up with friends. Whew! But mostly we've been stuck indoors because Ella (who already had a persistent cough a couple of weeks prior to our trip) caught pneumonia a week and a half ago. Fortunately, we were able to see a local pediatrician immediately, thanks to the fact that our health insurance in California (Kaiser Permanente) works in partnership with Group Death... uhm, er, I mean "Group Health." Hehehe. Anyway, Ella's last dose of her yummy antibiotic was today and she is significantly better. But I still plan to pay our pediatrician a visit as soon as we return home.

Hey, I think praying more really helped! Mom's recovering nicely (slowly but surely), Ella's feeling better (and back to her rambunctious self - thank goodness!) and the past few weeks have been good for others too, including RJ (way to go hon!), Joel (keep smiling bro!), Emily (so happy for you!), Veronica (good luck V!), and Misty (Go BAMB!).

An Easter Prayer
Glory and praise to You, Risen Savior, for You bring light to our darkness,
joy to our sorrow, and the fullness of love to our reluctant hearts.
Once and for all You have conquered sin and evil.
In the glory of Your Resurrection we have been set free
from all that keeps us from following You.
In this Easter season, fill our hearts with Your Light and Grace
that we might joyfully echo the words of Your Holy Angels:
He is not here in the tomb: He is risen!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Amen.

From our family... HAPPY EASTER! God Bless you all!

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