February 9, 2014

Four months have passed by, but it still seems like yesterday. I relive the moments of my sweet Andrew almost everyday. I had a lot of fears, going into knowing that your due date(2-9-14) was in the middle of the winter, and prayed that their wouldn't be a huge snow storm, when you decided to arrive. I even pushed to do our birth classes early so we didn't have to travel to the hospital an hour away, in November/December, because I don't like driving in it.

Who'd have thought I would have made that hour drive on a day in October ( in labor ) all by myself. I was nice and calm, which is why 2 doctors and a host of nurses thought no way could she be in labor, thanks to hypnobirthing. Something kinda like a superwoman. I had no bag packed. We hadn't really discussed names yet, but when you arrived so little & they let us hold you, the nurse asked did we have a name, and I quietly said nnn.. and your dad piped up & said Andrew Ronald.  Your dad can be indecisive at times.. so I was glad he had an answer.

I still pray for another child, but God has not blessed us with another saint yet.

If you would take a minute & say a prayer to St. Gerard, for those who are expecting. There are a few, who've been in my shoes, that are in the expecting  now, that I pray for daily, I pray so that God may protect your little blessings.  Those who have experienced loss of a child, or infertility, who know how hard it is. I pray for strength for you each day, some days it's not easy, to leave it in God's hands.

My Saint for 2014

I visited Jennifer's Saint Name Generator to find my Patron Saint for 2014. Found Here

I was shocked to come up with St. Gerard Majella  so shocked I tried again & got St. Elizabeth. 

St. Gerards feast day is: October 16
he is the patron of expectant mothers.

Here is the short story on St. Gerard.

St. Gerard Majella, religious, is the patron of expectant mothers. He was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.

This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.

This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.

Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I pray that I will be praying to him to intercede for me soon..