November

November definitely has to be one of my favorite months of the year.  So here are some highlights:

1) All Saints Day!  Happy Feast Day to everyone!  I absolutely love this Feast Day.  It is so important to honor those who have gone before us and lived lives of holiness.  The Saints have been instrumental in my faith life and I am constantly asking them for prayers.  Each night we pray our own family litany at the end of our nightly prayer.  There are a few Saints that are always on the list and others that make appearances on their Feast Days or on other random occasions.  Here's our family's nightly litany.

St. Anne and St. Clare... Pray for us!    (Anna's patron saints)
St. Anthony and St. Francis Xavier... Pray for us!   (Anthony's patron saints)
St Theodore, St. Joachim, and St. Justinian... Pray for us!  (Our Godson's patrons)
St. Cecelia... Pray for us!  (My niece's patron)
St. Matthias and St. Joseph... Pray for us!  (The patrons of Anna's Godparents' son)
St. Catherine of Siena... Pray for us!  (My confirmation name)
St. John... Pray for us!  (Jeremy's confirmation name)
Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa... Pray for us!


2) November is National Adoption Month.  I've posted about it the last two years 2010 and 2011 and honestly, if I were to sit down and write a new post, it would probably be remarkably similar.  Adoption is so close to our hearts and so very important and special to us.  So in this month of November, I intend to write multiple posts about adoption and what it has meant for our family. 

3) And of course November is a month that reminds us to always be thankful.  Here in the U.S. we have a day set aside for thankfulness.  It's one of my favorite holidays, but at the same time, it's a yearly reminder that we should be thankful every day, not just once a year.  I love that it's a holiday directed towards spending time with those you love and reminding them why you're thankful for their presence in your life.

So to honor National Adoption Month, All Saints Day, and a month of gratitude, I'm setting my goal high (along with other bloggers) to post daily on something I'm thankful for.  Most will include some aspect of adoption in our lives, let's face it, that is our life right now :-).  Many will include Saints and how their intercession has impacted our lives.  And all will be a reminder to me to count my blessings each and every day and never take for granted the beautiful blessing of my family.  Realistically, it's not always possible for me to post every day, I will try, but well, if I don't, I'll make sure I at least have 30 "things" that I have shown gratitude for, how bout that?



Day 1 of Gratitude:

I am first and foremost thankful for the gift of my husband.  He is kind, loving, sweet, gentle, quiet, strong, and absolutely wonderful.  I am thankful for our marriage and the opportunity to spend each and every day of my life with him.  I am so grateful for his giving heart and his support in all that I do.  He is a wonderful husband and father and I can't imagine life with anyone else.  The road of infertility and adopton was not always easy, but I always knew I had someone walking it with me.  I never felt alone and I because of him, I was never hopeless. 

Jeremy and I lead a Catholic retreat together when we were in college.  We chose St. Joseph to be the patron of the retreat.  I think it is so fitting that we felt such a strong pull towards him.  Jeremy reminds me a lot of St. Joseph.  While not a lot is known about him, we do know that he accepted God's plan willingly and without argument.  I don't know that I'd would be (or have been) so quick to accept God's plan.  Jeremy, on the other hand, much like St. Joseph, willingly accepts God's plan in his life.  St. Joseph was the perfect example of a father here on earth (obviously with God being the all-perfect Father).  And I'm thankful for his intercession in our marriage and in our parenting.

St. Joseph... Pray for us!