Happy Easter!

We've been, well, busier than I can believe since the beginning of the year.  

2013 started out rough for our family.  In December we learned we were expecting a baby this summer.  We were cautiously excited and Jimmy and I shared the news with Alex, Michaela, and Sophia on Christmas Day.  We were all devastated when I lost the baby in January, at 11 weeks.  Losing a baby is heartbreaking at any time of your life, but being 42 and a mother of 3 beautiful kids, going through it myself will forever give me empathy to any couple who loses a baby when they are trying to start a family.  The joy and excitement that we shared for a few short weeks as a family was a beautiful thing that brought us all together.  We are so sorry for our loss but, in a way, happy to have shared the short experience.

So family life has moved forward, with everyone's schedules keeping us running.  An especially exciting development is that throughout this year Jimmy has been taking RCIA classes to become Catholic.  He's the last of the 5 of us to become Catholic!  His journey is coming to completion and he will enter into the Catholic faith tomorrow, at Easter Vigil mass.  We've learned that it's not called being baptized, since he is already a baptized Methodist, but he will receive Communion and Confirmation.  This week is a big week for us all, as Jimmy and our family were asked to participate in a Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where we represented our home church in a diocese-wide mass earlier this week.  Then we carried back to our church the blessed oils that our church priests will use in all baptisms, anointing of the sick, and other ceremonies all year.  Last night at the Holy Thursday ceremony, our family presented the blessed oils to our church.  It was very exciting to be a part of (Alex wants to know if our family can do it every year!).  It's been a busy week of many loooong church services, with 2 more to go tomorrow, before Jimmy's journey is complete!  But it has been really nice for him to be wholeheartedly welcomed into our church, instead of being the man who sits next to me but can't participate.  I'm proud of Jimmy, who has put in a lot of time and effort to make this change happen.  

May the joy and newness of Easter be with you!  Here is to new beginnings!
Love,
Kris