Diane's 35th birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Dearest Sweetie,

It's been a hard year. Time after time people come up to me and ask: "How is Diane?" and I tell them, and then they get these wonderful ideas, especially my dad, "Oh, did she try botox? Have they found a Cure?" and Beki: "what remedies is she trying?"

There are no easy answers.

But there's you. Every day I see you struggle, and every day, you don't always win, but you are always there, and you always get done what needs to be done, and you take care of yourself, and you take care of us.

It's not fair. You are an outgoing, witty, vivacious, expressive person, and this disease doesn't let you smile, or ask the screen: "Okay, what's happening here?"

But it does let you rely on us to buy the wine at Wegman's, and to buy you pizzas at Costco, and to buy you Banh mí at DC Sandwich shop, right next to Pho 75, and to buy you A&Js to assuage you when you pick me up from the airport on my return from Vermont.

This year hasn't been an easy year, but it's been a happy one, because you've united yourself with the Suffering Christ, and you have us, who love you, day after day after year after year.

Also, Elena Marie says she needs more hugs, and Li'l Iz is ready to take another turn about the parking lot. Our kids are all grown, and it's all thanks to your firm, loving, guiding hand.

Happy Birthday.

Prayers at Adoration Chapel; Beki's Birthday

Dear LORD,

Tonight I pray for Mama McLaughlin's soul and for Paisley Hayes' two teens and Michael Mbugah prays that the Blessed Virgin Mary pray he never depart from her Son.  I pray for li'l Iz on her 13th birthday that she continue to grown strengthened in Christ. I pray for my sister, Beki, on her 47th birthday today, that she remain consoled in Your Peach and Love. I pray for my Dad who had another birthday this month, in thanksgiving for his love and well-being; he's going to outlive me, isn't he, LORD, the old coot! AHA!

I pray for my family's grace and happiness, and I pray for strength that I may continue to provide for and to protect them.

I ask all these things in the Name of Jesus.

Amen!

Birthday prayer at the Adoration Chapel

Dear LORD,

Thank You for today, my birthday. Today I pray especially for Sandy Saba, Nora Sailor's son and husband, Annie Rex, Misty Pounder's aunt, Emily, Myah Gormley, and discerning 4ever's paryaers that her family return to Mass and confession and that she discern and follow her vocation.

Amen

Birthday treasure hunt

m'gurls went all out for my 49th birthday, unwrapping the morning like a very special present.

Let's just follow along with what they did.

Waiting for me on the dining room table this morning:



Huh! I wonder if I should pay attention to this card? The cipher reads:

17·9·3·5–19·14·1·3·11

What could it mean?

Inside there was a card:



Hm. Cooker. I went right to (eventually, after I tried to look in the oven. "PAPA! DON'T LOOK THERE!" ... *ahem*) the rice cooker.

Ooh! Korean Crispy Rolls! My Favorite! I haven't had these in a year! Present 1. On it was posted a note:



It reads:

Go:

• Gravity makes you go _____.
• Nana Upstairs; Nana _____. (Tomie DiPaola)

Look in:

•  ♫ I like _____, I like tea ... 🎶
• Miami Sound _____. (Gloria Estafan)

EM was shocked – shocked, I say! – that I knew the clue about Miami Sound [something]

Well, – shockingly! – this clue lead me down-stairs to the coffee-machine, and there by it was this:

Yay! My favorite! Present 2. And on it was this note:

I don't know about your Elvish script sight-reading? But mine isn't so good. So my dear EM, who had incidentally been studying the language, for, you know, that just-in-case need, volunteered to translate it for me.

It's amazing. God works in mysterious ways, doesn't He?

The translation ended up to be something like this:

for-clothes-not-me

but-we-end-up-the-same-way

So, off to the laundry room we go (me: wince-wince-wincing on my wimpy feetsies, having just run a 5-miler.) (Oh, poor me!) and, not in the washer! but in the drier was this:

Geddit? Dried cranberries in the dried ... um, drier? GEDDIT?

I haven't had dried cranberries in a while, either. Yay! Present 3. This was turning out to be a cool birthday, particularly with all the fun the kiddies were having.

On the dried cranberries (geddit?) was this note:

"COATRACK" if you read down, not across. sry. So off to the coatrack we go, and there I found Present 4:

Ooh, mmm! Dark chocolate fruity-thingies! On this was the next clue:

The 'yogurt incident' was that EM had preheated the oven ... with my yogurt fermenting in there.

PSA: check your ovens before you preheat them, your yogurt, and all the cookie sheets stored in there! Sheesh! So, the oven had the last gift:

... which I am now wearing! A green, Jack Frost, collared tee and Captain America jammies! YAY!

Happy birthday, everyone! YAY!

Good Enough

Dear LORD,

Happy birthday to me!

As my daughters exclaim: "You're so old, Papa! Why are you so old?"

Another year, LORD; we made it through another year where I did 'stuff.'

Thank You, LORD, for seeing me past another year, touching lives during it, guiding some toward you. 

LORD, take the least of these into Your hands, the most hurting, and hold them tightly to You, right up to Your heart, and love them. Love them through their hurts, love them after the hurt is gone, love them today, with all their problems, love them tomorrow, while all their problems have still not gone away.

Make me good enough, LORD, to love them and to give them hope, and to point them to you. Help me be good enough so that they may be saved.

I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen.

Please

Dear LORD,

Thank You for today. Thank you for my birthday supper with my family — Yay! — including my sister, Beki, and my niece, Sofya. What a special treat for me! This week, LORD, I am 47 years old. Help me to be mindful of you today and every day this new year and then every year throughout my life.

Please be with us, LORD, as we place our trust in You. Please be with Howland, Beki, Peter, and Sofya as they face this hard time. Please help Peter to be a person he can be: sweet, gentle, kind, smart, and help him to let go of his hurts and help him not to hurt others. Please be with my parents, now divorced after 30 years of separation. Please heal their hearts. Please love them, LORD, and keep them in Your care, as they kept me in theirs.

Please be with me, LORD, Please be with me at work and help me to be productive and helpful there. Please be with me at home, LORD, to be a good husband and father, a solid rock of strength and stability upon which my wife and daughters may rest assured and safe.

Please, LORD, help us to know, to love, and to serve You.

I ask all these things in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen

Happy 10th Birthday, L'il Iz!

Lizzy: "This is the first day of the rest of your life!" Happy 10th Birthday!

Dear LORD,

I offer this visit to the Adoration Chapel an a Rosary of the Luminous Mysteries in thanksgiving for my daughter, Li'l Iz, on the occasion of her tenth birthday. Please watch over her and be with her as she grows in Your Love.

I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen

Be Gentle...

This is the birthday card cover from my sister, Beki.

Inside was better:

"April 29, 2013

Dear Doug,

I wished I had left this card for you in VA to find on your birthday, as I had originally planned. I even thought about giving it to you blank at the bus station because, as you can see, we had the same birthday wish for you, which is so dang cool!

I saw this card at Whole Foods, and after being blessed with several heartwarming, deeply satisfying visits, these were my best pieces of advice for you — my remaining wishes.  Be gentle, breathe; stay in the moment; remember the big picture; and sing. Sing loudly. sing FUlly. Sing skankily :)! Sing like those are the last words to pass from your living lips. Sing bravely.

I love you and I am glad you are my big brother. Thank you for giving me the gift of knowing you a little better, a little more honestly, during your birthday week.

You are truly a blessing in my life.

Forever yours,
Beki"

Birthday week prayer

Dear LORD,

Thank You for today.

Thank You for the many gifts You've given me today and throughout this week already, it being my birth-week. Have you given me more blessings this week because it's my birth week? Or have You allowed me to be more present to the blessings You give every week now because it's my birth week? Or both?

Thank You for the visit of my sister from Vermont this week and for giving us both time to be with each other to talk and to listen. Please bless her and her family. Please give her strength to bear the sacrifices she makes, even in the sacrifices she doesn't want to have made.  It's been so hard for her, LORD, for so many years. Just like, but so different from, me. Please, can You give her time in the Sun to bathe in Your Joy? You didn't for Blessed Mother Teresa, but Beki isn't her, Beki's my little sis, and it'd be a nice birthday present for me: her joy in the rest from the weight of her burdens and responsibilities so she can be a kid for a while, having never been one.

Please watch over my family as they recover from the 'flu, and all families as they struggle, and by Your Grace, recover from illness.

Please let me be productive, kind, attentive, and caring.

I ask all these things in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen.