Mother's Day; such a special blessing this year

I'm certainly no mother but I really enjoyed Mother's Day this year.  First of all, I am very lucky that my wife Wendy is a wonderful mom and grand-mom, better known as "Nona".  She was the influential parent in the lives of Jimmy & Elizabeth, who now are both parents.  Wendy has been a tremendous mom!

Today we got to celebrate with our daughter Elizabeth her first Mother's Day with granddaughter Brennan and husband mark and his whole family.  Brennan was a perfect baby, sleeping, eating, smiling, enjoying all the attention.  Elizabeth has been a mom almost a year now, the sum total of the baby inside her and the baby Brennan on this side of delivery.  She is getting the hang of all things motherhood and will continue to learn as Brennan continues to get older, day by day.  A big event in the families life will come up this Saturday when I get the privilege of baptizing Brennan.  I can't wait!

Another great example of motherhood is our daughter-in-law Sara who with our son Jimmy is responsible for our first grandchildren Calvin & Katelyn.  Believe it or not, Calvin will soon be 6, Katelyn 3.  We got the opportunity to visit with them today via Skype.

Wendy's mom is very much still with us, now 77, we were able to take her to dinner this evening and have a nice visit.  She has successfully defeated several illnesses and it was nice to have time today with her.  She lives close, only about 40 miles from the house so we do see her often.

Now my mom is long gone, having passed in 2007.  A very beautiful soul, she endured a lot in life to raise me and my two sisters.  She left us after a relatively short illness but in her later years, she was fully reconciled to Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith.  That gives me great peace.  It was sad that she never got to meet these wonderful grandchildren of mine or to experience my ordination as a Catholic Deacon.  My she continue to rest in the peace of Christ, praying for us.

There are many wonderful mom like figures in our lives, my Aunt chief among them, and many faithful mothers we know from our friendships and our church family.  My prayer is that all moms had a wonderful Mother's Day as we remember our blessings this day.

May the Mother of us all, Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!