The Firing of Juan williams

NPR has revealed its true stripes. I am disgusted.

I like Juan Williams. I disagree with him almost all the time. But he's smart. He's gracious. He's a thinking liberal. He doesn't always tow the party line.

The video below is what got Williams fired. (supposedly)

All he said was that he can get nervous when an obviously Muslim person (because of their dress) gets on a plane with him. I don't think there's a person in America who hasn't felt like that at times. We know all Muslims are not terrorists. We also know that you can't tell a terrorist by appearance and that it is, in fact, radical Muslims who are trying to kill us.

Williams honestly expressed a feeling. It wasn't even an opinion.

I am disgusted with the sanctimoniousness of NPR.

Love your students...

From In Conversation with God, yesterday's reading:

"To teach John Latin, it is not enough to know Latin-- one must also know and love John."

May all teachers strive to know and love their students! (One very obvious advantage of home schooling...)

RoseBeth!!

This is the little girl in a Haitian orphanage awaiting the completion of paperwork for her adoption by my friend Cathy K. and her husband.

They have estimated this paperwork will take two years. TWO YEARS!!!!

RoseBeth is in an orphanage that is only feeding the children with difficulty...an orphanage that is turning away other children.

Don't you just think someone should be able to do something to expedite this paperwork. This little girl, only three years old, has a mother and a father waiting to love her and three sisters no doubt waiting to hug her to pieces.

Would you pray? I'm asking for the intercession of St. Jude that this paperwork will somehow be completed quickly and that RoseBeth will soon be united with her family who already loves her so much.

Such a cutie. You gotta love her!!

The Miracle of the Miners' Rescue

Suzanne from Suzanne's Shorelines has alerted me to the following article from Catholic Exchange which describes more of the faith life of the miners, the Holy Father's gift to them of rosaries, and the "coincidental" date of their rescue, October 13, the anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima. All during the month of the rosary, I might add.

Check out the article. Now I am even more inspired at their rescue.

One of the miners was reported to have said that he had met both God and the devil in that mine. And he chose to follow God.

God bless them all and the people they love.

The Rescue of the Miners!

I thought the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile was very inspiring.

Yesterday I watched quite a bit of the coverage. (And got a lot of laundry folded!)

I think what was really touching me was the respect for human life that the whole effort represented. I don't think anyone asked if all of these people wanted to live. I don't think anyone asked how productive they are in their lives. No. I don't think anyone questioned at all that every effort should be made to rescue these miners. The inestimable value of human life was clearly just understood.

I loved the demonstrations of faith... the miners who fell to their needs in prayer immediately upon exiting the capsule, the miner with the name of Jesus written on his sleeve, the mother who clasped a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe to her chest and then displayed it right before embracing her son. Surely, it was the intercession of Our Lady that brought her son back to her. It seemed to me she wanted to publicly thank our Blessed Mother. (The son also fell to his knees, clearly thanking God.)

It sounded like maybe they had prayer meetings in that chamber! That word wasn't used but from what the commentators were saying that's what they sounded like! The miners had asked for Bibles to be sent down. And I don't think it was to "pass the time" as one of the newscasters suggested.

This was a miraculous rescue. I thought it looked very evident that God's protection was on these miners and that they are safe as an answer to their own prayers and the prayers of their loved ones.

May God bless every one of them and continue to protect and heal them as they recover from this experience. May His grace flood both them and their families! God is good. Always.

Prayer Request for Rose Beth!!!!

Rose Beth needs to come home. She is a little three year old orphaned girl who survived the earthquake in Haiti. She has a family waiting for her!!!

Cathy K. and her husband, former members of our parish, are waiting to adopt Rose Beth. The paperwork is in progress, but they are being told that the process will take two years. TWO YEARS!!!! Two years of paperwork. I know Haiti is in ruins. I know they are still experiencing horrible conditions. But don't you wonder why this process can't be expedited?

The K. family has a photo of her and are just dying to bring her home. I told Cathy I would ask for prayers that somehow she would be able to come to their family sooner. I'm hoping Cathy will email me her photo. This little girl is cute as a button. I mean, your heart just aches for her to be held by her mother.

Please, please pray that this process can be accomplished sooner and that Rose Beth will be able to go home to her mom and dad and three sisters!!! Thank you so much.

Women's Retreat!!

I came back yesterday afternoon from a wonderful retreat with the women of my parish. What a blessing it was.

For me, the recurring message was that we are not the savior. Jesus is. We do our part and leave his job to Him.

He is there. Always. Especially in our deepest needs. We do not need to do x, y, and z for Him to be at work in our lives. We do not summon Him to us. He is there, taking our cares upon Himself.

Yeah. Time to recognize in the depth of our hearts that without Him we can truly do nothing. And with Him? All things. In our weakest moments his mercy is the greatest. It's not up to us.

It was a beautiful retreat.

Homecoming!

Well, here are my girls just before leaving for the homecoming dance. I was so proud of them. They did each other's hair and had a great time laughing together.

I can't believe they're not little girls anymore. Well, I can believe it. It's just that it seems not that long ago that they were doing this kind of thing at age three and four-- playing dress-up. Except that then there was no curling iron. Yeah.

It used to be that we had "the big kids"-- my two oldest, "the little boys"-- number three and four, and "the little girls"-- these two. Now I have the four who are adults and the two who are almost adults. Sheesh. It's amazing.

Has anyone had trouble accessing my blog? My friend Patti has been having trouble.

Fall Beauty

On the Feast of the Little Flower how very moving that I should find in my garden what will most likely be "the last rose of summer"..... St. Therese, please pray for us. And thank you for the roses you continue to shower over the earth. Thank you for always hearing our prayers.

One of the rather invasive but lovely morning glories that reseeded in my garden this summer. I love them even though they're trying to strangle everything. :-)
One of the last petunias....
The hardy little zinnias, still blooming here and there. I had not realized how these little things will spread. Really enjoyed them this summer.
And the climbing wild rose that has been hanging out by the gate to our yard for over twenty years now. Who knows how old it already was when we moved in. It still has a few blooms left.
On the walkway to my front door.
I think this must be the offspring of that little snapdragon that lasted forever in previous years and continued to reseed over and over again. This one is a few feet away but just came up out of nowhere. It's the same color, I think. It must be from that plant. I haven't planted snapdragons in a couple years.
God is good. Always. The Fall is so beautiful. Things are dying, but there are new blooms too. And the Michigan Fall colors are just getting started. The glory of God, as always, is over everything.