First off, I’d like to thank you for your much-appreciated prayers last evening. I had such a nice time getting together with this group of women, and I felt the presence of God throughout it all—from my needing to call my cousins for directions after my Mapquest printout failed me (my cousin Dave is amazing—he talked me through it saying things like, “Okay, you should be going up a little hill right now…”) to the opening prayer led by the group’s director. It was the Memorare.
God is so good. The other speaker was Anne Bielejeski, a homeschooling mother of eleven and one of my very favorite speakers. I remember listening to her talks at the first homeschooling conference I ever attended—I laughed, I cried, I took copious notes…and then I promptly bought the CD when she was finished.
To speak alongside her was intimidating, but only at first. She is as warm and funny and faith-filled as I remember—and she prayed over me at the end of our talks. How did she know to pray for an end to my anxiety during this pregnancy? She knew, though. She knew.
Now then. I must away because we have company coming this afternoon. My very best friend and her family is coming from Anchorage! We are godparents to all three of her children and I have yet to meet my 1 ½-year-old godson. God is so good. They will be staying with us for the next three days.
Will I be spoiling my godchildren rotten? You bet I will.
How many godchildren do you have and what do you do to intercede for them? John and I have a total of seven, and I am always looking for ways to be more active in their lives. (None of them live close to me.) My goal—I have a lot of goals—is to place framed photos of them around the house as a reminder to pray, pray, pray for these young lives.
Because those gifts at Christmas just aren’t enough.
Have a blessed day, everyone!
With love in Christ,
Have a wonderful time Margaret!!
So glad your talk went great last night! I was thinking of you.
We have 2 godchildren and every night, with the kids, we say God bless “Alex” God Bless “Eva”. So they are mentioned by name every day. We pray for them like our own children, asking for the same graces and blessings. On their birthdays, I offer a rosary and Mass. But I’m the same as you, I don’t feel it is enough. I actually don’t even remember their baptismal dates…but know it’s within the month of their births. -Isn’t that terrible?
Love those godchildren and have fun!!
I have three godchildren and I try to pray for them but know I fail miserably.
Have a wonderful time with your best friend.
Between Brian and I we have 6 godchildren. I scanned their Baptism picture into the computer and made cards. I send them that card on their Baptism Day instead of their birthdays.
Of course we pray for them.
Those are great ideas. Between my husband and I we have 9. We pray for rhem daily but I’ve been thinking about the picture thing as well. Yep – we don’t do enough.
One neat thing we do at Christmas though (and 2 of our 7 get these from their godparents as well)…. We are building them a Fontanini Nativity Scene – 1 piece at a time. By the time they are 3 they have Mary, Jesus, and Joseph. And we just keep going and going – it will never end.
I have two. One is my niece (not yet Catholic, but I”m praying hard about that). And, a friend’s little boy (not a lot of contact, but I keep him in my prayers; he’s baptized Catholic; parents not active). 🙁 Just keep praying about it all.
We have a combination of his, mine, and ours that totals 11! The oldest is my sister–I became her godparent at 14. The youngest is 8 months old.
I’ve been thinking about photos for a few years now. What I want to do is make a godchild collage to keep them all close to the front of my mind. Too much procrastination!
One thing we do is get an Advent calendar every year and send it around Thanksgiving. One I like is a nice stable scene (not too cutesy) that you assemble with a different sticker each day.
For the (now) 18 yo whose family has fallen (and physically moved) FAR FAR AWAY, we have sent books by Amy Welborn. No response that we know of.
Something I came up with a few years ago is making a gift for First Penance. I do this for nieces and nephews as well as godchildren. I make a “cleaning” package and draw the comparison between cleaning our bodies and souls. Shampoo or shower gel or special washcloth or loofah or bath crayons, depending on age and gender. I even found (great for boys!) soap made with mud from the Dead Sea! I found it at Target once, then never again, but recently googled something like “dead sea mud soap” and found a source.
My husband has made or bought special godchild gifts, including tools to add year by year. He’s usually got some eloquent connection to make.
Great post Margaret. I was just thinking about what we can do for our Godchildren. We have three, and they also live far away, so we only see them about once year.
Our youngest is 6 months, and we are starting a Fontanini Nativity Scene for her this Christmas. The other two are 8 and 11. We give them a gift on their Baptism Day, to help them remember it is a special day. I also say an “Angel of God” for them each night.
A lot of really good ideas, thanks.
We also have seven!! In fact, our seventh was just baptized a couple months ago and at the time we were joking that I would soon be pregnant, since we have always had the same number of godchildren as children (including my little boy in heaven), and sure enough we just found out last week that we have one on the way! 🙂
I just wanted you to know that my kids and I are praying for you. I am not eating chocolate on Fridays during your pregnancy. It’s a small sacrifice, but something I can do, and then I remember to pray.
I love being Catholic! I’ve never met you, but we are all connected in the body of Christ!