Revamped

I have revamped this blog a bit. I have wanted to create a blog from a Catholic mother's perspective for a while. A lot has kept me from doing so until now. To be honest, I am a new mother. My daughter turns 1 in two weeks. I wonder what I could possibly know that would help other families. In fact, I feel as though I know very little at times. I go to Mass, am involved in ministry, and know a lot about Catholicism, but I have a very hard time reconciling my heart and my intellectual knowledge. In the last two years, Christ has taken me on a journey that I do not fully understand. A journey filled with joy, deep sorrow, fear, pain, and confusion.

Two years ago I married the love of my life. He is the kind of man I always wanted to marry. My husband is:kind, hardworking, desires God and Holy Mother Church, he is talented, devoted, a wonderful father, and I could go on and on. Two months after we got married I became pregnant, with twins. We found out very early on that we lost our daughter Michaela's twin (I believe twin sister). I then experienced 7.5 months of intense all day sickness (who in the heck came up with the term morning sickness?!), but in the end gave birth, through an unplanned emergency c-section, to the most beautiful baby girl named Michaela Elizabeth. She is named for St. Michael the Archangel, my dad and my husband, as well as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Words cannot describe my elation at her birth. I cried for joy, literally.

I love being a mom and I am truly thankful that God has given me the gift of my daughter. Like most moms, it has been met with some unexpected crosses, like pretty serious ongoing postpartum depression/anxiety. I also lost another baby to miscarriage in March. So, why am I telling you all of this? For a couple of reasons, first because there are not a lot of resources out there for Catholic women and families who have experienced miscarriage or postpartum depression. I'd like to be a voice through my experiences. Second, because I am learning that Mary truly is the ultimate example for a vocation of wife and mother. She has been through a lot of the same things as you and me. She bathed our Lord, nursed, cared for him when he was sick, nurtured and brought him up, all while serving as wife to St. Joseph. Mary also watched her son suffer and die. She knows what it is to be pierced and she knows that motherhood comes with great joy, but unimaginable pain.

I want this blog to be about my personal journey through my vocation. We are all called to holiness. It is a lifelong journey. It is difficult at times to see how God is working in our lives. How he molds us, prunes us, and leads us more perfectly to him. As Catholics, we are all called to sainthood, to holiness. This is a daunting and overwhelming prospect, but through God all things are possible. This blog will be about the gift of being a wife and mother, the daily and sometimes long-term struggles, Catholic life, and anything else that comes to mind. I hope this helps you on your journey, as so many writers help me. God bless! P.S. Forgive my formatting issues. I am learning how to blog on the iPad. I cannot seem to get paragraphs to format over from the draft to the blog post.