New York, New York!

This weekend, while Nathan was away, Lauren was blessed with two opportunities to visit New York and visit uncle Mike. First, was the opportunity to join Nathan's mom, grandma, grandpa, and cousin at Nathan's uncle Michael's, in upstate New York. The second option was going to New York City to meet up with Lauren's aunt Jeannie, uncle Mike, and cousin Michael.

Since it would be a longer trip for a short amount of time, and because Lauren will get to see most of Nathan's family the follow weekend, she chose to go to NYC!

Lauren:

This was the first time that I had travel public transportation by myself, and I made it all the way to NYC!!! There I got to see aunt Jeannie, Uncle Mike, and my cousin Michael! For a quick day's tour, we visited ground zero, St. Paul's Episcopal Church (which was directly across the street, unaffected by 9/11, but then served as a place to serve those who were helping in the recovery efforts), and walked miles to see sites close and from afar of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Chinatown, Wall Street, and probably other sites I am forgetting to mention. It was a great and beautiful day. It stills blows my mind that I can just venture to and from NYC in just a days journey....another moment of realization.... WE DO LIVE IN THE NORTHEAST!!!

 Lauren and Michael

 Michael, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Jeannie (sorry uncle Mike, I caught you blinking!)

This was the piece of art that was in the courtyard of the WTC towers for years. It was designed to represent peace. As you can see it suffered from the attacks as well.

Easter Joy Continues!

This week is the Ascension! Here in the United States, some states celebrate the Ascension on Thursday, June 2nd, and others have moved it to Ascension Sunday, June 5th!

This is not the only day to be celebrating though. The celebration of Pentecost is coming soon on Sunday, June 12th. Pentecost marks the end of the Easter season! So Happy Easter today too!

Several weeks back we had hoped to get this blog rolling again. So Lauren asked Nathan to write something for the blog. Here is Nathan's post!!!

April 25, 2011

Happy Easter!  The Lord has truly risen and the Easter bunny has made his way through many houses to fill it with candies, chocolates, and other goodies.  No matter how a person celebrates, it seems that Easter is always a time full of joy. 

One of the great joys that Lauren and I had this Easter was the privilege of seeing one of our friends enter the Catholic Church on Saturday night at the Easter Vigil.  He did what some in the more “nerdy-Catholic “circles call the “tri-fector.”  He was Baptized, Confirmed, and received his first Holy Communion.  The smile on his face after the evening radiated joy.   

The joy of our friend is the same joy that all of us should try to live out in our daily lives.  One could be reminded of the great cry of the Easter people of God from the Psalms, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24).  Joy is the gift that God gives his children in the Resurrection of Jesus. 

In a special way this joy is what should be lived out in all of our daily activities and in a special way during the days of the Easter Season.  That’s right!  Easter has a season just like baseball and the theatre.  J  The season of Easter starts on Easter day and goes until Pentecost, which surpasses the number of days in Lent from 40 to 50.  This is a great Catholic “secret” (or people thought we already knew) Easter is longer than Lent.  That means there are more days of celebrations then there are of fasting.  But there is a deeper significance here than eating your favorite candy for the next 50 days.  It is in the Resurrection that Love conquers death and it is in that Love that we should contemplate during this Easter season.  It is in that Love that will bring us great joy these next 50 days and during our daily lives.  

Jesus said, “So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).  What a cool though, “no one will take your joy from you.”  That is because it has been given to you by God and if you receive it as the gift that it is, you can never lose it.  This Easter season, you and me (and others who we tell) can be filled with the joy of the Risen Jesus, as each one of us strives to live each day in the Presence of the God who loves us!  

Looking forward to....

We are looking forward to many things in the upcoming weeks!

In no particular order:

1. The end of the school year for Lauren. This has been quite a learning year for her going from high school to third grade. She has learned a lot about discipline, curriculum, classroom management, and how to become flexible as a teacher. If God wills it in the upcoming years, she looks forward to one day getting back to high school to teach math and to apply all she has learned this year to the upper grades. This next academic year though brings her returning to Regina Angelorum and seeing what God has in store!

2. Celebrating sacraments!
We are attending the transitional diaconate ordination of our friend, Brother Alessandro, and the priestly ordinations of our friends, Brothers Vince, Scott, Edward, and Mirco. All of these brothers are members of the Apostles of the Interior Life community. We are also attending a friend of the family's wedding!!!

3. A summer of traveling together. Once we meet up in KC, we will be together for the whole summer! Though, we are busy with travels. We will travel to Kansas City, Illinois, St. Louis, Michigan, and Philly in between. We are looking forward to quality time with family and friends in each of these cities! Even Philly, because we have visitors coming to us too!

4. Being an Aunt and Uncle again! Lauren's sister Robyn is expecting in mid-November! We are excited to welcome this precious little one into the family!!

5. Celebrating our one year anniversary in July!

and

5. Continually trying to follow God's plan for our lives and joyfully saying yes to all that he asks of us! Let us see where he takes us next!