My Family's Connection to St. John the Baptist

 

Our family has a lot to be thankful for this week.   We’ll be celebrating three birthdays (my parents’ and my husband, Tom’s) and “name day” for our son, John.   In thinking about that, I realized that I never really shared the story behind the connection our family has to St. John the Baptist, so I thought now would be a good time, since the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist is this Thursday, June 24. 

It all started long before I was even remotely interested in liturgical living, and before I really knew any of the stories of the saints.  Tom and I were 3 years into our marriage, and he was preparing to join the Catholic Church.  As his confirmation date approached, he was contemplating whom he should choose as a patron saint.  Not being well versed in Catholicism myself, I suggested perhaps he simply choose St. Thomas since they share the same name, but Tom wasn’t a fan of that idea.  So, I suggested perhaps he choose St. John the Baptist since Tom’s birthday falls on the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.   That appealed to Tom more, and he facetiously commented that he could relate to St. John the Baptist because he frequently “lost his head”, a somewhat snarky reference to our marital relationship.  So, St. John the Baptist became Tom’s patron saint, and as the years passed, Tom and I came to realize that, although chosen slightly in jest, this powerful saint would one day prove that the joke was on us.

Fast forward six years.  I was finally pregnant again after losing our first baby in miscarriage four years earlier.  We’d recently found out that we were expecting a boy, and Tom and I began discerning names for our son.  Another Tom?  Nope. Tom was adamant that we retire that family name.  Leo? Max? Justin? Joseph? Paul? James? None of the names I suggested seemed to work for Tom.  Then, I remembered Tom’s patron saint and asked, “What about John?”   Tom thought it over.  He liked the reference to his patron saint.  I liked the connection it had to Tom’s birthday and conversion to Catholicism.  I also wanted a name that reflected an infertility story from the Bible, and the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth seemed more than fitting. So, we settled on the name.  John it would be.   Little did we know that the name we had chosen would take on even more significance in the coming weeks.

Two months later, I awoke shortly after midnight and realized that my water had broken during the night. My heart sank. I was only 28 weeks along in my pregnancy with John.  After so many years of infertility and the loss of our first baby, I expected the worst. The day before, I had felt so strong and healthy and happy.  My parents had just arrived in town, and we were preparing to celebrate Tom’s birthday the next day.  Only now, instead of waking up to a day of celebration, Tom and I were waking up to our worst nightmare.  We were sure we were losing our John.

We rushed to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning on that June 24^th, 2010.  We prayed a rosary on the 40-minute drive, and I tried to keep calm.  The following 24-hours were full of trepidation as we waited to see what my body would do next.  I was admitted to Labor & Delivery and hooked up to monitors and pumped with steroids and we waited. And we prayed.  We particularly prayed to St. John the Baptist because it was his feast day, hoping that he would intercede for us, and ask God for a miracle on our behalf, and to please protect our own little John.  And as we waited and prayed, Tom read to me the passages from the Bible that told the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the birth of John.  In those long hours, I felt great comfort come over me when meditating on the life and story of St. John the Baptist.  I felt confident that he was interceding for us.

A day later, we got our miracle. Instead of giving birth prematurely, as had been expected, my amniotic fluid began to build back up to normal levels.  Another week later, I was sent home, still pregnant, and on July 23, John was born.  He was healthy and bright-eyed and ready to take on the world.  His first word was “light”, and I am convinced God made him to bring light into dark corners of the world, much as John the Baptist did.

And for a long time, I thought that was the end of the story.

Time went by, and our family grew, and we held St. John the Baptist in high regard in our home. Every year since that June 24, 2010, our family made a point to celebrate not only Tom’s birthday, but also the feast of this great saint who was now the patron of both Tom and our little John and to whom we owed a great debt of gratitude.  However, I never suspected that St. John the Baptist wasn’t quite finished yet.

This time, it was August 2016, and we found ourselves in Houston, Texas, a thousand miles away from home.  We were again waiting for a baby, and again, things were not going as planned.  Our baby’s birthmother had just delivered a healthy baby boy, whom we planned to adopt, but she was in serious trouble.  Her vitals tanked soon after giving birth, she was unconscious and not responding, and the future of both her and her newborn baby were in limbo.  Without her written consent, we would not be able to adopt her child, and if she died (a real possibility at the time), with no other family around, he would become a ward of the state of Texas.  But more importantly, she was the mother of our future son, and we already considered her a part of our family and wanted her in our life and in our son’s life.  We prayed desperately for a miracle, asking God to save her and bring her back to us.

That long night turned into another long day, and she remained unresponsive.  Her baby was in the nursery, and I was not allowed to see or hold him without her consent. And because we had no proof of a relationship with her, we were not allowed to see her, either.  I was devastated, knowing the little baby we hoped to make our own was lying in the hospital nursery instead of a mother’s arms and his mother had nobody by her side as she fought for her life. Tom and I called our priest, our friends, our family asking for prayers for her and for our adoption situation.  And then I remembered that this wasn't the first time I'd been in a hospital, waiting to see if I was going to lose my baby, and I remembered that  there was one person who had helped us through it.  St. John the Baptist.  So, we turned to him again, and begged him for his intercession.  Please, St. John, do it again. Please, save this baby and his mother.

Hours passed.  Night came again, but I could not sleep. Then I heard a ping on my phone. It was a message sent by our birthmother. I was puzzled.  Someone must be using her phone, I thought.  So I messaged back, and she replied back, and said it was her and would I come see her?   I couldn’t believe it.  She was awake and responding!   Even more, she wanted to see me, and know that I had her baby in safe keeping.  My heart burst with joy and gratitude, and a few days later, she allowed us to adopt her baby boy.

And so, once again, we were given a miracle, but why do I attribute this miracle to the intercession of St. John the Baptist? It was a few days after we brought our sweet little Dominic home from the hospital that I realized that his birthmother had made her miraculous return to consciousness in the evening hours of August 29, the Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.  I was stunned.  How could I not have seen that coming?  Suddenly, everything made perfect sense.

I have heard it said that the saints are often calling to us, wanting to intercede for us, to help us in our most difficult trials.  I never quite understood that for a very long time.  There was a time when I struggled to remember the names of even a few saints, and I never really took asking for their intercession very seriously.  My journey through infertility changed a lot of that.  It changed because, for a time, I (mistakenly) believed that God wasn’t hearing my prayers. So, in desperation, I turned to the saints and asked them to pray for me.  Maybe God will hear them, I thought.

In hindsight, I think God allowed me to feel disconnected to Him in prayer so that I would turn towards the saints.  Perhaps he wanted me to realize that it wasn’t just me and Him, but rather, me, Him and a whole bunch of best friends in heaven whom I could call upon anytime for help.  The communion of saints, as the Church refers to it. I think God knows we need that kind of community both on earth and in heaven.

Since that time almost 20 years ago, when Tom and I first half-jokingly made St. John the Baptist a part of our family’s story, a lot has changed.  I have changed. My image of saints as distant figures in church history has now been replaced by a very real awareness of them standing beside me, calling out to me in little ways, hoping that I am listening.  Their names, their feast days, their stories, all pop in and out of the moments of my daily life, usually at times when I am wrestling with a particular challenge or anxiety that threatens my spiritual well-being.  But of all the saints who have come to my aid, it is through the intercession of St. John the Baptist that I have experienced the greatest miracles.  Without his help, I often wonder if I would have my two sons.  He is a most powerful saint, in so many ways.  A saint so great that the Catholic Church recognizes him as deserving of two feast days, and I am both honored and humbled that my family, thanks to his intercession, is connected to both.

St. John the Baptist, pray for us!

Note: If you would like to read more about my infertility story, John’s birth story or Dominic’s birth story, you can find them posted here, here, and here.

 

 

 

My 5 Tips for Taking Kids Hiking in the Rain

Linking up with Kelly over at her blog today.

Check out her post and others at this link.  Thanks, Kelly!

Yesterday, we went hiking, my family and I.  This is not unusual for us.  We hike a lot.  At least once a month, sometimes more often.  We live smack dab in the center of a National Forest, so there aren’t many other options for entertainment.   Thankfully, there aren’t many other things we’d enjoy doing more.

The unusual thing about our hike yesterday, however, was that we hiked in the rain.  Now this may not seem all that unusual, but given the choice, most people would not hike in the rain.  Or should I say, most adults would not hike in the rain.  Kids?  They love it.

I have come to know this after spending years as an outdoor educator.  Yesterday, we had planned to hike with 7 other families.  As it turned out, 6 of those families backed out of coming at the last minute.  The reason?  It was raining.

So, we hiked with the one other family that showed up, and our boys had a blast, just as I knew they would.  The mother and I, whom I only knew casually, got much better acquainted, and bonded over our mutual agreement that kids are anxious about enough things these days, why make them anxious about the weather, as well? 

Skipping rocks in the rain.

When we got home that afternoon, it was still raining.  My son, who was already wet from the hike, asked what he could do, and I suggested he take the firewood off the front porch and return it to the woodshed.  Without hesitation, he agreed to do it, and a few minutes later, I looked out the window to see him loading wood into the wagon.  In the rain.  He was wet but working, and it dawned on me that children who play in the rain become adults who will work in the rain.  And in a world where time is money, that just might be the edge they need someday.  I spent my professional career working with men and women who were required to perform most of their assignments outdoors.  So many times, projects got delayed significantly due to inclement weather.  Not because the weather prohibited them from completing the work assigned, but because they were unwilling to work in less than perfect conditions.  It cost the government tons, not to mention the frustrations that came from incomplete projects and delayed timelines.  All because it was raining, or too cold, or too hot, etc, etc.

Moving firewood in the rain.

However, I do realize that a lot of people, especially mothers, are not sure just HOW to enjoyably hike in the rain with their kids.  Obviously, getting cold and soaked is a very unpleasant experience, and if you have cold and wet children, then the whining begins, and they will drive you totally nuts, and you will vow to never, ever take them out in the rain again.  I know. I’ve been there.  So, I decided to share a few of the things I have learned after years of taking kids (and myself) outdoors in rainy weather.  

1. Get rain pants.

I think most parents have a rain coat for their child, but I have seen very few people show up for an outdoor activity in wet weather wearing a pair of rain pants.  Get some.  Not only will they keep the kids a whole lot drier, but they will also prevent the mud that they are sure to smear all over their rumps and knees from grinding into their clothing.   Plus, when it is time to put the dirty, muddy little rascals into their car seats post-hike, you can just peel those nasty rain pants off, put them in a plastic bag, and Voila!  You have kids with clean pants again.  No soiled car seat covers, and no mess in the car.  Rain pants are also awesome for putting over their pants when they play in the snow, or for just having on even when it is not raining, but the ground is wet.  I always buy the lightweight rain pants so that they are not too warm in the summer, and ripstop nylon is best because you know those kids are going to walk right through that briar patch!

My favorite rain pants and accompanying rain coat for kids are the Kids' Discovery Rain Pants and Jacket (pictured below), sold by LL Bean, but unfortunately, the big kids sizes are no longer on the market.  They do have a similar (more expensive) pair available and sometimes you can get them at a big discount on Black Friday.

My little hikers, six years ago.

Since I didn't want to pay that much nor wait until Black Friday, I recently purchased the Columbia Kids' Cypress Brook II  rain paints (available on Amazon) for one of my older sons, and so far, they are holding up well.  I generally have had good luck with Columbia brand kids clothing.

Oh, and one more thing.  When you get home with those mud-caked rain pants that you stashed in a plastic bag, take them outside, give them a good shake, then put them in the washer on the rinse setting. DO NOT USE LAUNDRY SOAP and DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE DRYER or else your rain pants will soon just become pants, and lose all the waterproof qualities that they once had.

2. Wear waterproof shoes

My boys all have waterproof hiking boots, but more often than not, when it is really wet or we have snow, they wear ordinary rubber “chore boots”.  Again, because it is often warm, I buy the uninsulated boots.  Pair them up with some wool-blend socks, and their feet will stay warm even if they get wet.  Heavier socks also prevent blistering.  

Some rubber boots hold up better than others.  I am not a big fan of the cutesy Western Chief boots, mostly because they have poor tread for slippery surfaces. I also tested the Crocs rain boots on my 9 year old and they lasted about 3 weeks. We have mostly been using the Ranger Splash series youth rain boots by Honeywell for our boys since they were 2 years old, and by far, they have held up the best.  Some sizes are currently available from Amazon, and I've also found them online at Wal-mart. 

Another plus to wearing these boots is that they have higher tops than most kids' hiking boots, which is something to consider when hiking in rattlesnake country.

And here’s a helpful hint…when wearing rain pants with boots, be sure that the kids pull their rain pants over the tops of their boots, not tuck them into the boots, otherwise, the water will just funnel right down into their shoes.  Somehow, this seems obvious to me, but I have learned that it is definitely not obvious to an 8 year old!

 

If you wanna see salamanders,
you gotta hike in the rain.

3. Wear a ball cap. 

Pull a raincoat hood over a ball cap and unless you are facing the wind, the rain will run down your hood and away from your face.  And if you have a kid who wears glasses, they will still be able to see, at least until they decide to turn their face up towards the clouds and catch raindrops on their tongue!

Watching mist rise above the river
in between rain showers.

 

4. Know how to find shelter.

When hiking anytime, but especially with children in rainy weather, it’s important to have a plan for finding shelter, if needed. I usually try to stay within 15 minutes of shelter when thunderstorms are around.   When the storm hits, we wait it out in our shelter.  I have a son who is deathly afraid of thunderstorms, and I think the best way to help him past his fear is to expose him in a safe manner to the storms.  When it is all over, he relaxes and realizes that he’s still okay.  Bit by bit, he is overcoming his phobia.  A vehicle or picnic shelter or cliff overhang or cave or even beneath a large evergreen tree are all shelter options that we have taken advantage of when caught in downpours or thunderstorms, although some shelters are definitely better (and safer) than others.  And yes, lightning is a threat at times, but that risk is still probably lower than the one you took driving on the freeway to get to the trailhead. 

Waiting out a downpour under a cliff overhang.
This one caught us by surprise, hence, no rain gear.

5. Stay warm.

I always say, “It’s all fun and games until the kids get cold,” and it’s true.  Regardless of whether it is raining or sunny, if the kids get cold, their fun is over.  For this reason, I am much less likely to take kids out in the rain if it is below 45 degrees F than if it is 70 degrees F.  Even if you dress them with all the best rain gear and boots and hats, they are going to get wet in the rain.  If you keep them moving, they can usually handle it if the temperatures are above 45 degrees, but you should definitely plan to pack some extra dry clothes for when they slow down and start to get chilly.  Generally speaking, adults will start getting cold before the kids do. If it is around 70 degrees or warmer, odds are those kids are going to ditch their rain gear anyway, and just want to get wet, because nothing feels better on the skin that a warm, summer rain.   When this has happened to me, I’m not above making them strip down to their underclothes before getting into the car for the return trip home. Keeping an old bath towel in the vehicle is a huge help at times like that!

 

My mostly dry hikers yesterday. As expected, one
of them ditched the raincoat and decided to just get wet.

So those are my 5 tips for how to prepare kids for hiking in the rain.  Of course, these same tips apply to adults as well, and I follow them myself (well, except for the stripping down to the underclothes part!). I encourage you to get those kids outside in all kinds of weather.  Life is full of enough anxieties; let’s not teach our kids to be anxious about the weather.   God gave us the natural world so that we would always have a place to play and imagine and grow.   Our Lord uses rainy days to bring life to the earth and even more so, to our children. I try not to get in the way of that.

 

He covers the heavens with clouds;

He prepares rain for the earth;

He makes grass grow on the hills.

                                           Psalm 147:8

 

May Days

I have a serious case of writer's block but am determined to keep up with my goal of a post per month, so rather than try to paint a picture with words, I will share with you some photos from our past month.  We couldn't have had a prettier springtime, and it has continued.  I'm chomping at the bit to plant tomatoes, but I also learned a hard lesson last year when we had a killing freeze on May 11th!  So, I am trying to hold back.

In the meantime, we have been hiking, planting potatoes, doing schoolwork, and cooking.  Always cooking.  I do not know what I am going to do when I have 3 teenage boys to feed, as I am already barely able to keep up with their appetites!  For scrawny little runts, they sure do eat a lot.  I am counting on them being able to cook for themselves in a few more years, and so far, they are doing pretty well in the their training!  

There is no big news on the homefront, which is always a good thing.  Tom and I are still married, the boys are finishing up 5th and 4th grades and Dominic is graduating from "Grandma's Preschool" this month.  He is wise beyond his years and recently completed the "know how to jump on one foot" task that was on his "Things Kids Should Know Before Kindergarten" checklist.  So, I guess he's ready now.

Our dog did chase off a bear last week, so I make sure the boys go into the woods in pairs now so that they can give the bear options.  Our dog, Chessie, is the best when it comes to chasing off squirrels, rat snakes, bears, and UPS deliverers.  

So, without further elaboration, here is our collage of all things Springtime 2021 so far.

Our at-home Easter Vigil ceremony,
 lighting our Pascal candle

Dying our eggs with natural food dyes

Spring cleaning. If you are looking
 for a natural floor wax, try coconut oil!

A spring break trip to Lost River Cave in western KY

With a side trip to the Fathers of Mercy chapel

Potatoes in the ground

Morel mushrooms, a delicacy!

A trip to Frozen Head State Park to look for wildflowers.

Large white trillium

Black-eyed Pea, our new hen, laid her first egg!

My little boy isn't little anymore. 
Here he is teaching 2nd graders about the human body.

Baby broccoli plants in the ground.

Rhubarb after the rain.

Big brother made little brother an omelet!

Homeschool art class

And the beat goes on.   Happy May Days to you!