Thank you Jane for your kind words.

My daughter is receiving excellent grief counseling. She is a
psychologist herself and has friends in the field who have pointed her
to excellent therapists. 

I am relying on some very dear friends (some of them here) and my faith
in God. 

Yesterday I took communion to two Catholic residents who reside in the
the nursing home where my Mother stayed. The nurses and the residents
whom I have come to love and know received me with such love and
compassion that I found a great deal of healing there.

I know that all little girls are beautiful and wonderful so I realize
that I am bias when I make the claim that Danielle is special. I have
taken a great deal of comfort realizing that my mother somehow knew that
she was needed somewhere else and that she and Danielle are together.
This is more than wishful thinking on my part. My mother lived with my
daughter and Danielle for five years before coming to Colorado to be
near me. They were very close.

I don't know what the connection is between life here on Earth and the
soul's journey when leaving this Earth. A niece of mine believes, and I
think she may be right, that for God there is no time or space. That our
perception of time and space does not allow us the ability to recognize
and know the presence of those whom we have loved and have died but in
some mysterious way the physical and spiritual are tied together.

This to me is the Mystery of Christ being True Man and True God. I find
comfort in that belief. For believing that, frees me to know that all of
creation is one and that there is a purpose for each and everyone of us.
Danielle's life was all to brief but she had a mission and a purpose and
when that purpose was completed her guardian angel protected her from
great suffering and pain as she made her way back to Mary's arms.


This is how I deal with grief. I talk and talk and talk. Thanks for
listening.

I have not taken this blog seriously.  In theory, I was going to use it to wax eloquent on a variety of subject.  But when faced with the blank screen I am at a lost as to what I should say. 

I think I will use this blog as I first intended.  It will be primarily discussions on Religion and my trying to come to an understanding as to what it means to me to be a Catholic. 

Jesus comes with his disciples to Gethsemani: "Stay here, while I go yonder and pray."

Meditation with Mary:

Dear Mother Mary,

  So often I come to you because I do not wish to be alone before God.  Is that not a strange concept?
  I love God with all my heart.  I trust Him.  Yet,  I need the warmth of your heart and your loving arms around me.    I know that God understands, because you held Christ near  your heart and held him in your arms.

Where to begin?  This seemed like a simple enough thing to do.  I am full of opinions and ideas about how the world should be run but here I am - at a loss as how to start my blog.  

I will talk about the faith that I love, the belief in the dignity of the human-being from conception until natural death. 

Because I believe in the dignity of each and every human being this can be a time and place for me to write about the beauty of life in all of God's majestic glory.


I guess I will jump in and ask.  What is a person and why are unborn Children not considered a "persons" under the law.

From BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/3256615.stm



Are premature babies likely to survive?

Yes. The outlook for premature infants has improved dramatically in recent years.

Even babies born as early as 25 weeks now have a good chance of surviving.

More than 90% of premature babies who weigh 800 grams (a little less than two pounds) or more survive.

Those who weigh more than 500 grams (a little more than 1 pound) have a 40% to 50% chance of survival.

How are premature babies treated?

Extremely premature babies are likely to be on a ventilator to aid their breathing artificially - sometimes for months.

Most premature babies will be placed in an incubator on a special neo-natal unit.

Incubators are made of transparent plastic, and they completely surround an infant to keep him warm, decrease the chance of infection, and limit water loss.

Breast milk is an excellent source of nutrition, but premature infants are too immature to feed directly from the breast or bottle until at least 32 weeks after conception.

Most premature infants have to be fed slowly because of the risk of developing an intestinal infection called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

Breast milk can be pumped by the mother and fed to the premature baby through a tube that goes from the baby's nose or mouth into the stomach.

Special fortifiers may be added to the milk that a premature baby receives, because they often have higher vitamin needs than full-term infants.

 My Question of the day is:

Are these tiny infants "persons"?

If so, what is the difference between a baby in an incubator and a baby in the womb?