April Showers bring May flowers

April was a hard, long month full of sadness and introspection. I mentioned the death of my great nephew - an infant not quite one. My husband's uncle/godfather passed away and so did my uncle. All three happened in a little over a week.

I am still struck by how sad I can be when I think of the loss of Baby Stephen and how his death affected all our lives. But I am also greatful for the time we had with him and would never ever trade that for anything. I feel the same about my own baby Luke.

Lent and then Easter were also a huge part of my April. Those 2 great seasons of the Church Year always bring their own sadness at my sin and personal responsibility in the suffering and death of Jesus. But then I remember that Easter follows Good Friday. Without the cross there can be no Easter. It is the same in my own life. Without the cross that I must pick up each day to follow my Lord and Saviour I will have no Easter, no Resurrection. In order to spend eternity with God I must embrace my cross.

I believe that into every life there will be little "May flowers" that will also happen. I am banking on them.

• The Pure Fashion Show is today - Tessa is a model. Her daddy will be walking with her in his tuxedo - be still my beating heart. And my sweet little girl Sylvia is making a guest appearance as a flower girl in the Bridal set. I cannot wait.
• Cassie will graduate in the top of her class. She is an amazing girl and I am very proud of her.
• Tessa, MollyK, Toria, Patrick and I all celebrate birthdays!
• Spring weather!
• Planting of my garden.
• Sophia will be 6 months - she gets more and more wonderful each day I adore my grandbaby!
• Mother's Day. Need I say more?
• Flowers, birds, new life everywhere.
• The Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo is open.
• My brother's wife is having a baby someday soon.

Thank You dear Lord Jesus for the flowers you put into my life!

I was inspired to make this list from the Inspired Room - she posted on 20 little happy things to celebrate in life (including a $100 gift certificate) I am also inspired by Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky.

Pure Fashion Photo

Looky there I made it bigger! (so what if I used a different pic! LOL)

(I can't seem to make the picture bigger ... any ideas?)

I know this is late, but on May 3rd my daughters Katie andTessa participated in the annual Pure Fashion Show. in Fort Wayne Indiana. This was Katie's 2nd and Tessa's first time. The absolutely fabulously studdly man is my husband. This was his 2nd time. My oldest daughter was a participant for 4 years. It has been a beautiful way to teach modesty not only to my daughters but others as well. If there is one near you, run don't walk to sign your high school aged daughter up!

Pure Fashion is an international faith based program designed for girls 14-18 to help young women re-discover and re-affirm their innate value and authentic femininity.
Pure Fashion is a character formation program that enhances not only a young woman's external appearance, but more importantly, her interior beauty and balanced self confidence.
Our goal is to emphasize a young woman's inherent dignity and therefore create in her a desire to dress and act in accordance with that dignity. We understand that many young women today are losing their sense of innocence at a very young age, and Pure Fashion aims to reverse this trend by offering a fun, exciting and effective virtue formation program that can impress the hearts and minds of young girls at a very critical stage in their lives.

Pure Fashion is an Apostolate of Regnum Christi.