Letter 2 from 2.29.08

Precious One,


Hope and pray we did! Us and so many others. I tried hard to keep all the notes from friends and loved ones that shared their support and prayers. Two examples, wonderful friend who leads sidewalk counseling out at the local abortion mill immediately went to mass for you and lit a candle. Then she shared the news with Fr. Gordon, who also sometimes comes out to the clinic. He was going on retreat for a week and promised to continue praying to St. Rita for your health, as he did earlier for your conception. And there was all the novenas said! This is a beautiful story I am so excited to share with you! You see, as you have probably already been told, there were two beautiful babies before you that were not meant to stay on this earth. The first one we named Michael, the main reason being that he was such a fighter. I pictured Michael the archangel prepared for battle against the evil one and found it fitting. The second baby was so sick, and I felt called to name her Gabby, keeping Gabriel the archangel in my mind. I would smile up at God and tell him that doesn’t mean we need to lose a third child so that Raphael would have a namesake as well. Truth be told, on first glance I didn’t particularly care for the name. Of course, that was before.

Your dad and I knew that we had some nasty infections to fight for our future children to be well. We consulted the best doctors in the country and did everything they suggested. We have often associated the physical healing with spiritual healing as well, and our journey for the two was always intertwined. As soon as I had one questionable hcg level after becoming pregnant with you, I felt called to explore the third archangel, Raphael. I can’t tell you how I almost fell out of my seat when I read that the name literally meant “God had healed”. I felt immediately comforted. I wanted to learn all I could about Raphael and thus dived into the Old Testament to read the book of Tobit. Another surprise followed as I saw what a pivotal role Raphael had in the story of Tobius and Sarah, which was the same reading your dad and I had as the first reading at our wedding! I was tearful with joy. I felt such a connection and peace with the situation! Finally, I searched for prayers to Raphael for his intercession for health and found a beautiful novena. I shared this with friends and family, the women on the infertility discussion board, our parish priest-Fr. Tom, and more and asked them to join me in the 9 day prayer. So many did, it was wonderful! And of course, the blood draw after that showed typical growth and we praised God together!

At this time, Fr. Tom continues his daily novena to Raphael, long after the nine days. An online friend who has similar fertility issues and is also pregnant, says a rosary for you every day! Fr. Gordon continues his prayers to St. Rita, and even preformed a blessing on us the other day in Latin. A friend from our small faith group has engaged his entire staff and students at the local Catholic high school to join in our prayers. My grade school friebd has her mother’s whole prayer group praying. Another friend engaged the Holy Trinity mom’s group to pray on your behalf. It is impossible for us to know how many joined in prayer on our behalf. I like to pray a prayer with St. Gerard, the patron saint of mothers.

All in all, it is clear our prayers are working. In addition, we are flying to NY on Sunday to see a pathologist to check on the status of the infection. We are doing everything in our power to keep you safe and healthy these 9 months. We can’t wait to meet you, dear one.