Archive for » December, 2003 «

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas! Ours was just lovely. Our good friends the Shearers paid us a visit Christmas eve. Our Godson, Gabriel, is growing so quickly! By looking at the little tyke, it’s hard to believe he’s only going to be three months old this weekend.

Sharon experienced her first contractions during Midnight Mass. Although it was a small preview of what labor would be, it was enough for Adam to ask, “Do we need to go to the hospital?” Of course we didn’t, and the contractions subsided after we got home and went to bed. Alas, if only labor could be that easy! :)

Sharon’s parents and brother came to Austin Christmas day to have lunch with us. It was quite a feast! We’ll have left over ham ready for those days after Baby G comes along! :) After mom and dad Lozano left, we watched part of the Two Towers (Adam’s Christmas gift from mom Gretencord). Then we went over to some friends’ house. Followed by another feast and games at Mark M’s. It was quite a birthday celebration for Jesus that day!

Friday we watched The Return of the King! Excellent movie if you’re into The Lord of the Rings. And yesterday we wrapped up the week in San Antonio with all of Sharon’s family–the kiddos included for our third Christmas feast!

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More Birthdays!

Well, we have a couple more birthdays to add to the list. One is brand new…the other….well, I have an excuse because I’m new to the family and pregnant! ;)

Ben Gretencord–December 9
Theresa Mary Salvaraj–December 6
more…

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Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Memorial

“Today is the 24th Anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. He was truly one of the most outstanding churchmen of the 20th century. Today also marks the beginning of a “year of remembrance” leading up to the 25th Anniversary of the Archbishop’s death.”

Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R.
Vice-Postulator of the Cause

www.ArchbishopSheenCause.org

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Happy Birthday(s)!

We have 4 birthdays to celebrate this month:

Mom Gretencord–Dec 1.
Diana Lozano–Dec 3.
Austin Lozano–Dec 16.
Jesus–Dec 25.

God bless you all!

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Pro-Life Rally

We attended an awesome and inspiring Pro-Life Rally last night here in Austin. We saw many of our good friends there from around Austin and the diocese. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or just out of town), you may know that a grassroots effort to stop the construction of a $6.2 million Planned Parenthood facility came to a screeching halt about three weeks ago. The leader of this effort, Chris Danze, is just an amazing role model of faith, evangelism, and persistence. Last night he gave thanks to two special women, Our Blessed Mother–”who DOES interceed for us”– and his wife Sheri, his rock. Knowing both very well, I couldn’t agree with him more. Sheri has co-coordinated the Gabriel Project efforts here in central Texas for 10 years I think. The Gabriel Project is a ministry of the Catholic Church to help women in crisis pregnancies. They have both dedicated their lives to the unborn–including prayer and sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics and taking in unwed mothers into their home. Chris and Sheri are an awesome team and role models of what it means to be disciples of Christ!

I agree with Chris when he says that our society is in a coma when it comes to the scourage of abortion. Feeling our own baby everyday, I can’t imagine the evil it takes to kill a helpless child. What became more and more clear to me last night was that those who are “pro-choice” don’t have a leg to stand on and they need lots and lots of prayer. Having counseled women who were abortion-minded, I know first hand that women who “choose” to have abortions do so because they feel they DON’T have a choice!

And then there’s the idea of relative morality–the infamous, “I would never have an abortion, but other women have a right to choose.” A person cannot be “pro-choice” and Christian with that attitude. They just don’t fit together. Since when is morality relative??? That’s Cain telling God all over again, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And what did God say? As a matter of fact you are! We as Christians have every obligation to see to the sanctity of our brothers’ and sister’s souls–not their eternal damnation!

Some good friends gave us the following to nibble on… The tide WILL turn. The simple fact of the matter is that those who support abortion are killing themselves off. And years from now, our world will denouce abortion the way it did the Holocaust. Our grandchildren will say, “Grandma, Grandpa, I can’t believe they used to kill babies like that. What did you do to help save the babies?” And I ask you…what are you doing to help save these babies?

Imagine you meet Christ face to face at your death, he’ll say, “Over a 4 million children died of abortion, why didn’t you do anything?” You say, “They weren’t MY children.”? Our Lord says, “No. They were mine.”

God love you!

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Baby Shower / Birthday Party

Well, we have a bit of catching up to do. On November 22, Sharon had a baby shower–or what she likes to call Baby G’s pre-”birth”day party. They played games, ate food, opened presents…typical baby shower stuff. It was hosted by three very lovely people–Sharon Kress, Sheri Danze, and Barb Jalloway. And there were quite a bit of women there. We are so blessed to have such Holy women in our lives. And we extend our sincere thanks to all of them for all the Baby G’s gifts.

After the baby shower, half the women plus their significant others and other men, joined us to celebrate Adam’s birthday. The Wings and Rings party what a ton of fun. The center of entertainment was Adam’s new dartboard, some spicy wing and onion rings PLUS a cake that is still sitting in our kitchen unfinished! Thanks to all our friends for Adam’s birthday gifts and for participating in the Gretencord day of fun!

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