THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUND
Half way through the month and time for a little update.
We heard Baby G’s heartbeat [mp3] for the first time! Never was there such a beautiful sound in the whole world.
We’re also gearing up to start our childbirth classes. Thanks to our Natural Family Planning practioner and a few good friends, we’re going to do the Bradley Method of Childbirth a.k.a Husband-coached childbirth. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard about it before, we hadn’t and most of our friends hadn’t either. The goal of the Bradley Method is to have an unmedicated natural childbirth by preparing the mother’s body, and the couple emotionally for the birthing process. It’s been so enlightening to read about. Bradley boasts an 86% success rate–leaving Lamaze far behind. We’re so excited. I’ve heard from so many women personally (and of course through sitcoms and movies) about what a painfully bad birthing experience they had when they tried natural childbirth–and all those epiderals! No wonder some women opt for a c-section when they could have a natural birth—and worse no wonder women and couple don’t want additional children.
Childbirth. What a wonderful topic!!! We heard a talk on suffering that paralleled the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemene and what Christ came down for. A few spectacular points where that Jesus didn’t just come down from Heaven to die for us. If that were the case he could have died as an infant when Herod was on his killing rampage. No, Jesus came to SUFFER for us! Jesus came to earth to save us from difinitive suffering and uses our temporal suffering to allow us to participate in His suffering. Isn’t that awesome! So where does childbirth come in? Well, back to the Garden of Eden remember after Eve and Adam eat the fruit from the tree of Good and Evil, God issues His “punishments.” Eve made a huge blunder in letting the fear of the serpent overcome the love of God. But God does something very beautiful. He tells her that he will increase her pains in childbirth, but her desire will be for her husband. What He does in essense is He gives Eve an occasion of suffering through the gift of divine love (which is children) because He knows that through suffering our love becomes even greater! St. Paul then say in his letter to the Colossians that in our own suffering we complete Christ’s suffering. (Colossians 1:24 )
And when we join our suffering to Christ’s it becomes redemptive and we can save souls! Imagine how the world could change if every suffering we had we gave to Jesus to convert a heart or save a soul– every physical pain, every emotional pain, and the offerrings of small sacrifices everyday like not having that can of pop or cup of coffee or that piece of dessert at the end of dinner. The greatest example is our beloved St. Therese of Liseaux… Perhaps her story will come in the next update. For now, may all God’s blessings be upon you.
“ROME”SICK
This past week, we went to the exhibit Saint Peter and the Vatican at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Ah, all the great memories and stories we treasured in our hearts from our honeymoon in Rome came flooding back to us that afternoon. Our faith is simply beautiful. The exhibit is closing this weekend in Houston and will then be moving to Fort Lauderdale, FL till November. Then it moves to Cincinnati from December 2003 to April 2004 (all you Hoosier folk, do NOT miss this). It’s final stop is then in San Diego until September 2004 (and we do have friends in San Diego, right Eddie?). The schedule is here.
