Let's join together in Prayer for a MIRACLE for Baby Andrew!

Dear Friends,
As many of you may know, Cristina's childhood friend and her husband gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Andrew in December. Since his birth he continues to face what seems like endless hurdles on his road to recovery.

I just received an email from an old High School friend of mine that I just reconnected with around the time that Andrew's precious life began and he informed me that he and his wife organized a Novena for baby Andrew that will begin tomorrow, April 30. My friend doesn't even know the family, but is just touched by their story.

This got me to thinking about how powerful prayer is, especially when done in great numbers, so I'm inviting all of you to join in this Novena. It's very short and will only take a few moments.

For those of you unfamiliar with what a Novena is, here is a brief definition:

A novena is a nine-day period of private or public prayer to obtain special graces, to implore special favors, or to make special petitions. (Novena is derived from the Latin "novem", meaning nine.)

The Novena we will be praying is to Louis and Zelie Martin (St. Therese of Lisieux's parents).

Here is a link to the short prayer: http://www.sttherese.com/Louis%20and%20Zelie.html

God Bless,
Paul

Lots of laughs...

We constantly catch ourselves saying about Sebastian - "he's just sooo funny!!!" He cracks us up all the time with his looks, grins, laughs (fake and real) and little antics. Here are some recent laughs we've shared with him.

Making the bed is now a favorite game. He loves to hide under the sheets like it's a tent.

Give me that camera!!!

His favorite carro/car. He loves to roll this car all over the floor, couch, table, chairs, closets, doors, walls, mommy, etc. Sometimes he won't even let go of his car to eat or go to sleep.

The other night we were walking across the room (I was holding his fingers) when he fell flat on his face. He cried and cried and had cut his lip and gums pretty badly. I put him in the sling quickly and that made him a little happier (he wouldn't nurse initially because his mouth hurt), but he got much happier when he got his carrito (car). He held on to it the whole time he was hurt. Who knew a hard, plastic car could be so cuddly!

Laughing in his high chair. He loves to play this game with Daddy where he sits up really straight and laughs. It's pretty funny.

Just the usual...

This weekend we went to the park to swing and attempted to buy a second car seat for Paul's car, but came home with nothing. Oh well. Here are some cute pictures from the week.

Also, please keep my friend Betsy, her husband Steve and their baby son Andrew in your prayers, especially on Monday. Monday morning he will go in for his second heart surgery. This little guy was born in December and is still at Arnold Palmer Hospital, but hopefully after this surgery he will be able to go home with his family! Please pray that the doctors are given wisdom and for peace for Steven and Betsy and especially for Andrew that he be strong! Thanks for all your prayers - he has been a miracle child and we know it because of all the prayers!

Playing at the fridge at Nana's.

Sporting the new do. (I'm not going to tell the story of Sebastian's "haircut" because it will just make me fester...let's just say I know it will grow back...)

Favorite position for drinking from the sippy cup. That's our boy!

Video - Sebastian's Afternoon Snack

The final birthday of the season...

I'm not kidding when I say we have a birthday every weekend from mid-January through the end of March. Here are pictures from the last family birthday of the season (for a bit) as we celebrated my little brothers 24th.

My Mama made him a super cake with Herbie race cars and all.

Sebastian pushing his truck before the party. He pushes this everywhere and he just looks so funny doing it!

Helping Tio Daniel open his presents.

He loved ripping the paper and playing with the bow.

Cute story of the week

This week I went over to my friend Ana's so that Sebastian could play with his buddy Michael. We spent about an hour playing and the boys were having a good time. When it was time to leave I told Sebastian to say "bye-bye" and he waved at Ana and Michael and then he looked me square in the eye and unmistakable did the sign for "more." It was so cute and sweet! I was super excited because other people had said they'd seen him sign "more" before, but I had only kinda seen it - it looked more like clapping to me. But this time it was very clear and I felt so bad we had to leave. I can't believe he's already giving me guilt trips! Anyways, it was very cute and I had to sign to him that we were "all done" and going to the "car." He didn't protest thank goodness!