A Small Miracle

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them" by Bernard Berenson.  That was my high school senior quote and I have thought about that quote many times since i picked it out.  I thought long and hard about what i wanted to put in the yearbook.  I wanted something that when i looked back 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 years, it would still have meaning in my life.  Billy Joel's "This is the Time to Remember" was a popular quote and although i knew i would miss my time in high school, i also had enough wisdom to know that it was only 4 years of my life.  Plus, in my time in high school, i had gone through a lot more than the average teenager and knew it was my faith that got me through it.  So I wanted to honor that.  I am still happy with my choice and although i like that Billy Joel song, I couldn't remember half of the people's names at my 10 year high school reunion.  


I believe in Miracles.  I always have.  I believe that sometimes they are big and sometimes they are so small that you don't even realize what it was until after it happened. I believe some Miracles have a perfectly good explanation as to how they happened, while others are nothing short of a mystery. Either way, i fully believe they are God's little way of letting us know He is not far away.  


Tonight after dinner, Allen left for a meeting at Church, Noah was coming up with every reason why he shouldn't go to bed, and Chewy was running around like a crazy puppy!  I went upstairs with Noah and we were saying our prayers on his bed like we do every night.  And just like every night, we pray for Archbishop Donoghue.  After we finished praying, Noah asked me if i still missed Archbishop.  I got tears in my eyes as i told Noah i did.   Noah, then gave me a HUGE bear hug and we said good night.  I went back downstairs and after a few minutes I noticed I had a missed call on my phone.  I checked to see who called, hoping it was Allen saying he was on his way home but instead I stopped dead in my tracks and couldn't breathe.  The missed call was from Archbishop!!!  Well, his old number anyway.  No, I haven't deleted his number from my phone because I love the picture of him I have attached to that number.  But there it was, a missed call from his number with his picture right there on my phone with his big goofy smile from one of our lunch dates.  Shocked and confused, i called the number back thinking maybe the diocese gave his phone to an employee or something.  I got the operator and she said "this number is unreachable"..not disconnected but UNREACHABLE!  UM,  WHAT????     That, my friends, is a miracle!  I have no idea how it happened, nor do i care.  All i know is that I am thankful it DID happen.  It doesn't make any sense, and I am okay with that.  But tonight, a small miracle happened to someone who believes in them! 

Summer 2012

just like that, 2012 is HALF OVER!!!  How did that happen?  so far the world hasn't ended but i guess we still have 6 more months to see... :)  The Austin household has been very busy this summer!!  For some reason my pictures aren't uploading to the computer so they will have to wait.  Here are some of the things going on around here...

early June:
** Noah turned 7!  We had a small party for him at Lifetime Fitness and Noah chose rock wall climbing and swimming as his 2 activities!  He had a blast and it didn't even bother him that Ella kicked some butt on the rock wall.  It did, however, bother Allen since Ella (who is 7) went past the mark that Allen did...haha. 

**My god daughter, Catherine, was baptized!  It is such an honor to be her god mother, she is just the most precious thing ever (she obviously gets it from her mom). 


**Allen went to Peru for 2 weeks on a mission trip.

**I helped out with Vacation Bible School the first week Allen was gone.  I helped in Noah's class and we have had the songs stuck in our head ever since.

**The 2nd week Allen was gone, Noah, Chewy, and I drove 10 hours to Missouri to hang out there for a week.  We had a blast, visiting with family and friends.  As always, it went by way too fast before we got to see everyone we wanted on our list!  Guess we will just have to go back up soon!

Mid June:
**Noah went to Lacrosse camp.  He is a natural athlete!

late June:
**we went to the beach (Hilton head) with my mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin!    Basically the trip consisted of eating ice cream for or with every meal.  It was great! 

July:
**we went tubing in Helen for the day and had lunch at the Troll Tavern

**we celebrated the 4th with friends and fireworks! 

** We surprised Noah and took him to Medieval Times!!  It was sooo much fun!! 

**Noah just finished All Star Camp.  This is his 3rd year attending with his friend Luke.  After camp every day we had play dates planned with friends.

**Allen left yesterday for a long weekend leading a retreat for his teen leaders. 

*in 2 weeks Noah will be attending tennis camp! 

*In addition to all the fun activities, we have been spending lots of time at the pool, dog park, playing video games at home, grilling out, hanging out with friends, and just having fun!!! 

I hope you are having a great summer and enjoying the extra time with your friends and family!!!

It was a Good Knight!

 For the last few years Noah has told me he wanted to be a Knight when he grows up.  Being the supportive mom that I am, I have refused to tell him that it will be difficult to get a job like that these days.  A few weeks before school let out, Noah came home and asked me what a VET was.  He said his teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up and when Noah said "A Knight", his teacher told him he couldn't be that and had to pick a "real" job.  One of his friends wants to be a VET so Noah told me he picked that as well.  Although the teacher is 100% right that Noah can't really be a knight, i was pretty upset that she crushed his dream.  I mean come on, he will learn soon enough that he can't really be a Knight, so why not just let a 1st grader have his dream.  Now, don't get me wrong, i really like his teacher but come one.  I am a dreamer myself, still deciding what I want to be when I grow up, and firmly believe we need to let the kids keep their dreams and imaginations alive!  I am still kind of holding out on the dream that Brad Pitt will show up at my door and ask me to star in a movie with him one day.  Anyway, every year around Noah's birthday, some of my family asks when Noah wants.  The LAST thing this child needs is another toy so I try to pick one event or place and ask family members to donate to that.  Last year we got season passes to lake Lanier Water Park, the year before that a family membership to the zoo.  I think an "adventure" is a much better gift than another toy.  So this year I was wondering what adventure we should do and then, there it was...I was driving down Holcomb Bridge and saw the billboard for Medieval Times!  That was it!!!  I forgot all about that place.  I had been when i was kid and remembered I loved it!  And I didn't want to be a Knight so i imagined that Noah would go crazy over that place.  So I told family about the place and several people gave money so we could take Noah.  I waited for a weekend when tickets would go on sale and when i saw tickets were half off the week of July 4th, I jumped on it.  We had enough money for all of us to go and extra money to shower Noah with overpriced swords and shields in the gift shop!  We didn't tell Noah where we were going but this morning when he woke up, told him we had a special birthday surprise.  We told him all the people who gave money so he could go.  He still had no idea where we were going.  We drove all the way there with him asking questions and us giving some clues.  He was pretty sure we were going to see a movie.    You should have seen the look on his face when we pulled up and he saw the Castle.  He still didn't know what to expect but he knew we were not seeing a movie and that where there are castles, there are Knights!  When we walked in and he saw the arena and we explained what was going to happen, I honestly think he thought he had died and gone to Heaven.  Since the tickets were half off, we upgraded our seats so we were in the front row and got special cheering banners and stuff.  I must admit, the whole thing is pretty darn amazing!!  It really was the best gift!  There is no way Noah's teacher (or anyone for that matter) will ever be able to convince him that Knights aren't still riding into battle to protect Kings and Queens.  And that is fine with me!  Let the kids dream big!!!

Thank you so much to our family and friends that gave Noah an "adventure" he will never forget! 

   

Freedom

Happy 4th of July!!    I can't believe it is July 4th already!!  The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays...i LOVE everything about it...the cookouts, the patriotism, the sparklers, the pop-its, the fireworks (oh i LOVE the fireworks), but most of all, i LOVE being FREE!   There is something about the star spangled banner that brings tears to my eyes because I know I live in a country that was founded on God with the underlining theme of FREEDOM!  At least i USED to!  It seems, as of late, that our freedom is slowly going away.  "Oh Meghan, quit being so dramatic" you might be saying to yourself, but i assure you, i am not being dramatic.  Freedom of Religion is one of the fundamental rights we have as American citizens and that is being taken away.  It is no surprise that I didn't vote for Obama in the last election and i don't care if you did or didn't.  What i DO care about is that you don't vote for him this time around.  If you haven't heard, Obama is implementing his own healthcare and part of that healthcare is making all insurance companies pay for birth control, abortions, and medical abortions.  Now we can sit here all day and debate that there are tons of people that use birth control and can't afford it.  We can debate that there are people that will always get abortions so we might as well have clinics.  We can debate whether women who have been a victim of rape or incest should be able to abort their child.  We might as well debate the reason lots of Catholics (or any Religion) have people who claim to be a part of that church, that don't practice the teachings of their faith.  But those debates will have to wait for another day, today is not about them.  Today, is about freedom of religion.  The Catholic faith is something very dear to me.  I am Catholic and I am a practicing Catholic.  I practice all the teachings of the Church, believe in the forgiveness of our Everlasting God when i have messed up, and look forward to being with the Resurrected Christ in Heaven one day!  One of the most important issues of my faith is the Pro Life stance.  Being pro life is much more than just being anti-abortion.  It is about standing up for life at all stages..from conception to natural death.  It is my right to believe that and be a part of the Catholic Church who, in her wisdom, understands that birth control and abortions are not just unhealthy for the child but also for the mother.  The Church wants the best life possible for both mother and child...pro life!  So it doesn't matter if you agree with these teachings or not, you can believe what you want..do you know why?  Because under the Constitution of the United States we are free to believe what we want and practice whatever religion (or lack of) we want ..."Freedom of Religion".  So how can the government, who were the first to establish "Freedom of Religion", take that away by making insurance companies pay for things that are morally wrong?  Catholic schools, businesses, colleges, etc who have been able to insure their employees (like me) are now being forced under the HHS Mandate that Obama is implementing.  Many pro life companies of many different Christian religions will refuse to participate in this, therefore, losing insurance for many people.  No matter what your beliefs about birth control, abortion, pro life, pro choice, this is not about that...this is about your beliefs in being an American and being FREE.  Free to believe whatever you want without being told you HAVE to believe this or that.   Just think of all the other things that will be taken away from us if we allow Obama to start here.  Do you like being free?  are you celebrating your freedom today, on the 4th of July?  Then remember that when you are voting in the election this November.  In the meantime, I hope you have a great day filled with with burgers, friends, laughter, and the joy of knowing you are FREE because you are made in the image and likeness of God!