God is So Good.

We had a great weekend, full of the blessings of the Lord!

On Friday we got to visit with our dear friends who moved away a few months ago. They came back for a visit and it was so great to see them!

Also on Friday, some Catholic mom friends of mine and I did a day of fasting and prayer for my husband's mental health and faith. We fasted and then at 3pm [the hour of Divine Mercy], we prayed a Novena to the Blessed Mother - we prayed the Memorare 9 times in petition and then 9 times in thanksgiving.

My husband came over that evening to spend the whole weekend [the longest he's been with us since he moved out]. He was in a great frame of mind - MUCH more stable than I have seen him in a very long time. We had a great weekend - he was calm and stable and *happy* [something else I haven't seen in a long time].

On Saturday we had my wonderful babysitter come to keep the kids while we went out for a few hours at lunch. Our first stop was at the Adoration Chapel at our Church. We prayed before the Blessed Sacrament and then we went into the small day chapel [where Jesus is in the Tabernacle] and we knelt down and renewed our marriage vows to one another in front of Jesus and put back on our wedding bands. It was a very emotional moment - our recommitment to our Marriage.

Afterwards we went out to lunch with some Gift Certificates my SIL gave us a year and a half ago that we never had gotten around to using. It was a wonderful lunch. Then we went and picked up the baby [left the other kids with the babysitter] and went Christmas shopping for the children. It was so fun!

Then I took our babysitter home and we picked up the kids and all went to Confession [those of us who were old enough anyway LOL!]. It was an amazing gift - my husband returning to the Sacrament of Reconciliation after being so lost. He was like a new man when he walked out of that Confessional. Praise God!

Then on Sunday he came to Mass with us - for the first time since he left, and he received our Lord in the Eucharist. I spent the whole Mass on the verge of happy tears. He would not come back until he was sure what he believed - and I'm so happy he did come back.

God and the Blessed Mother were working so actively on my husband's heart this weekend, and my husband is doing SO much better now. It was amazing.

The devil was at work too!

After he went to Confession Saturday night, my husband got a severe headache - could have been a coincidence of course, but it struck within minutes of him leaving the Confessional - and lasted all night to the point that he felt terrible.

Yesterday after Mass, we dropped the older 3 kids off at Sunday school and then we were going to the van so we could run home and change the baby [who had had a massive poop during Mass of course!] and then come back. As we were walking to the van, we were walking towards the overflow parking lot, which is on a pretty steep incline. It has gravel over pavement there too, and I was wearing my Church shoes [ie: slick bottoms!]. I had the baby in the backpack [as always LOL!].

I slipped - my foot came right out from under me slipping on that gravel and I fell HARD! Of course, the natural way for me to fall in that situation was backwards - but I had the baby on my back! I did everything I could to fall forwards instead to protect the baby, and I did manage it but really, really hurt myself in the process! I twisted my right ankle really badly [not sure it isn't fractured - I spend the whole afternoon trying to decide if I needed to go to the ER or not!]. It is swollen. I also wrenched my right knee, my lower back, my neck, and I pulled every muscle in my left arm and scraped my left palm.

Miraculously, the baby was fine! She turned her head *after* the fall and scraped her head a little on the pavement/gravel, but she was otherwise unharmed! She was really freaked out of course [though not as freaked out as me and my husband! ;) ], but she was fine. Praise God for Guardian Angels!

Later in the day I sliced my thumb open to the bone while making dinner for my family and our neighbors who are ill right now! I *almost* went to have it stitched up, but I just hate the ER. It took about 2 hours for me to get it to stop bleeding, but it finally did so I didn't go get stitches.

I could barely walk or move the rest of the day from the fall [and I'm sore as heck today too!]. I couldn't help feeling like it was Satan just giving me a shove because he was so mad though! He had *won* my husband's soul and Jesus and I wrested it back! I bet he WAS mad LOL!

I don't think I mentioned it here in this blog, but I had something of a miraculous encounter with Jesus a few weeks after my husband left. It was about 5 weeks after he left, and it was when he was at his worst - just being really mean and horrible. I was in the kitchen doing dishes and cleaning up and I was just crying and *seething* over how awful my husband was being. And I thought to myself "God must be REALLY mad at him right now for what he is doing to me and the kids!" And Jesus spoke to me [yes, I know I sound like a religious nut to many of you, but He DID! :) ].

Jesus said to me "[my name], I love your husband just as much as I love you and the children, and I want him in Heaven with me too, just as much as I want you. Right now he is lost, and it is through YOU that he will return to me if he returns at all. You need to bring him back to me."

At the time I was totally like "Are you KIDDING ME Jesus?!!! Not that - ask anything of me but that! How can you ask this of me after everything he's done?!!! I can't do it - I can't swallow all this hurt and anger and look after his wellbeing! I have to take care of me and the kids!"

But you know how Jesus is. :)

Over the next few days Jesus gave me the Grace to move past the anger and the pain. He gave me the Grace to *earnestly* seek a reconciliation with my husband - to WORK for it. At first it did not work - at all - and was really just further humiliation. I was very hurt by my husband's response, and I spent several days just crying and devastated. And then I had that night that I wrote about in my blog before, where I received the "Consolation of the Lord". And from then on, I felt fine. I knew I would be OK no matter what decisions my husband made and no matter what terrible things might happen.

It was about that time that my husband stopped taking the medication that was making him evil, and Jesus slowly worked on his heart from there. It was gradual, but he came back to a place where he was "himself" again, and loved me and the children, and wanted to make it right. [And this was NOT an easy path for him - after all the damage he had done, I think it took an amazing amount of courage on his part to decide to make it right and work through the pain to save the marriage too].

When he asked to reconcile, he was still determined that he did not want to be Catholic. Slowly over the last few weeks, that has completely changed and he has reawakened to his faith.

All of this seems miraculous to me - and I don't think it was a coincidence that my husband finally returned to the Sacraments on the very weekend after my friends and I did a fast and novena for him. I am sure many would say this is all coincidence or something, but me...no, I clearly see the Hand of God.

And my children are SO happy - they are thriving with seeing their daddy frequently and on a regular basis and with knowing their family isn't going to be rent apart. And my husband is happy - he seems so happy, and it warms my heart to see it. AND, *I* am so happy - against what seems "logical" or what I expected [I went in to this wanting to do the "right thing" and make Jesus happy, but not expecting it to make me happy]. I am happier than I've been in years right now.

God is so good - whenever we are faithful to God and His Will, our own happiness always follows, isn't that so cool?

All Praise and All Thanksgiving to You, Lord Jesus Christ!