Sweet Baby Jesus

Dear John and Jane:

DO NOT DESTROY BEFORE READING TO THE END.  This is something that needed discussing a long time ago.  I am sending you this now so that you might seriously sit down and have a very serious husband/wife discussion about the most important aspect of your lives.

Our 44th anniversary is coming up in April.  I know, for a fact, that we would be very happy and most content if certain happenings would be amended.  Some things have happened on our watch that make us feel like failures, even though we feel we have done everything we could do without outright offending anyone.

We took our vows to raise our children to the best of our ability to believe in God, the Catholic Church, and its teachings.  I think we accomplished that the best we could with what we had.  We also believe that God was watching over us through all the young hard times of very little money, premature babies, etc.  But in the end, we were able to house, feed, clothe, and educate the kids in a better than most type of way.  They never went hungry or without a roof over their heads.  They did not graduate four years of college with student loans.  They drove decent automobiles.  They definitely wore nice up to date clothing.  They were educated in the Church and received the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance, First Communion, and Confirmation - as well as Marriage (only one child went to a different Christian facility).  In our minds, that is one child too many.

For reasons we don’t really understand, you chose to be married in a civil union rather than the Church.  We somewhat accepted the marriage being made to think that, “We will have the marriage blessed in the Church after returning from the island.”

Now, four years later, still nothing has been done to amend the situation.  It really is as simple as (1) Talking to the Priest; (2) Catholic confession; (2) Renewal of Baptism; (3) Renewal of Marriage Vows.  And the promise to raise the children in the Church.

One does not have to convert to Catholicism unless one wants to do so.  Mike and Jenny are at that point, but thanks to Jenny’s beliefs and stamina, both of her kids are enrolled in the Catholic Church activities and receiving the Sacraments.   If Eric had not been married/divorced before he met Jessica, they would also be members of the Catholic Faith, as well as her three sons (two were baptized Catholic).  I know that you, Jane, were taught in your younger years in the ways of Christianity.  Now that you are married to a very generous loving man, have beautiful babies, are loved by many family members (bio’s and the Johnsons), it is time to become a part of the community through the Church.

I know John has been very dedicated to the Church and prayer all of his life.  I do know that he goes to Church on Holy Days/Sunday whenever he can.  I do know he would go more often if his family attended Mass with him.  It’s the Family Way past, present, future.  He would be so proud to show off his beautiful wife and babies.  I don’t know what happened to his beliefs or backbone.

Edward and I trusted that the promise to have the Marriage Blessed would take place way before this.  The longer you put it off, the harder it will be for you to do it.

You now have two very precious babies.  These babies need to be baptized in the Church and brought up as Christians, preferably members of the Catholic Community.  God, the very Polish Catholic Joe and Jen Johnson, Elmer and Edna (Convert) Ericson, and your parents, families, and friends would be so happy for you.  I am thinking by now, Joe and Jen are rolling in their graves knowing that Mark and David divorced and remarried and left the Church.  Some of their grandkids that they loved and supported so much have taken the wrong paths in life.  It is disheartening, to say the least.  What is really sad and uncalled for is the fact that some don’t even try to attend Mass.  But when things get rough, they blame God!!  Not a Christian thing to do.

All of us are born with original sin.  God forgives that sin through Baptism.  After Baptism, we are still all sinners, not saints, which is why we pray, attend Mass, confess our sins and receive absolution.  Even the clergymen are sinners.  No one here on Earth is perfect and free of sin.

All we can do is pray, try to do the right things by one another, for the neighbor, for the community, etc.  Everyone has stresses and bad habits.  It would be better for all of us if we weren’t tempted into the bad habits, but it does happen every day.  BUT, after taking the wrong path following the wrong road, we need to remember to (1) Acknowledge that we did something wrong; (2) Be sorry for what we did wrong; (3) and confess/receive absolution.


This is the Grand Slam!!  You owe it to God, each other, and your babies to sit down and discuss this in a totally spiritual way (leaving all politics out). 

I worry about Edwards’s worrying about all of you, praying for all of you, and losing sleep over it because he can’t do anything about it.  I definitely know he (and I) would be very proud knowing that you were working this out and amending the civil marriage into a Christian marriage.

We would so love to attend the Baptism of Aidan and Elizabeth.  We would even be honored to be Best Man and Matron of Honor as well as Godparents.

What a lovely anniversary gift this would be.

We love all of you so much that we just cannot sit back and say/do nothing any more.  Spirituality is the most important part of your life.  It saddens us that young people today embrace the socialistic ways; thus, making their own rules, doing as they please, justifying that they are always right, and leaving God out of their lives.  Without God’s creations, we would not be here to even discuss this.

I pray that you repeat your vows and Baptize Aidan and Elizabeth.

PRAYER FOR TODAY AND EVERY DAY

May God Bless John, Jane, Aidan and Elizabeth.  Keep them safe from all harm and keep them healthy in the eyes of God.

Love, Mom and Dad

The Complisult

Dear DIL:
It's such a joy when you bring my darling grandchild over to visit! I must say I'm impressed with your mothering skills. For example, when you put her on my living room couch you sit there and never walk away and leave her there to roll off onto the floor. You are turning out to be a good mother!

Sounds about right

Dear MIL,

I got your nine voicemail messages. I am aware that we forgot your birthday. To be blunt, when you called me a stupid maniachal b**ch who took your son away from you on my birthday, I decided that I was no longer obligated to remember yours. I have had flowers sent to your work, and reminded your son to call you for the past 7 years. I will no longer be interfering in your relationship with your son. Your birthday, Mothers Day, and Christmas are now entirely up to him. Furthermore, I am blocking your number on my cell, and e-mail addresses.

DIL

Tock-Tock

Cousin-in-law,
I never got your RSVP card for our wedding. I know I got the invitation to the right address because I checked with MIL to make sure I had the right address because it is important to me that everyone is included. I'm assuming you had some sort of problem responding? But I'm sure there was a good reason why you couldn't respond in time and you weren't intending on being so rude. I was going to ask you and husband to be in charge of the gifts, but it doesn't seem like you have much interest in our special day. If you could- please, please, please let me know if you guys are coming and if your bringing the kids. i have seating arrangements and orders to finalize and the clock is tocking as I type. Just so you know if you bring the boys, they will need to eat off the kids menu and no alcohol as they are not yet adults in the eyes of the law. I will be sitting by the computer all day at work, so I will eagerly await your response.
Cousin-in-law

The Safety Net

We just bought our first house and are in the process of moving out of MIL's house. While living with MIL, she took it upon herself to charge my DH rent and also have him pay all of the utilities. Thanks MIL! Not!

Yesterday as I was moving stuff out, MIL told me that DH would still owe her for the utility bills that would be arriving next month, because after all, they were really for this month's usage.

Thanks MIL! What I don't get is why can't you just suck it up because we've got a whole other house's utilities to pay for!!!?!?!