Sts. Joachim & Anne Pray for Families Desiring Children

The journey of infertility and secondary infertility is a long and hard one. When my husband and I were married we really wanted to start a family right away and it was so discouraging that we could not get pregnant or stay pregnant. Finally, a couple years into our marriage we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl! Then ensued 3 years of secondary infertility. I am not sure which was worse the first round or the second round! So many mixed feeling about why did it happen before and it's not happening now, what's wrong with my body, why can't I do this! The stretch of infertility grew this third time around reaching nearly 4 years, but we are due in October with our first baby boy! We get the comments from people: wow you spaced that out great or perfectly. But no! That wasn't our choice! This ultimately reminds me that God is definitely in control and not us. When I was little about 12-13 years old,  I used to just pour over the old testament especially Proverbs and the Psalms and here is a verse that pops out so perfect for this and any other situation where we have all these ideas about how stuff is going to work out. “Many are the plans of the human heart,
but it is the decision of the LORD that endures.” -Proverbs 19:21

A perfect couple to turn to are the holy parents of our Blessed Mother Mary, Sts. Joachim and Anne! They were good God fearing people who deeply loved our Lord and prayed fervently for His will to be done. Back in their day it was shameful not to be able to have children and people even looked upon you like it was completely your fault and some side effect of personal sin if you were barren. What an awful trial to endure with such love and devotion to our Lord and people still scorned you just because of something not in your control! I can't even imagine.

Little is known or revealed about their lives, but they were finally granted in their very old age the blessing of a beautiful child, St. Mary who would become the Mother of God! One of my favorite books is titled the Mystical City of God by venerable Mary of Agreda a 17th century Spanish nun who this work was revealed to by Our Lady. It gives a wee bit of insight into the lives of these two great saints. You can find part of it in Audio and e-book for FREE at Mystical City of God.org Volume one (the Conception of Mary) contains quite a bit of information on the life of Sts. Anne & Joachim. Mostly how they lived in love for God and each other. It is a beautiful example that any married couple can follow and not just those suffering from infertility.

One of my favorite books and this was my grandmother's copy that she gave to me...

Sts. Joachim and Anne, lift up to our Lord the petitions of families desiring the blessing of children. You waited so patiently and long for an answer to your prayers, please ask for others suffering like you for the Grace to endure and accept God's decision in their lives. Amen

The Struggle is Real, but Rejoice in the Lord!

I doubt whether there are many perfect model mammas out there in the world. I certainly am not one of them, but if you are I am really happy for you and would hope maybe you could share some words of wisdom for the rest of us completely human ones! I strive and try my best to be that super mommy, but at the end of the day I still have laundry to do and maybe dishes too. I also have more than likely lost my cool a few times and get discouraged that after a great job cleaning my beautiful children have undone what took me a good while to accomplish in just minutes. At the end of the day we say our family prayers and I sink into bed asking Jesus to help me do a better job tomorrow!

All this week I wanted to get to daily Mass and it just didn't happen. I have one night owl todler that just wont sleep resulting in a real challenge to wake come morning, another older challenging one, and a baby on the way that is making getting things accomplished even more difficult. I am reminded by an old testament verse to rejoice because I serve a good and loving God! That wonderful God gave me my little blessings and when I look and see the simple joy in their smiling faces all the struggling and imperfection in my vocation melts away.

         "Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!”– Nehemiah 8:10

So if you feel the struggle is REAL too just remember that rejoicing in the Lord is our strength. A smile is contagious and so is a cheerful heart and even thru our struggles we can choose to be cheerful. Jesus came to show us the way and that way was paved with struggles. Don't beat yourself up if you are not the perfect super mom, because our Lord loves you and will carry you through your struggling imperfect day and even give you the all Grace you need to try and do better tomorrow!