Joseph Lee’s spiritual adoption

 

After the Good Friday service this afternoon, I was stopped by a sweet lady from our Church that is always so kind to me and in a very serious tone she told me “I have something to tell you.”  She was almost a little pale and I sensed there was something big coming and I was a little (ok, a lot) startled as I wondered in those seconds what she needed to say to me.  In those seconds as she gathered her thoughts, I was actually a bit nervous.

She began to ask me if I remembered going to a shower at a mutual friends’ house for a baby shower for our local pregnancy crisis center and I told her that I remembered.  It was actually a very difficult day for me.  She then asked me how many years ago was that and I thought about it and realized it was in 2009 and only a few months after we had to say good bye to Nicky.  Here is my post from that experience.  Well she began to ask me, “You were pregnant with Joseph then, were you?” I confirmed I was not and that we had just lost a baby a short time before that.  She then asked me “You were not in a good place at that shower were you?”  I confirmed that I was absolute mess in those days.  She then told me that she know that what she is going to reveal next sounds weird but that she just connected the dots and realized that with the baby she spiritually adopted she named him “Joseph Lee” and continues to pray for him daily.  I was immediately moved to tears, it was just another part of the puzzle in understanding just how many people God used to help bring us the biggest blessing of our lives.  This lady, Monica Andrus, and her Mom, Ms.Hazel, are beautiful women of God and I often see them about and ever since Joseph was born and they learned of his name they were always connected to him in a special way because Ms. Hazel told me that she had a son she named Joseph Lee and he passed away within a few hours of his birth.  Monica said this is why she originally chose to name her spiritually adopted child that name but that she now feels that God was leading her in a special mission for our little guy.  I completely believe that too. 

I often try to figure out what it was that was the secret to conceiving Joseph, having a healthy pregnancy, and a beautiful son to share our live with and it always comes down to just Grace.  Grace in getting the medical help I needed to help my body nurture life, help from the beautiful priest at the healing Mass, good advice to try often and not ever give up, and the countless prayers of many prayer warriors.  Today was extra special though in learning that another piece of that puzzle included God preparing the heart of Monica to pray for an unborn child, my unborn child, by name to the creator of life and see the fruit of that prayer every day. 

Truly, God is Good!  All the time.