Orthodox Pen Pals

If you have a child who would like to have a fellow Orthodox child as a pen pal, visit Sylvia over at Adventures of an Orthodox Mom. You can get the details and sign up here. Sign up by February 21st.

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

I wish everyone a Blessed Advent Season! I have spent the last hour and a half wrapping books (see my previous post) and dragging out my indoor decorations from the attic. I was hopeful that tonight and tomorrow were going to be relaxed with tree and house decorating, but that's not the case! We usually put our tree up after the kids go to bed, and then spend the next day decorating the tree and house. Tonight, however, my husband and I have to attend a clergy/parish council dinner with our Diocesan Bishop. We have promised each other to leave early and get the tree up tonight! Tomorrow my two oldest have their final soccer games and parties. We also have Vespers and a parish-wide dinner with our Bishop. So I'm guessing that decorating will not get very far tomorrow. I'm hoping we can get in a couple hours tomorrow afternoon, and finish up Sunday afternoon. We don't decorate the outside of our house until after Thanksgiving (which we are hosting this year!!)

Though it sounds stressful, I am really VERY excited about tomorrow! I can't wait to light that first candle tomorrow night!

We wore St. Helen out!

I love being in a multi-generational Orthodox family. This is a rare thing in the part of the country I live in, where most of "us" are converts to the faith. I happen to have parents who converted to Orthodoxy when I was a few months old, and my husband is "cradle" and has honestly never been inside any church except an Orthodox Church ever!!

I digress...there's a point to this. This past week has been very stressful. My youngest has been battling an awful urinary tract infection. She has a chronic problem that was diagnosed at 2 months, and because of that she's been on preventative antibiotics for over a year. Unfortunately, the antibiotics weren't enough to stop an infection this week, and she was VERY ill.

On Sunday night, her fever spiked so high she was shaking, which freaked me out. My husband was holding her, quietly mumbling prayers into her ear. My older two were surrounding him, my oldest crying, trying to say the prayers with him. At that point, I was pacing, pleading St. Helen, her patron, for help and intercessions. My parents had come over, in case we had to take her to the ER, and they were silently praying as well. As the night went on, her fever actually came down. My mother-in-law called and said she'd be praying for her during the night.

I am so thankful to be surrounded by family of the same faith! We all came together in common prayer. I know St. Helen is interceding on her behalf. God has truly granted healing mercies. The next morning my Mom called to check on the baby. As we said ended our call, she stated something that summed it all up. She said, "We sure wore St. Helen out last night!"

The One Thing Needful

I am constantly in search of "the one thing needful": as an Orthodox Christian, a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend. Sometimes I feel like I'm under a pinata. One of the new-fangled ones with all the strings. Which one should I pull?

I struggle daily with this, and sometimes feel like I'm running after my own tail. I often beat myself up at the end of the day, regretting all the distractions that I let take over my life. I find myself running around, doing the things I feel are important, but all too often forgetting The One Thing Needful.

Colette Jonopulos writes "As women we have so many responsibilities. It seems our time is not our own. With our homes, families, churches, and jobs we are constantly trying to accomplish more than seems humanly possible...It is easy to convince ourselves that we don't have the time to devote our spiritual life, but that is where the paradox lies. We must attend first to that unseen life, then we will be better able to organize the material areas of our lives." (The One Thing Needful: Meditations for the Busy Orthodox Woman)

This is my daily struggle. I am trying my best to put God first in my life, but find that I am often more like Martha than Mary. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." (Luke 10:41)

So today, I may pull the wrong string on the pinata. I can only pray that I'll eventually find the string that opens the door!