No Consequences... GODsequences.

While Anna's arrival has been quick and unexpected, I can't help but feel at peace that she is here and on her way home to us, possibly this weekend. 

A colleague of mine wrote me this today: 

"We'll keep praying and my mom reminded me to pray to St. Ann, whose feast day was last Saturday. It's as if your little Anna wanted to be here for her patron's feast. That's what my mom thinks."

As I Googled 'St. Ann' to find out more about Mary, our Blessed Mother's own mother, I read to find that St. Ann is the patron saint of women in labor and difficult pregnancies. How beautiful this all was, and how much sense it made to me that perhaps the Lord Himself guided Manny and me to this beautiful name. 

It brought me back to another time in our life, when I first found out I was pregnant with Gabriel. I was taking a Natural Science Core Credit for senior graduation, and Manny had told me about Father Joe Yelence's class. The typical "he's a nice professor, good teacher, you'll like him..." Soon into the semester, Manny and me were pregnant. 

The day after I found out we were expecting quite unexpectedly and stress and worry flooded my soul, I continued going to class and what do you know, that day Father Joe started teaching on Human Sexuality and Reproduction. 

"Great," is what I thought. "What timing..." And not too happy about it. That day in class, Father Joe held up two slides of DNA and projected them onto the screen. "Slide A," he said, "is the DNA strand of a 45-year old married man and father of 3. Slide B, is the DNA of a 2-day old fertilized egg - a blastocyst - that hasn't even implanted into its mother's uterus."

The slides of DNA being exactly identical, he asks the class, "Which one do you kill?" The obvious alternative was no option; I was in love with Manny, in love with his strength, and would love this baby, whose everything from gender to how many hairs he would have on his head had already been determined. 

Two and a half years later, I saw Father Joe for the first time since that Fall semester, 2004. It was Spring 2007, and we were back in Steubenville visiting friends in the project-apartments where I used to live. He walked out of a neighbor's house and I felt a huge pull, almost physical, to approach Father Joe and tell him about that one class, and how I now had a 2-year old son and Manny and I had married. 

He listened intently as I stumbled through this somewhat strange moment. As I concluded, he was glad to hear we were doing okay. He asked me, "What is your son's name?"

"Gabriel."

His face froze, a smile crept across his lips. 

"'Gabriel' is my middle name."

It was one of the most powerful moments I have ever experienced, a true moment given to me by God. Father Joseph Gabriel Yelence thanked me for telling him about us, and said it was moments like this that reiterated his special place in this world as a priest. 

This week, I have experienced 'little moments' and my faith has been renewed. Once again.