My little girl, witness to the Gospel

Today is Isabella’s second birthday as Melanie notes here with accompanying pictures that drive home to me how quickly she changes and grows up. As a sort-of birthday tribute, Melanie has also posted a reflection on Bella and how she shows her budding faith, which was written by my father-in-law, who stayed with us for a couple of weeks after Sophia was born.

We are going for a walk and she runs to the door, whining with anxiety, wanting her coat and the stroller. I dress her warmly and place her in the stroller. We start down the busy street with many cars passing. We hear a siren that is getting louder. She turns in the stroller and says, “full of grace”. We stop and say a prayer for the person in distress. We are going to the large Catholic cemetery about 10 blocks away. When we reach the cemetery I take her from the stroller so she can “run, run”. After about 30 minutes of walking in the cemetery, I hear a car approaching and yell to her that a car is approaching. She quickly moves from the street to the grass and patiently waits for the car to pass. Then I tell her the car is gone and we proceed on our walk. The car stops a short distance in front of us and a woman gets out and walks to a grave covered with a large mound of flowers. She is almost prostrate on the grave, obviously full of grief. As we approach close to that grave the little girl turns to me and says, “full of grace”. We stop and pray with the lady full of grief.

That’s my little girl, a blessing and a joy every day of her life.