We went to Caritas on Saturday morning. Everything was so beautiful. The members of the community all live on this property and they make their own furniture, have a hay barn with rope swings, and a little school house where they school their children. They had a little gift shop too. The apparition on Saturday wasn't to be until 10:30pm so after lunch we all went back to the hotel and took a much needed nap. In the field where the apparition was to take place everyone sat on blankets and we prayed and meditated. We also prayed the Rosary in this field both days. It was so peaceful. The moon was so bright and beautiful! Almost as if to say it was waiting for the Blessed Mother and wanted to light her way! The only not so good thing that happened was that some fire ants thought poor Ellie was good for dinner. Her arm was all eaten up, but she healed quickly. I am thinking it's because babies don't produce the histamine like our bodies do so she wasn't itchy or anything.
We weren't able to take pictures at Caritas, but we made lots of memories. There was the tabernacle of Mary which was just beautiful! Ashley conquered her fear and climbed this very tall spiral staircase up to the roof of the building, I was so proud of her! The boys were very taken in by the beautiful St. Micheal statue and the reproduction of the Ark of the Covenant. There was also a little chapel with a marvelous crucifix in it.
Sunday the kids were tired, but they were good troupers. Poor Emily was the only one that was really out of sorts. She was so tired and it was so very hot! I think we all got a little dehydrated. Since we didn't get back to the hotel until close to midnight on Saturday and then to get up to go to 7:45am Mass you can imagine the tiredness we all felt. Again it was worth it. Sunday the kids played in the hay barn and made some new friends. They spent almost two hours taking turns on the rope swing. They would climb up high on the hay and then jump on the rope, swing a few times, and then fall into the big piles of hay. Who knew that could be so fun! Margie and Grandma listened to Marija's-pronounced Maria(the visionary) talk and she even answered questions. Me, well I enjoyed looking around in the school house. I think my chin my be chapped from drooling too much over their books and little school house. Ok just kidding, but it was still nice to visit. The Apparition on Sunday was to be at 6:45pm, but there was no way the kids were going to last that long, plus they needed baths because they were all sweaty and stinky. Meltdowns were happening due to over tiredness. So Margie, Grandma, and Nathan stayed behind at Caritas for the apparition while Joe and I took the other kids back to the hotel to start baths and bedtime. Then Joe went back to pick them up after.
Here is a link to Caritas for any who might want to know more, they have pictures and all kinds of very neat things, I highly suggest going and looking as you will be in awe. Medjugorje and one about Caritasitself
Monday we got up and headed for our return trip home. We were to stop in Hanceville to see the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament first. There was an accident or something so we got off the HWY and got something to eat and get a little lost. Thank goodness Ryan sent us with his GPS unit....it was a big help and I became very proficient at using it.
Now on our way to the shrine again we past a little store called Fatima Family. So we stopped there and it turns out it was Fr. Foxes bookstore. Some of you may know who he is. So much stuff I wanted there, but you'll be glad to know I contained myself. I did get the kids a cd set of the Lives of 90 saints. They love to listen to audio books and I thought this would make a good group Christmas gift for them.
After Fr. Foxes store we continued onto the Shrine. By this time we were way behind schedule so knew we would only have a few minutes in the gift shop and castle there. Although it was really a neat few minutes!
Here is the Castle and the gift shop is in it.
Inside the castle there were armor statues and a nice statue of St. Micheal and one of St. Joan of Arc as well.
Then of course the kids had to get in with the armor guys
They boys over by St. Micheal
Ashely and Natalie by St. Joan of Arc(although you can't see her real well)
Emily wasn't feeling very cooperative, but I did manage to get a semi-cute picture of her
Some more things that were inside the castle
A nice group shot of most of the kids(Ellie was sleeping in her carrier so she is missing from all the pictures here)
They have these long hallway type things outside. One of them has the stations of the cross and then at the end has a very powerful crucifix
We were able to go into the upper church for Eucharistic adoration. It was the most beautiful sanctuary I have ever seen. Every thing in gold. You could here the nuns singing and chanting. Oh it was beautiful. For obvious reasons we couldn't take pictures in the church.
And for those that might be interested in how Mother Angelica is doing we were able to talk to one of the soon to be seminarians there. He said she is doing well and still has her spunky spirit. She is pretty much bedridden now and doesn't speak much, but that her facial gestures still have her spunk in them. Someone had sent her a drum of sorts for her birthday and one of the nuns that was staying with her at that time was kidding with her and told her to play her drum. She just rolled her eyes and smiled as if to say "get out of here, your crazy" LOL This was passed on to use via the seminarian(soon to be).
So that pretty much summed up our trip. I will be forever thankful to Joe and Margie for letting us come along. It was a wonderful experience and if we have the opportunity to do it again next yr I would love to. Even though not everything went as planned it was worth every minute.
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