Our Lady

I don't know about you, but I always find myself pondering the heart of Mary, our Blessed Mother, at Christmas time. There are about a thousand other occasions on which such meditation would be due, but especially now, as the birth of the Savior approaches, and as I await the birth of my child, She is constantly on my mind.

I was listening to a talk given by a priest the other day who said that "the church should be Mary". Maybe I am a little slow, but I really didn't understand what he was getting at, until he went on to say that Mary is the blueprint for the bride of Christ. She was chosen to bear the Son of God...in her body. Can you even imagine?? Her "yes", her fiat was so complete that the Holy Spirit conceived the life of God inside of her. This is exactly what we, as Christians are called to. That's what The Body of Christ is called to do.

Most of us have probably read this scripture time and time again, but honestly, it's the Word of God...it is never going to get old. :) This is after the angel Gabriel has announced to Mary that she will give birth to the Christ child. She replies, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me as you have said". (Keep in mind this calling that God has given would be intense public humilitation for a young, unmarried girl. It could have even resulted in her execution.) Mary then travels to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, and little baby John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth's womb upon hearing Mary's voice...he already knows that she bears the life of God within her.

And yet, this is her response to God. What is mine? This is Mary's song. This is our song.

Luke 1:46-55

46And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord

47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,

49for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.

50His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

Messianic Prophesies

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Jeremiah 33:14-16

14 " 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
15 " 'In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.'

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Coming

Well, friends, once again it has been too long since my last post! Amid all the craziness of the season, we have had a lot of changes in our household. I am excited to share with you about what has been going on with the Pometto fam!



1.

That's right!! We are excited to announce (for those who haven't already heard) that we are expecting baby #2 in early June! We feel so blessed to be welcoming a new addition to our family. Roman is starting to understand that he is going to be a brother - when you ask him where the baby is, he points to my stomach. Also, sometimes to Joe's stomach, so we are still working on that! :) I have been feeling pretty good, mostly tired, but that is starting to get better as I near the end of the first trimester. If anyone has any name ideas, let us know - Joe and I can't agree on any so far!

2. We bought a house! For those of you who didn't know, Joe's parents moved to South Carolina a few months ago. Remember this disappointing event in our house hunt? About 2 weeks after that particular incident, Joe's parents offered to sell us their house - and gave us a great deal! Who could refuse? It's fantastic!!! 5 bedrooms and 3 bath, 2 car garage, plenty of space for Roman to run amok, and the perfect home for our growing family! We have actually already moved in. Joe likes to do things as quickly as possible, so we had about a two week window between buying and being completely moved in. We have painted the kitchen, living room, playroom, and our bedroom already. We are LOVING it. You'll have to come see all the fun things we have done. I will try to post some pictures one of these days too...but with my track record, you may not want to count on that. :)

3. Other fun random pictures that I have to share of various events over the last couple of months:Roman and Adam reading The Foot BookRoman playing in the leavesFalling asleep at lunch

Me with my nephew, Carter. He got to come stay with us for a couple of days while Jim and Chelsey were in Chicago for the election. We had so much fun with him. What a sweet little boy!Roman "reading" Love you Forever to Carter...he even sang him the song. So sweet!Roman really wanted to teach Carter how to give high fives. Probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen.Roman giving Carter a kiss. He did such a good job with him and it really made me excited for our new baby to arrive!! Also, when Carter was crying at our Thanksgiving Roman said "Don't be sad, Carter". So precious!!

What a buddy. He loves his uncle Joe.

Roman as a clown for Halloween. He loved it!! He even learned to say "trick or treat". I think his favorite part of Halloween/fall is pumpkins. That is, "pu-kins". I am telling you he has some crazy pumpkin radar. He could spot one from miles away.

4. We are really excited to begin the journey of Advent!

Isaiah 11:1

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Advent means "coming", and Joe and I were reflecting the other day on how often we really stop during Advent to contemplate what is means that Christ really came to us. How frequently do we ponder the fact that he really is coming again. Sure, we know those things, but we have not stopped enough to really consider the implications of these realities. As we talked about how we have been lacking in this area, we started discussing the fact that, now that we have children, we are going to have to work even harder at this. So often, Joe and I have talked about the weight that we feel for teaching our children. What a calling! How will we share the gospel with them, as early as possible, in such a way that they will understand and come to love and serve Christ? How will we celebrate Advent and Christmas in such a way that they will understand that the season is about the birth of our Lord and not about the "hype" of gifts and Santa and (as good as they are) family gatherings? None of those things are the point. And we want to make that clear. Roman is probably still a little bit too young to grasp this, but this year he will understand more than he did last year. And next year, it will become crucial. By next Christmas we will have another child to share the message with! So exciting! So much responsibility! Please be praying for us - to have wisdom in living out this call!

Proverbs 22:6

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.

I imagine that will be enough to overwhelm you for now!! I am exited to see some of you more over the Christmas holiday. Please let us know how we can be praying for you during your Advent journey!

God With Us

So, I am chaperoning a confirmation retreat for our 10th graders at St. C's this weekend. I always love retreats and I am super excited to see how God will work in the lives of these students. We are expecting 50 kids, so please be praying for a fruitful weekend and many hearts changed for Christ!

We have a handful of upperclassmen coming along to help with the retreat - giving testimonies and helping lead small group discussion, etc. We got to hear some of their witness talks tonight and I was BLOWN AWAY. They were so refreshing and insightful and really made me excited about the weekend. Of course, I was pretty emotional about them...hopefully the 10th graders won't think I'm crazy/having some kind of breakdown during the talks. :)

One of the girls has suffered an incredible amount of loss in her 16 years, and was so humble in sharing with us today. I was so proud of her. This was some of the scripture she shared with us along with her testimony (from Psalm 22):

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, and am not silent.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the praise of Israel. [a]
4 In you our fathers put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by men and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD;

let the LORD rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him."
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you

even at my mother's breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon you;

from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

On my drive home, I was thinking about these students and praying for their testimonies and the souls of everyone who will be at the retreat this weekend. I was looking at the moon - which, right now, is the waning phase - you can only see a little over half of it. When I first looked at it, I thought "it looks like it has been torn". That's stupid, I thought. I took astronomy, I know about the lunar phases...of course it's not "torn" or "broken" - but then I felt the urge to go a little further with the thought, even though it seemed silly at first.

Okay, God. Show me what you mean.

The moon (depending on the phase or clouds or shadows) sometimes looks broken. It looks torn, it looks...incomplete. We know that, in reality, it is not. The moon is whole, but we cannot always see it in it's entirety. There are clouds, shadows, circumstances blocking the reflection of the sun's light. This is God's design.

Sound familiar? We think "my life is broken/torn/incomplete". It is not.

This is God's design.

Most of the time we can only see part of the big picture. No matter how dark or confusing or painful, sometimes this is precisely because God wants to reveal the whole picture...and, the whole picture...breathtaking.

Lest They Be Forgotten...

Roman waiting to meet Uncle Jim for the first time

Jim holding Roman for the first time - Roman 6 weeks old

Jim in Iraq

In honor of Veteran's day, I made a few "thank-you" phone calls and I took some time to go back through some of the e-mails that I got from my brother while he was in Iraq. Jim left for training in October of 2005. The HHC 1-133 batallion deployed to Iraq in April of 2006. They returned home, minus two of their soldiers, in July 2007. That is 15 months in Iraq...a long LONG time for those men and for the people awaiting their return. To him, and to us, his family at home, this means that he missed the following occasions:

• Every holiday that year except Christmas
  
• Our wedding (he was supposed to walk me down the aisle)
  
• My college graduation
• Many friends' weddings
• Chelsey's college graduation
• Fun times and relaxation with friends
• The purchase of he and Chelsey's first home
  
• My whole pregnancy
  
• The birth of his first nephew, Roman

These, of course, were events that he very much wanted to be here for. I am sure I am overlooking countless others that he would add to this list. But, the point is, we missed that time with him, and missed that time with us - a whole year. He was so brave and so strong about the whole thing...especially having to deal with their deployment extension. Chelsey was such a rock for him during that time, and I can't imagine someone else would have handled it with any more grace than she did. She is amazing.

Even more than remembering all the things he missed out on, and reading all the letters he sent home, today I realized (again) that these were the most minimal sacrifices he made during those 15 months. He gave up so much more than these events, these comforts...he watched people struggle, watched friends die, watched great tragedy day after day. I am sure he witnessed some miracles along the way, some things that made it seem worthwhile, but I don't want us to forget the amount of love these men have for their country, for our freedom.

I know it has been easier for me to dismiss the war since he has been home. It has been easier to not include those men and women over seas in my prayers. But we need to REMEMBER what they saw - good and bad - and THANK them for their willingness to fight for us.

Thank you, Jim! You are my hero.

Thank you, all veterans. Without you, I know that I would not enjoy the life I do.

God bless all soldiers and their families...especially the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice. You are NOT forgotten.

Times are a Changin

Well, friends, as I am sure you gathered from my previous post, I was not one of the millions that voted for President-Elect Barak Obama. I still stand very much in disagreement on many issues and I still wonder if these "changes" will all be for the best.

But here is the hope in which I trust. God is bigger. Both candidates were human. Both are men who have and who will fail. Both are men who would have made some good and some bad decisions as leaders of this country. You see, the results of yesterday's election do not change what good God has in store for us.

I will admit, that I am not overly excited about Obama being president. I have some very serious concerns about what he will chose to act on during his term or terms. I especially fear for the right to life....from womb to natural death. I fear for the sancity of marriage. I fear for the family. But, I have this one hope...Jesus still wins.

Jesus is in control, and CHANGE needs to happen in peoples' hearts before it can ever happen in our nation's laws. Clearly, we are not ready for those changes. So, from here, we pray. We pray for changes to begin in homes and in individuals. We pray that people's hearts will be softened to hear their Creator reveal to them what He really desires for their lives. We pray for our president-elect to make wise choices and to be a man of prayer himself. We pray that a passion for Christ will be nurtured in his family.

I was so impressed with both speeches last night, McCain and Obama both gave fantastic messages to our country. McCain one of support for the president-elect and continued decication to the United States. Obama one that made us all stop and recall how far we have come. It does give hope when we look back on our history and see what we have really accomplished. Good or bad, this is our history; this is our future.

And so we pray, and we rest in the fact that we know how the story ends.

Just Tell Us The Truth...

This makes everything crystal clear for me.

The House Hunt Continues

Well, hello friends! I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post! Things have been hectic in the Pometto household, but for good reason!

We have been looking for houses, and are hoping to buy within the next couple of months. We are blessed to have amazing landlords right now that have agreed to work with us by allowing us to sign a month-by-month lease until we find something! They are fantastic.

Anyway, we thought we had found our "perfect" house. It was in a cute little neighborhood in Ames - brick, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, unfinished basement - seemed perfect. We had agreed that it was a little over priced the first time we looked at it, but last week they dropped their price by $10,000! We went back to look again, and over the weekend decided that we would put an offer in on Monday.

We made an appointment with our realtor (who is so wonderful!) so she could show us a few other houses, and then we could look at this house last - one more time - before submitting our offer. Well, we looked at about 7 other houses and each one seemed to confirm that we were making the right decision with this house that we had decided on.

We pulled onto the street and were anxious to get inside "our" house again. We pulled up to the driveway...and the disappointment set in. "SALE PENDING". What? How could this happen? This is our house!

Our realtor quickly looked online and it hadn't even been posted as pending on her MLS yet - so it had to have just been accepted.

We were so sad. We have been kind of moping about it since then, which is silly, because, although it was discouraging, we know that God has a plan.

I just told my youth group kids the other night that we often get so wrapped up in our circumstances that we forget to see how God is working in a situation. There will be something better. Jesus, we trust in you.

Obama and the Freedom of Choice Act

http://www.sarahsignature.com/blog/?p=1362

I think everyone should check out my friends' blog (Chris and Sarah). Chris wrote this particular entry and included some youtube video on the topic. It's definitely worth your time to see what Senator Obama is "promising" America.

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, Ryan, Kathleen, Joe, Roman, and I went to the Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge. I was amazed at how many things they had to offer families! What a fun outing with good friends. :)

Also, to give you a little Roman update, these are his latest words and phrases - which you really have to hear in person to get the full effect. He is so funny!

• That's amazing!
• Rock-a-baby (for "rock-a-by-baby")
• Sit down
• Shut the door
• c'mere (come here)
• want some milk
• ok! (this is often a very dramatic word, ie. OOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKK!)
• read
• his current default color is "white". This could be referring to Kim's hair color or a frog.
• too many others to name!

I hope this finds you all enjoying the beautiful fall weather! We are loving it!
God bless you!