Dear Heavenly Father

Dear Heavenly Father, My King, the Creator of all,

Thank you.

Thank you for Heather, BooMama and all the internets who have come together to forge a Christian sisterhood. A network of women to care for each other, pray for each other and support each other. For providing opportunities to unite our suffering with Yours. To help us help carry the burdens of others. To provide ministering to those in need. A chance to see the face of Jesus Christ in one of our own, right next to us or over the bloggy airwaves.

Thank you for the sun shining bright in the sky, warming the air in my face. I have longed for springtime all week. It has been long, cold, windy, rainy wait. But as usual, in your time and your wisdom, you have brought out the sun the day my sister is coming and that will make her happy.

Thank you that my sister is coming for the Weekend of Grace retreat. Thank you for telling Doug, her husband, that she needed to come and making it possible. Please bless her with graces and mercies and focus. I worried she may become distracted in a room full of (awesome) Catholic women. Please don't let the Catholicism overshadow the Christianity and the opportunity to spend some real, uninterrupted quality time with you. Please put women in her path who will encourage her, befriend her and love her.

Please be with our husbands and children as they survive the weekend without us. I ask for patience and enthusiasm for the husbands and cooperation and patience for the children. Bless their time together to know they are a family on their own.

Be with my Marly. It was a hard night last night.

Be with Virginia Tech. Please bless them with your peace. I am worried about the soul of that young man. His eternity may be a very long time.

Please bless all the internets. These amazing women and families who are living the lives you gave them. With their own struggles, victories, choices to make. How I long to touch all of them. To see their faces. They are all now a part of my personal framework and terms of reference. You have taught me so much through them. Most of all, that the world is a small place. That "geography" is just a word. That we can have relationships with people far away. That we can love them as you love us. That we can spread your love and your word. That we can witness, minister, support and laugh with people we may never meet. And it's just like they are in our own backyards.

Please keep everyone that I know and love, safe and sound. And grant them Your peace.

I love you.

In Jesus name I pray,

Amen.