A Shower of Roses

In the mail - A Shower of Roses!

Some time ago, Kimberlee over at "Pondered In My Heart" posted a beautiful writing on her blog featuring her sweet girls and a precious idea for including little ones in the family rosary, something akin to a Montessori style with tangible manipulation of exquisitely crocheted roses she lovingly created for them.

No doubt many emails poured in asking her to please (oh please!) make more and sell them to other families smitten and also thrilled with her idea. Kimberlee's blog is one of my favorites! Don't miss reading her original post if at all possible! You can view it by clicking HERE.

One day as I was sipping my early morning java, reading the newest blog posts within my google reader, there was a post from Kimberlee complete with a blog offering in gift form for an entire set of these same roses she had created especially for a blogging draw.

Not thinking too much of it after I entered, hopeful for sure, but also realistic with an attitude of what will be is meant to be, I was completely stunned to find out it was MY name drawn as the winner! Sitting froze in my seat in a form of denial, I called our younger children in to the room and asked them to view the winning name (me) to make sure I wasn't having old age vision issues.

Everyone got all excited! We had already planned to send them to our son and his family for their wee ones to use at home during their rosary times if we won. They would be the lucky recipients of this very exquisite and deeply moving box of items as shown in the photo above.

Though I have thanked Kimberlee already, the winning gift remained a secret of sorts because I was to send the package over to the westcoast before announcing. Our new grandbaby was born and at long last the package I sent had arrived. Along with other gifts for birthdays and Christmas, included inside was this wonderful box of "rosy" blessings.

A Rose Shower and they LOVE them!

Soon after the package had been mailed, our youngest daughter appealed to me announcing she too would love to have a set of these flowers of her own, even though she knew she was too old for the manipulatives, she would put them into her hopechest for her future. (IDEA light bulb alert!)

Fortunately, Kimberlee also placed a few links to directions for making the roses and I plan to dig into this further with a presentation to my mother in law to make more for our family. :) Oh mom.....

A story of a rose...
When our son became engaged to his fiancee, her parents actually had a huge preference for them to wait until their daughter completed her ACTC in piano, the final exams to a teaching degree before planning a wedding.

Torn between marriage and studies, and absolutely unbeknown to anyone else but her mother, our daughter in law decided to make a novena to St. Therese, requesting a sign to assist her over what to do. If a red rose were to come her way, it meant she would marry sooner than later. A yellow rose would mean waiting.

The week following (still unbeknown to all), our family impulsively went out for breakfast after mass one Sunday afternoon. When leaving the restaurant, our then 10 year old daughter found a pretty rose and baby's breath all bundled and wrapped up in pretty paper, intact, thrown in the garbage can near the elevator doors. She fetched it out and brought it home as the rest of us felt sorry for whoever it was that threw it there (?) .

When our son announced he was headed to his sweetheart's home for dinner, our younger daughter quite suddenly gave him the rose with instructions to give it to his fiancee, but he had to promise it was from him and not to mention where it came from.

As our son entered his fiancee's home, he had the flowers intact behind his back with a huge grin plastered across his face. As she was before him, teasing him about what could be behind his back, her mother was not far behind working in the kitchen.

With one swift and yet gentle motion, he swooped the flowers forefront only to hear huge gasps in surround sound about the room. He thought his future mother in law would about faint right then and there, and obvious surprise was on his fiancee's face. He had no idea what was going on but it didn't appear good to him! After all, he just simply presented his fiancee with a beautiful RED ROSE was all, and had no idea what all the fuss was about....

And so, as our daughter in law's prayer was answered with her red rose, and the scene unfolding before our son had come to light, both were married just a few months later on December 28th, the Feast of Holy Innocents, a lovely winter wedding during Christmastide.

Happy Anniversary!

I just love that story and every single time I see a red rose I remember the story with a huge grin on my face. Heartwarming...

Thank you Kimberlee for blessing our "Therese" and family with this lovely and prayerful package for our grandbabe younguns. God Bless YOU and your lovely family!