JUST WHEN I NEEDED IT

I received a phone call from California on July 25. One of my grandsons had an accident and was in the hospital. I was asked if I could fly out on the next scheduled flight. I quickly packed a suitcase and was ready to go.

My head was not in the right place to write a Grace Moment story and I decided not to publish this week. As I was thinking this, I checked my e-mail and there was a Grace Moments story written by fellow parishioner, Susan Hamilton. WOW!!

I have requested people to share their Grace Moment stories with me for publication but until that moment, NO ONE has sent me one. I have had people share stories for me to write, but no one has written one ready to be published. JUST WHEN I NEEDED IT or .........................A GRACE MOMENT for a Grace Moment.

Susan wrote this while her young daughter, Julia was playing at her feet.

We moved here from Rochester the summer of 2005, since school was out, the children did not have the opportunity to make friends. I hadn't made friends either. We were having a particularly hard week, trying to get our furniture here and get unpacked. We were trying to find our way around.

I had a longing to spend some time with Jesus. The Church closest to us was shut up tight during the week. In our preparation to move here; I had heard about a Church about 15 minutes west of us. We still did not have an Internet connection for us to look up the address but we would take the chance of locating this Church.

I said a prayer to God and told him how much I needed to sit before his Tabernacle.

I loaded the three kids into the car and figured if God wanted me to find him, he'd lead me there. We got onto the main road and headed West. All was going well until the road ended and we had to go either right or left. I chose right. Just up the road, what did we find? A Catholic Church with it's doors wide open!

It was almost as if the Church was saying, "Welcome! you found us. We walked into the Church and down the main aisle. THERE WAS THE TABERNACLE.

We all sat, even the two year old and just enjoyed the peace, the quiet and the wonderful embrace of our Lord. Sitting there was enough to recharge our batteries. Even my oldest (13 at the time) said how refreshing it was to just sit and spend a few minutes with Jesus.

Our little visit told me that everything was going to be O.K.

Later that week, I met three wonderful Catholic women who lived in my neighborhood and had children in a similar age bracket. They welcomed us and called us. They helped us get to know the area.

What a wonderful gift from Heaven. HE IS GOOD.... We have to ask and we have to go where the Spirit leads us.

Thank you, Susan, for sharing this story.

I would like to add to this story.

I am a retired Realtor (my career path is very diversified, but I will speak from the Realtor years here)

Relocating is extremely difficult for families. In most cases, the husband settles in a new position and is very busy at work. His adjustment is much easier. The stay at home mother and children have a difficult adjustment. I spent many an hour after the house closing; helping families to adjust to their new surroundings. My shoulder was there to cry on if need be. There is also a fear of the unknown. Leaving familiar surroundings is difficult.

Most families make the adjustment, but some never do.

The ones who seem to make the best adjustment are those families of Faith. Susan and her family found a Church when they needed it. They talked to God and He heard them.

On a personal note:

Some people at our Church knew what was happening with me and included our family in their prayers.

Good new.....the crisis passed and it was not necessary for me to fly to California. I sincerely thank everyone who included our family in their prayers. We are not out of the woods yet but things are better.