Raise your hand if you're a fan of Barbara Curtis, of mommylife.net, of Teach Me! and several more great "Mommy" books, of wit and wisdom and grace. Raise your hand if Barbara has mentored you, made you think, inspired you. Great. Everyone has her hand up except that one lady in the back there who doesn't know her yet. Let me tell her about Barbara Curtis: Barbara is a megamommy--she has twelve children. Her life story reads like the most uplifting novel no one could ever make up. After giving birth to nine babies, she adopted three more. Her four youngest sons all have Down Syndrome. Barbara is warm and witty and kind and she has given and given of herself to this online community. Barbara recently returned to the Catholic Church and her husband converted last Easter. This will be the first Christmas that they are a Catholic family.
But making merry will be a little tricky for the Curtis family for the next several months. Barbara's husband Tripp is in the hospital with a serious infection following knee replacement surgery. They have already removed the replacement and will need to scour the area and treat with antibiotics for several weeks. Then, they'll try to replace the replacement. It's going to be a long process.Tripp may lose his knee entirely. He may lose his leg. Needless to say, your prayers are precious to this family.
Catholics are very, very good prayer warriors and I know Barbara will learn that in the next few months. She'll also learn something else, something I've been blessed to both witness and receive over the past ten years. If a Catholic woman can at all do a corporal work of mercy, she won't let distance stop her. Personally, in the past two months, I've received entire birthday parties and nature walks in boxes from afar.There's still an All Saints Day celebration wiating in a box with my my name on it. I've had friends chip in for Dinner Done!--thereby making it possible for women in Alabama and Florida to offer meals to my family. I've received countless encouraging emails and phone calls, cheery packages with notepads or beautiful teacups that just seemed to find their way to me on the day I needed them most. I know what this community can do and I am begging you to show Barbara.
Barbara is new to Virginia and new to the Church. She is my neighbor; we live on opposite sides of the county, but as she's noted, I know people ;-). We've got some local notions in motion.
I know there's more though. I know that someone out there in blogville can box up St. Nicholas day for Barbara's children. Someone else is already thinking about how Catholics decorate for advent and Christmas. And someone else is going to understand the practical needs of a large family when dad is sidelined with a longterm disability. We're talking about mailing Costco cards or Target cards or Walmart cards--those stores are local. And if Barbara needs someone to help her shop with the cards, we've got some local ladies ready to do that, too.
I'm here at my computer with my baby draped over my chest. I figure I'll go out to visit the Curtis family in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm sitting here, waiting for you to email. I've got Barbara's address; you let me know what you want to send their way, so we don't overlap. Let's show the Curtis family just how universal the Catholic Church is and just how much we love those who have come home for Christmas!