For those of you not on Facebook, I thought I’d share this moment from Facebook Memories with my girl in San Francisco.

On our way home from China in 2005, with our newly-adopted daughter in my arms, Mel and I stopped off in San Francisco for 24 hours to rest up before heading to New Orleans.

It was a gorgeous, cool day, and as we strolled through the bustling streets we stumbled across Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chinatown. I knelt down in front of the side altar with a statue of Mother Mary holding Jesus as a toddler, just as I was holding my 16-month-old Ceci. I cried tears of gratitude for God’s gracious goodness to me, finally granting me the gift of motherhood at the age of 38. At that moment I entrusted my daughter to Mother Mary’s perfect maternal intercession.

Seven years later we returned to San Francisco, and I found that beautiful church again. Ceci was now much too big for me to hold in my arms, but I told her the story of how I had given thanks to God for her in that very spot. We shared another special embrace as I thanked God again for the gift of my girl.

When Mel showed me the photo of that hug, I noticed the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe off to the right. I remembered having hung a banner just like that next to Ceci’s crib for the first 9 months she was with us while I spiritually placed her in Mary’s womb with Jesus. What a faithful Mother we have in Mary! 💕