John's Confirmation into the Catholic Church

Congratulations to our firstborn son John's Confirmation into the Catholic Church! We are so proud of this man who truly owns his faith and practices it independently.

As John is our firstborn, this was our first typical Confirmation: classes, studies, interview with the priest, planning a celebration, having a gift ready. The emotional feeling of the day was very different than Thomas's emergency Confirmation almost exactly one year ago which the Catholic Church allows when a child is in danger of death. Armed with a brand new cancer diagnosis, we parents cried our way through Thomas's Confirmation and I remember sitting in the parking lot afterward thinking "no party, no gift, this is so strange," and then an angel in the form of a girlfriend ran up to our car with a huge, overflowing bag of gifts she had purchased for Thomas "just because" (not knowing he would be Confirmed that day). God takes care of us.

During John's Confirmation Mass, Thomas whispered, "Mama, do you have any paper and a pen? I need to write what I see."