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Dec 5, 2016
Adoption

The Rose Garden Celebrates Adoption at A Baby’s Breath

It started with a prayer, followed by a signal grace, then a miracle.  Now it’s a new mission.

Here’s how, from my perspective, The Rose Garden Adoption Support Group began at A Baby’s Breath:

prayinghands.jpg

The Prayer

Have you ever heard of the Novena Rose Prayer?

It’s a simple prayer, in which a Christian asks St. Therese of Lisieux to pray for him or her and asks for a specific intention to be placed before the Lord.

My Novena Rose Prayer

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus,
please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens
and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus,
ask God to grant the favors I now place
with confidence in your hands . .

(Mention specific requests)

St. Therese, help me to always believe
as you did in God’s great love for me,
so that I might imitate your “Little Way” each day.

Amen.

In January of 2015 I prayed this novena to Saint Therese’ for two of my friends and for the intention that Matt and I would be blessed with another child.

rosenovenagrace.jpg

A Signal Grace?

Confession: I googled signal grace right before I wrote this.  I think it might have been a signal grace; but I’m really new to that concept . . .Here is what I believe may have been a signal grace:

On the eighth day of this novena Matt and I went to a surprise birthday party. It was held in a two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia. Almost immediately upon arriving I noticed roses everywhere.

There were vases and vases of rose bouquets. There was even a vase of roses in the bathroom. The tablecloth had roses on it, the cups had roses on them – literally everywhere you looked – roses. It was so overwhelming I actually started counting the roses in the vases (I’m the life of the party, I know). I stopped counting at 80.

Yes, eighty.

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The Miracle

A short while after (possibly a month), I sat down to write a letter to a local crisis pregnancy organization. This organization is called A Baby’s Breath and has five centers in driving distance from our home. A friend of mine suggested we send our adoption profiles to them . . . maybe they would know of a young woman considering adoption.

As I was writing the letter, I heard a friend request notification go off from my Facebook page. It was the President of the organization, Karen Patota – the very person I was writing a letter too! I had never met her. I didn’t even know her name until she sent that request.

Why was the President of ANY organization friend requesting me?  And the person who I just happened to be typing a letter too????  I accepted that friend request . . . then I inboxed her.  I wrote: “your not going to believe this, but I am typing a letter to you right now!”

Within a week, Karen invited Matt and I to speak about our desire to adopt at A Baby’s Breath’s leadership conference. Matt and I had plans that day, so at first I declined.  But after I declined I thought, this is an incredible gift and opportunity.  Matt and I talked, and we decided that he and our son, Xavier would go about the day as planned; but I would attend the Leadership Conference on our behalf.  As I sat at that conference waiting to speak, I learned that the patron of this organization is . . . St. Therese’ – the saint to whom I prayed the novena!!!

Since that time the President of A Baby’s Breath, Karen Patota,  and I have started an adoption support group. In honor of Saint Therese’, it is called The Rose Garden. Matt and I are still hoping and praying to be blessed with another child. But, it’s probably just a matter of God’s time.

therosegardenpic

A New Mission:

The Rose Garden is meant to provide four main services:

1.  A place of prayer and thanksgiving to Our Lord.

God created our families (or is in the process of creating our families) in a very unique way.  The Rose Garden is based on the belief that Our Lord chose us – and our children – to be a family.  Some of us need prayers in the hopes of finding our children, others need prayers for our children.  All families could use prayers – what an amazing gift to have a group of people praying for one another.

2.  The Rose Garden is a place to find support.

 As parents, we often need to discuss what is best for our children.  Our families our unique with possible open adoptions, some being multi-cultural and it would be a great help to our children to know they are not the only ones who are adopted.

3.  The Rose Garden is a way to not only support adoptive families, but also a way to let women know about the option of adoption.

 Any couple who actively participates in The Rose Garden, and has an up to date home study and participates in a blessing/prayer service can be displayed on A Baby’s Breath’s website, at no cost.  We all know how expensive adoption is – this is an incredibly unique and amazing opportunity.

4.  The Rose Garden is a local and national group.

 The local group meets together in Warminster, PA at one of A Baby’s Breath’s Centers.  The national group “meets” on Facebook where we request prayers for one another, update each other on our adoption journeys and provide resources to one another.
My hope for The Rose Garden is that one day it will also be a place for prayer and support of birthmothers – women who choose an adoption plan for their babies.

Are you considering adoption?  Are you on the road to adoption?  Have you already adopted?  If the answer to any of these questions is yes, and you would like to be a part of our prayer group, click here: The Rose Garden Group on Facebook

Not on Facebook, but want more information?  Email me, Amy, at [email protected]

Are you interested in learning more about A Baby’s Breath?  Click here to visit their website:A Baby’s Breath

Will you pray for all of us hoping to adopt?  Will you pray for women who are considering an adoption plan for their babies?  That would be so wonderful!  Please comment below if you will pray for us – it will bring so much hope! If you do, thank you!

God Bless You!

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Next Post: Five Ways to Embrace the Merry Over the Madness »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anni says

    December 5, 2016 at 7:40 am

    This is absolutely amazing!! Definitely planning to share this great resource!

    • Amy says

      December 5, 2016 at 7:58 am

      Thank you Anni!

  2. Kirby says

    December 5, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    This is so great Amy!! I’ve loved following your story. Obviously St. Therese is near and dear to my heart (we named our daughter after her) and will make sure to add the Rose Garden in my rosary intentions. <3

    • Amy says

      December 5, 2016 at 12:12 pm

      Thank you Kirby!

  3. Alicia says

    December 5, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    Thanks for sharing this! What a beautiful apostolate. 🙂

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You and I both know that the Rosary is not just fo You and I both know that the Rosary is not just for white haired Grandmas… but how do we convince our friends and loved ones to embrace this powerful prayer and meditation on the life of Our Lord Jesus?

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The first Prayer Wine Chocolate Retreat was held i The first Prayer Wine Chocolate Retreat was held in 2016.
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My husband Matt gives each of our children a bless My husband Matt gives each of our children a blessing before they go to bed at night.
I asked him if his parents did that … and he said, “no”.

He said that his father would bless him with holy water in church, so he was doing that with our son one day and the priest who said Mass saw him do it. The priest then told Matt, “you know, a parent blessing his or her child is one of the few blessings a lay person has the authority to give.” 

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Hi there!!!! I am so happy you are here and we ar Hi there!!!! 
I am so happy you are here and we are connected on “the gram”!

My name is Amy Brooks… and I started the Prayer Wine Chocolate blog with the intention to share how my husband and I grew our family through adoption-without signing up with an adoption agency.

I also wanted to create gift guides that had Catholic gifts on it.

I share this today because my word of the year is “laugh” and when I thought of posting a “Friday introduction “ I immediately recalled the saying:
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I realized that I had what @jenniferfulwiler would call a blue flame inside of me - writing.
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One of the greatest experiences in this journey has been meeting incredible people who love the Lord and who are truly kind and compassionate. It was through meeting @windhovering Jerry Windley-Doust that motivated me to write the Be Yourself Journals that our now published by @osvcatholicbooks . I also have been extremely blessed by the community of Catholic Social Media now known as @catholicsonline . If you are trying to evangelize or minister with the help of social media, I invite you to join us! 

I’m the oldest of 5. I asked my brother to give a speech at my wedding reception because I think he’s so funny that he truly could be a stand-up comedian. He ended up giving a speech so touching, I published part of it one boy’s Be Yourself Journal. He also cracked everybody at the wedding up 😂.

Somewhere in this group of pictures there is a picture of my parents. In that picture, my dad has his face painted. One of my siblings overheard him talking about him having this done as a “once in a lifetime experience “! 😂 He’s 72… apparently last weekend was his first opportunity to have this done.

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