Going to Costa Rica...

We have been communicating with Bishop José Manuel Garita Herrera. He has indeed invited our family to his diocese in Costa Rica to do mission work. We told him that we would be committing to one year with the possibility of staying longer. We also told him we could be there as early as the beginning of May. He is going to meet with the Episcopal Vicar of Evangelization and our friend Pablo to arrange where we would be staying and to prepare some details for our arrival and mission. So even though we don't know WHEN we will be going yet we do know we WILL be going. Please pray for our family as we prepare for this new mission post. Please join us in prayer as we pray for:

adequate housing and transportation

the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of the people we will be working with

our hearts to be ready to serve the Lord in whatever way He is asking

safe travels to Costa Rica

all documents (passports and visas)

God to provide all that we need for this mission post

and all our benefactors, families and friends who we will miss and love so much!

All on Gods Time (Costa Rica Update)

We finally spoke with our friend Pablo over the phone, from Costa Rica, last week! We first met Pablo during Intake in 2013. He came to FMC to learn more about Catholic Family Missionaries. When we felt called to Costa Rica last year we contacted Pablo by e-mail.  He responded back with tears of joy and told us that he has been praying for over a year that God would send missionaries to Costa Rica.  After e-mails we were able to talk over the phone and ask him to bring our letter to the local Bishop to introduce our family and FMC. Pablo said that he would be honored to bring our letter to the Bishop, and just 3 days later he had a meeting set up.  Here is the e-mail we received from him the very day he met with the Bishop (just last week):

Dear family:
  Our sharing with the bishop was great, glory to God. 
       He is very interested and told us he needs some time to pray and to see where will be the best options for the diocese and the necessities they have.  I told him about my experience last December (2013) with FMC and the Summers family. 
       He was very impressed seeing how lay Catholics are donating their love and time for God's Kingdom. He will call me back as soon as possible about his answer.
                                                                           Love Pablo.

The Diocese is located in the provencia Alujuela, capitol San Carlos. The diocesan website is:

 http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/ciud6.htm 

Near the bottom central of the map, you will find Quesada (Cuidad Quesada).

We are excited and hopeful for what lay ahead for our family. We don't know how long it will be until we find out more. We will continue to wait on the Lord and his timing. Please continue to pray for our family and for Bishop Jose Manuel Garita Herrera as he discerns our family's possible mission post. 

Here Bishop Jose Manuel Garita Herrera is pictured with Pope Francis!

www.iglesiacr.org/2014/pastores-servidores,-humildes,-reflejos-de-jesus.html

A Big Thank You to All of Our Benefactors and an update

Sorry it has been so long since we have written! It is amazing how easy it is to get busy with life here. We wanted to say again how thankful to all of you who have prayed and donated to our mission. We wouldn't be able to do what we did without you! Here is a quick video put together by FMC to help us say thank you to YOU and shows you all the great things FMC did in 2014!

2014 Thank You video

If you haven't seen it yet look below for our most recent newsletter. Scroll down for update.

We write to you today with exciting news. We welcomed our baby Gabriel Elijah on October 4th! He weighed 8 Ibs. 9 oz. and was 21 ½ inches long. His birth was an answer to several prayers.  We prayed that he would be born before he got too big (Felicity was 9 Ibs. 15 oz. and was a difficult birth). Blair was only in hard labor for less then an hour and we were able to have him with no complications at the Birthing Center in Yoder, KS. We are adjusting as a family to this new little blessing. His four big sisters love to help by holding him whenever they get a chance. 

We wanted to write this newsletter to you to tell you what we have been up to since leaving the Philippines in July (in addition to having a baby). The last time we wrote we shared with you that we had discerned to return to the United States to have our baby. It was beautiful to see the support we received that allowed us to return to the U.S. in early July. God really provided for us once again! It was a smooth flight and a very easy travel experience for the whole family. Surprisingly we had very little jet lag from the 26 hour trip and no one got sick. Praise the Lord! 

Road trip to CA!

Grace enjoying the ocean in San Diego.

We returned to Big Woods first for a week to rest and pray. Then we traveled back to Wichita to stay with Donovan's parents and visit with friends and family. We were invited to Dodge City, KS to speak to the K-8th graders at Sacred Heart Cathedral School about missions. In August we were able to drive back to San Diego to visit Blair's family and our friends. We had the opportunity to share about our mission experience by writing an article for our old parishes newsletter. We were also able to share our stories personally with people one-on-one. 

Enjoying friends at our old Parish in San Diego.

Felicity's friend Mary Grace.

We returned to Wichita in September to await our baby's birth. God blessed us again with a job offer for Donovan at the YMCA where he is currently working and transitioning into a full-time position. A wonderful Catholic family from Wichita is renting their house to us allowing us our own place as a family. God is so good! 

After returning from the mission field we receive our family stipend for three months. After that we are responsible for providing our own income and our donations stay in our mission account. Your donation continues to help us by providing money for our next mission (travel expenses, living expenses, Alms). Just as our stipend was ending Donovan was able to find a job and we moved into our rental house (just three days before Gabriel was born!). Friends and family helped provide furniture, bedding and necessities for the house. Again God provided for our needs! 

Gabriel's amazing God parents Mike & Kelly.

We continue to pray and discern where God is calling us in missions next. We see our time here in Wichita as a temporary time of adjusting to an addition to our family and being missionary where we are. We recently spoke to the PSR classes at Christ the King about missions. It has been more challenging to find ways to serve and evangelize in the U.S. We recently started meeting with other families who support missions in our diocese. We gather to share a meal, pray together, have fellowship, and support each other in being more missionary. We also will be starting a Lord's Day meal like we did at Big Woods and as a community in the Philippines. The Lord's Day meal is celebrated together with other families on a Saturday evening. We share a meal, pray the Lord's Day prayer, and share personal reflections on a short scripture verse. 

We have a few special prayer requests. Our friends and fellow missionary family the Keihls suffered a great loss recently when their 18 month old son Ezekiel passed away. We ask that you pray for their family in this most difficult time. Our friend Christine from Malaybalay died after surgery to remove a hernia. Please pray for her and her family. Lastly, our mission partners in the Philippines, the Seilhan family needs prayers for strength in their ministry. Melissa is pregnant and on bed rest while her husband and children help with all the ministry. UPDATE: Melissa Seilhan and her family are back in the U.S. to have the baby and are in the process of adopting Joshua from the Philippines. Read more about their amazing story HERE. Please remember these dear people in your prayers and offer up a sacrifice for them. 

Thank you again for your continued support and prayers! We ask that you continue to pray for our family and our discernment of our next mission. Please know that we continue to pray for you and your family. 

In the Peace of Christ, 

Donovan, Blair, Hannah, Catherine, Grace, Felicity & Baby Gabriel 

A Gabe selfie from today!

As of now we are pursuing Costa Rica as our next mission post God-willing. We have a contact there and hope to contact the local Bishop soon. We have been praying since our call back to the U.S. about whether God wanted us to return to the Philippines. We feel that He is possibly calling us to Costa Rica and so we will pursue it as long as He keeps that door open. We ask that you pray that we would know and do God's will. 

Our friends the Romeros returned to the Philippines with three other families from our newest Intake. Read more about them HERE.  We miss all of our friends in the Philippines so much but we also look forward in hope of the new things that God has planned for us.

God Bless you all and your families! 

Bailey Mission Talk January 31st in Wichita!

In case you missed the first one we are doing it again! All are welcome to join us Saturday, January 31st, in the St. Jude Parish Hall, at 5:30 (after the 4:30 pm Mass) for the Bailey Family Mission Night. Enjoy appetizers and listen to our family share our experiences of our mission in the Philippines including stories and pictures. 

You're Invited Wednesday Night December 10th!!!

Please join us Wednesday, December 10th, in the St. Jude Parish Hall, Wichita, KS, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm for the Bailey Family Mission Dessert Night!!! Enjoy a buffet of desserts while we share our experience of our mission in the Philippines including stories and pictures. 

St. Francis Pray for Us!

I have been thinking about writing this blog since our sweet baby Gabriel Elijah was born. I have been reflecting on this past year, our call to missions, our time in the Philippines and our time here. Even before we said yes to becoming missionaries God did a lot of work on us and our hearts to prepare us to say yes to him.

Our family in 2013 shortly before hearing God's call to missions.

Last year in May I traveled to Italy with my mom. (My amazing husband stayed home with our girls while I was gone for two weeks with my mom.) We stayed in Florence, Assisi and Rome. For both of us Assisi was our favorite place. It was quiet, beautiful, peaceful and more what we expected our experience of Italy would be. I remember being so moved by St. Francis and St. Claire. Visiting the places where they lived and prayed had such an impact on me. It was on this trip that I found out I was pregnant with our fifth child. I was very excited and couldn't wait to share this news with Donovan. For some reason we didn't tell the girls right away (which we normally do).

In front of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

Enjoying lunch and a view from Assisi.

A statue of St. Francis in a simple church in Assisi.

A few weeks after returning from my trip I started spotting. This had never happened before in any previous pregnancies and I was worried. It took the course of about a week and it was confirmed that I had miscarried the baby at about 7 weeks. We told the girls what had happened. It's hard to explain what a mother feels when she loses her baby. It was a very difficult time for me. We decided to name the baby, and because of the huge impact St. Francis had on me during my trip, we choose the name Francis Claire.

In our prayers we began to ask Francis Claire to pray for us and our intentions. At this point it was the end of summer and we had been struggling as a family. We were praying for God to show us where he wanted us. We were praying that we would know our mission in life. Donovan was looking for a job but nothing was being offered; we lost our baby; money was tight and we weren't sure what we were going to do. I know that through all of this God had a plan for us. I believe that because of the influence of St. Francis and his witness of loving God in a radical way I was able to say yes to God's call to be a missionary.

Saying Yes to the Lord! 

We went to Louisiana for training and continued to ask St. Francis and Francis Claire to pray for us. We found out we would be going to the Philippines and prepared to leave all that we knew.  We arrived in the Philippines and one week later found out we were expecting our 6^th child! God's timing is not always my timing or what I expect. After the miscarriage I had a fear that I wouldn't be able to have anymore children. We were open to new life and waited. We laughed at God's timing. We realized what a beautiful gift He had given to us. I spent my first mission being nauseous 24 hours a day for the first 3 months. It was quite a difficult transition into a new culture of new food and new smells while also feeling like throwing up every second of the day. Many of those first weeks/months I would do ministry then come home and lay in bed. I had a lot I could offer up in prayer and a lot to ask Francis Claire to pray for.

After our 30 hour flights we arrived in the Philippines.

At our house in Malaybalay (wearing my nauseous bands).

We discerned returning home to have the baby and then prayed that God would make a way for us. In order to leave on the airplane from the Philippines I had to have a doctor do a sonogram and sign a paper stating it was safe for me to fly. We went in for our sonogram less than a week before we left. The plan was to be surprised about the baby's sex when he or she was born. But as we looked at our sweet little baby on that monitor I really wanted to know. Donovan still wanted to be surprised but he said if I really wanted to know then it was ok with him. I told the doctor doing the sonogram. “It's a girl right?” I had already convinced myself that this baby was a girl and Felicity was always talking about her baby sister. “No,” the doctor replied. “What!” I said. “Show me.” I didn't believe her. We have four girls and I just thought, of course, it's another girl. That's what we do, we make girls. Well I saw the proof right there on the monitor and spent the rest of the day (or maybe week) in shock. I was very excited, but yet very surprised that I was finally having a baby boy. When Hannah (our first child) was a baby in the womb we picked out a boy name and a girl name before finding out she was a girl. The name we chose was Gabriel Elijah (partly after the angel Gabriel and partly after my cousin Gabriel who died when I was 17). Well, it took another 11 years, but now we have our Gabriel.

As we got closer to having Gabriel I started to get nervous about the labor. My last baby, Felicity, was 9 pounds 15 ounces (and each baby was bigger than the last)! Her labor was difficult and I had a small fear that Gabriel would be bigger than her. Three of my four girls were born 9 to 11 days overdue (except Catherine who came out 9 days early). I knew that the longer he stayed in the bigger he would get. I gave these fears to God in prayer and tried to trust in His plan for this baby and this birth.

At the Birthing Center three hours before Gabriel was born.

We welcomed Gabriel Elijah just two days after his due date on October 4^th at 10:28 pm. He weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 ½ inches long. My prayers were answered! He was my second smallest baby. October 4^th is the feast day of St. Francis and this is the same day our baby was born. I felt like this was another confirmation of all that God was doing in our life. I started this journey with St. Francis almost a year and a half ago and now on his feast day I was blessed with a baby boy. God is so good!

A happy mama!

The midwife checking out baby.

Sweet boy!

St. Francis, pray for us. Francis Claire, pray for us.

The Missionary Impulse

The Holy Father is calling for a Missionary Impulse, How will you respond?