A Prayer Request for My Little Angel

Tonight, I'm sending out a prayer request for my little angel, Kewpie Doll (one of my one-year-old twin granddaughters).  Tomorrow, she is having an MRI to determine whether or not the large strawberry birthmark she has on her head is presenting any problems that would necessitate its removal.  Obviously, she is going to have to be sedated for the MRI.  This means that the poor little sweetie can have only clear liquids past midnight tonight, so tomorrow she is going to have to go without any solid food until after her procedure at 1:00 p.m.  It will probably be a rough morning for her mommy, who will have to try to figure out how to keep her from eating while her sister has her breakfast and snack.  And I know from experience that the entire ordeal will take as much out of Mommy as it does out of Kewpie.  There is nothing worse as a parent than seeing your baby go through something scary or painful, and wishing you could be the one going through it instead.  I'm so glad that my husband and I can be here to help out, and to babysit for Bonny Babe while my daughter-in-law takes Kewpie to the hospital.

I will be thinking of mother and child all day tomorrow, and I won't be able to relax until they are both back home and the whole thing is over!  And I plan to ask the Blessed Mother to watch over the two of them and help them through it.

There is nothing more beautiful to witness than the love of a mother for her child, is there?  And images of the Blessed Mother and Her Son are especially moving.  I love this painting of the Blessed Mother and the Baby Jesus.  It's a rather famous painting titled "Madonnina" ("The Little Mother") by Roberto Ferruzzi.  It was not originally intended to be a religious painting.  Ferruzzi used an 11-year-old girl he saw on the street, and the little brother she was carrying in her arms, as his models.  But when it was first publicly exhibited in Venice in 1897, the painting was received by the public as a beautiful image of the Virgin Mary holding her Infant Son. Soon it became known as "The Madonna of the Streets," and Italian immigrants brought copies of it with them when they came to this country.  It is the most renowned of Ferruzzi's works.

My Kewpie and her twin Bonny remind me very much of the sweet baby in this painting when they are asleep.  Their faces are positively angelic.  I pray that the Blessed Mother will keep my little angel safe in Her loving arms all day long tomorrow, especially when she has to be separated from her mommy for the MRI.   Please pray for her, too.