sacrafice – Our Special Kind of Life

Good morning all! Buenos Dias! What a glorious day, the Lord is Risen! Even if you are not into that sort of thing, Happy Easter from my family to yours! We hope you have a joyous and blessed day with your family wherever you may be! A buddy of mine had a great quote this morning in regards to even if you don’t celebrate Easter and the Lord’s resurrection. He said “but everyday is a day to celebrate these days”! Facts, big facts! Everyday is a good day.

I am currently sitting in my patio, its 75 degrees with a breeze and I’m having a cup of coffee with a mimosa on the side :)Don’t believe me? Check out my gram, haha. Meg and I have a great brunch spread in the works, pics to come on our instagram page. We are finding the good in today and it is not that hard on a day like today. Albeit, I wish I was able to attend mass in person followed by going to one of our favorite places for brunch with friends and family, I know that isn’t possible right now so I choose not to dwell over it. Instead, I find the silver lining and we will make the best of today. We are in this together, we are all making sacrifices especially the essential workers and our amazing health care professionals on the front lines of this battle. God Bless our essential workers and our healthcare staff, you are in my daily prayers! These sacrifices are not easy, so it is ok to not always be ok. I’m not always ok, trust me! However, these sacrifices are for the greater good, they are for my girls and for one another. Jesus also made a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life so that we can all have eternal life, pretty powerful.

Our easter Sunday started with the Easter bunny bringing some gifts and goodies to our kiddos. They then had an easter egg hunt which you can see on our instagram page below. Gracie cracks me up, as they were opening their easter baskets, I can see her looking around getting a head start mentally on where the eggs were, lol. That’s my Gracie Girl!

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Happy Easter! We started the morning with an Easter egg hunt! Have a blessed day!

A post shared by The Garcias (@our_special_kind_of_life) on Apr 12, 2020 at 9:48am PDT

After some Easter Bunny fun, we got ready for the real reason of Easter and that is to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection! We streamed the live feed from our Catholic Church. It was a little odd but we got in our Sunday best and prayed and participated in today’s Holy mass. It was actually beautiful, the songs were great, readings were on point, we could hear our backyard birds singing as rays on sunshine illuminated our family room. Together, from our homes, we celebrated. My take away from the homily is that we will ALL RISE like our Lord did today and most of us will come out better Catholics, better Christians and better People on the other side. Amen! God Bless you and your families and once again we hope you have a great day, Happy Easter!

As I mentioned in a previous post, faith is a big part of me and my family. Both Meghan and I are Catholic and are raising our children to be Catholic as well. Being Catholic in Austin is pretty uncommon, we only have a few friends that are Catholic, which is very different for us. In a few months, Ricky will have his First Communion, which we are all excited for him. That will be a big day.

Today is Ash Wednesday. For those who don’t know, Ash Wednesday is the start of the lenten season in the Catholic Church. Lent lasts 40 days up until Easter Sunday which is the day Jesus rises from the dead. It is a time to reflect, acknowledge our mortality, repent, and help others in need. We all just got home from receiving our Ashes just like millions of Catholics around the world. I am very proud of my children for not going kicking and screaming and for behaving themselves at Mass. Why Ashes? Like many symbols that represent lent (fish fry, color purple, reconciliation) ashes represents repentance. Getting ashes on Ash Wednesday is just a part of being Catholic. Many go to the actual masses but many just pop in to their local Church and get ashes on their lunch break, coffee break etc.. I remember getting Ashes during my workday in a random downtown Church in Chicago because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get home in time and make the evening service. I have vivid memories of getting ashes twice as a kid! Once during school and at night with my parents and now I go get them with my family which is pretty special.

On Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent we don’t eat meat. Most think that is weird and ask why no meat? Well, it’s just a small sacrifice to symbolize the ultimate sacrifice of when Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. You are also supposed to give up something you enjoy for 40 days. This year Meg will be giving up pop and I will be giving up cereal which I love. On top of that we plan on giving back to our community and help others in need throughout Lenten season.

I challenge all of our followers whether you are Catholic or not to take this time to reflect and over the next 40 days to pay it forward, be kind, and perform some random acts of kindness.