Guten Morgen!

As Paul continues his 'walk' to California, Michael is leaving today for Austria to be with James for Thanksgiving. First, he will be joining James in Frankfurt so they can go the Army base and meet up with their cousin Joseph, who just got back to Germany from Iraq. Last year at this time, Joseph was in South Carolina finishing his training. What a long way we have all traveled this past year!

What awesome things our family has learned in our faith.

from the Second Letter of St. John
"But now Lady, I ask you, not as though I were
writing a new commandment but the one we have
had from the beginning; let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his
commandments; this is the commandment, as you
heard from the beginning, in which you should walk."

I want to thank everyone of you who have offered prayers for Chris and Kathy. Today is the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who embraced a life of poverty after her
husband died and erected a hospital in which she herself served the sick. May her prayers join ours to 'help us serve our brothers and sisters in time of trouble and need.'

I actually remember last year on this day, writing about her and finding comfort in asking her to join me in my prayers for Paul. That awesome Communion of Saints in which we believe - what a great gift to us here on earth. Our visual aids to show we too are called to be saints!

I have to ask also - please say a prayer for the safe travel of Michael today. Watching him walk out the door with Jerry and Paul to go to Mass left me with what Paul once termed a 'cry bubble' in my throat. How blessed he is to be able to go travel around Europe with his brother James............who is now the 'expert'! James has been to Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Switzerland and Monaco. He and Michael are going to Ireland and England and Poland. Since Michael took the name of St. Maximillian Kolbe, they are going to Auschwitz. James was there once before and he thinks it will be good for Michael to be there and understand the sacrifice of his Confirmation namesake. Jon and Marie will be going to Austria in December. What a great blessing from God for my sons to be able to do all these things at so young an age. I wait in joyful hope for the day Paul too will be able to possibly go. We have told him that we will try to get him to Lourdes, France. A fine goal, to be sure!

Paul played a game of Scrabble yesterday and won. He was pretty darned excited too. He wrote on the score card "Paul Wins!!! Yahoo!" He is also getting on his computer more and more. I keep trying to encourage him to write another article on the blog and hopefully, work towards making it truly Paul Fidero's site!
He is maintaining his weight at 152 and looks so much more healthy now. The personal training he is receiving is so beneficial. He was having a bit of difficulty with the new weight added, but when Rhonda asked him if he would rather work on endurance and do more reps than more weight, he said no. He wanted to build his strength up. 'BUFF' is everything, I guess. One other area he is working on is not wearing his sunglasses as much. We noticed there were times when he would be in the bright light and not even remember he wasn't wearing them. I truly believe he creates habits easily, then becomes dependent on them. So he is now trying to add a few more minutes each day where he doesn't wear his sunglasses and even his eyepatch. He has pretty much stopped wearing the hat. STEP BY STEP! It's such an intriguing process of recovery. I surely understand very well the statement that each person will recover in their own way. And Paul always walked to the beat of a different drummer!

Keep Marching Paul! Parumpumpumpum.

May we all follow the steps of the saints before us, as we walk in love for one
another. Through Christ our Lord,
Jon and Rebecca