Sara: For several weeks now, Justin and I have been talking about our need to go to confession. The last time we had gone was a couple weeks before Gus’s birth. A few times we had planned to go to Confession, but weren’t able to go because Gus was sleeping, fussy, or feeding. Finally, this week I decided it was time for me to go regardless of whether or not Justin could come with me.

One morning, Gus and I woke up and he was fed in plenty of time to make the morning confession time at a local parish. So, we headed off. When we arrived at the parish, Gus was sleeping, so I didn’t want to take him out of his infant carrier car seat. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize anyone in church that I could ask to watch him sleep for five minutes while I went to confession. I decided the solution was to take Gus into the confessional in his car seat.

The confessional was the old kneeling style, with no option for face-to-face confession. I managed to fit sleeping Gus and his car seat into the confessional, but there wasn’t much room for me. I managed to put one knee on the kneeler (so that the light would come on and no one else would come in), and placed my hand on the wall to balance myself and proceeded with the sacrament. As I left the confessional, I realized that as a mom, it takes God’s grace to have circumstances line up so I can even have the opportunity to receive the sacraments!

Since Gus was still sleeping following confession, I decided to stay for Mass. One of my friends with two young boys was also at Mass, and she invited me to go to the park. After we got to the park, I noticed Gus needed a diaper change. Unfortunately, he had soiled his outfit and got a stain on his car seat in the process. As I went to change his outfit, I realized the extra outfit in the diaper bag wasn’t warm enough for him, so after putting Gus in his extra outfit, I wrapped him in blankets. After playing at the park for another hour, Gus soiled his second outfit and that signaled the end of our park time, along with the need to buy bigger diapers.

Thankfully, again through God’s grace, Gus and I had a good visit with our friends. It was great for me to have the opportunity to visit with two great stay-at-home moms and learn from both their parenting wisdom and Christian witness. Gus and I hope to “play” with them again soon!