Greetings! An update is long overdue, thank you for being
patient with us as we begin to explore this world of blogging and our new
journey as a family of Comboni Lay Missionaries. I’m happy to share we
celebrated a Commissioning Mass on Dec. 16! This means we have completed our
formation training and will now pack up, tie up loose ends and head out to
share the love God and be present for those in need.
Our formation process was full of wonderful learning
opportunities, meeting new friends, celebrating Mass and a trip to the east
coast in time for Hurricane Sandy to hit! Yes, we were attending collaborative
training in NY, DC and visiting Jacob’s sister’s family in NJ and arrived in NY
four days before the hurricane hit. Everyone did quite well, and enjoyed using
flashlights and dressing in layers due to no heat for several days! All in all,
it was fabulous mission training!
During formation Jacob and I attended various workshops,
lectures and spiritual direction meetings. Through this process, we met many
wonderful people who supported us, helped us and loved us! A very dear friend,
Mary Ellen, watched the girls on Wednesday evenings to allow us to attend the Vatican
II seminars at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. We offer a special thank
you to Mary Ellen and her granddaughter who gave Lily a huge bag of summer
clothing (exactly what we were in need of!). On Monday evenings we celebrated
Mass in the Comboni Chapel, afterwards we enjoyed dinner with the Fathers and
Paul, our wonderful program director.
Lilyanna joined the Super Kids (2nd grade) at St.
Louise de Marillac during the fall. Mrs. Krajniak was a blessing for our
journey. She welcomed Lily and incorporated Lily’s upcoming changes of becoming
a missionary in their daily class life. Lily developed some incredible
friendships, she was invited to some birthday parties and able to have a few
play dates with her dear friend Katie. We’ll be staying in touch with Lily’s
class and her new friends in the years to come!
Josephine attended a 2-year preschool at Kensington, which
is about a mile from our apartment, and the Comboni House! Her teachers adored
Josie, they enjoyed her fun personality and wonderful communication skills.
Jojo too made several friends and enjoyed her time in a loving, learning,
playful environment.
Several family and friends celebrated our commissioning as
Comboni Lay Missionaries on Dec. 16. Many traveled some distance, we truly appreciate
all of the support, love and prayers we received from all who attended!
We moved the remainder of our belongings to storage (thank
you Uncle John for moving us and for the storage unit!) and are visiting with
family and friends over the holidays.
Our dear Lord has offered so many blessings to our family.
Each step of the process of changing our lives to become lay missionaries has
been manageable. Don’t get me wrong; we’ve had some tough times though we’ve
had much joy, love, happiness and thoughtfulness surrounding our family. We
thank God for all of these blessings and for all the wonderful family and
friends both new and old whom he has given us. We are thankful that
during our formation process we were able to dedicate significant time to our personal faith
journey's and strengthen our relationship with Christ. For this, we are truly
grateful and feel incredibly blessed.
We ask you to please continue praying for
our family. The first six months or so we will more than likely be the most
difficult. Please pray especially for a smooth transition for the girls! It was
reiterated over the past 6 months that the girls transition smooth as long as
we pray together and spend quality time as a family! The girls most recently
love making up little skits to perform! We also enjoy listening to music and
dancing! We too will continue to keep you in our prayers and thoughts! We love
hearing from you, so please, email or comment when time allows! (kleven4@gmail.com) Love and peace to all!
Tonya (and Jacob, Lilyanna & Josephine)
