On February 16th, I drove my mommy-van to Reno, Nevada to witness my uncle be ordained Bishop of Reno. I made the sign of the cross at the 1st sign of snow on the ground as Grandma had done when she left on a car trip. The trip to Reno was fairly uneventful, yet I gripped the steering wheel tightly hoping that we would get through the slushy pass safely. I have always been a cautious driver; however the birth of my children increased my tentative driving style two-fold. From the middle row I could hear YaYa cheerfully announcing that he saw snow on the ground, and then on the trees, and finally ALL over. “Oh Mom, look” he said pointing off to the view. I didn’t look.
When I arrived with my sister and her family we couldn’t walk more than a few feet through the smoke-filled casino before we would get stopped to catch up with more family members. From Guam, New York, San Jose & San Francisco, they came from near and far. I was just thinking that it was so nice to have a happy reason to gather rather than another death.
The ceremony was just over 3 hours long with more than 4000 people attending. The joke in our family is that we have now endured enough church to last us for about 3 months. The ceremony was full of pageantry and symbolism. All of the 170 priests, about 30 bishops, about 30 deacons, altar boys and various other representatives from other religious faiths were decked out in their most colorful spiritual attire. It was beautiful in its presentation. From the laying on of hands, to the ending mass the ceremony was filled with historical Catholic tradition and symbolism.
I had a wonderful view of it all seated in the 2nd row, center stage with YaYa and BoBo. I took it all in until nothing short of panic hit me as YaYa whispered to me that he had to go to the bathroom. There would be no graceful exit from this prime location and there would be no safe return to the spot either. Somehow he got through it. Thank God. He does answer our prayers.