Lucy’s birth occurred about eleven days earlier than her due date. Sharon’s wonderful physician, Dr. Richard Ratino, who most generously donated his services to us, decided that it was best to induce Sharon on March 27 rather than have her travel in labor from where our motor home was ensconced in Council Bluffs, Iowa, some 100 miles from Sioux City. Sharon’s labor went about as well as it could have gone. My wonderful wife offered up the pain and agony of labor and childbirth to Our Lady, to whose Immaculate Heart she consecrated herself at the end of the Chartres Pilgrimage on Whit Monday last year, June 4, 2001. Her faith is truly inspirational, to say nothing of her loving, patient, understanding, forgiving, merciful heart.

    Our daughter is named after the great martyr of the Church, St. Lucy, who is mentioned in the Roman Canon, as Sharon credits her for helping her to see things clearly when she was in the process of converting to the Faith. Her middle name is, obviously, in honor of the Blessed Mother, whom Sharon credits principally for her conversion. (All of our children, whether male or female, will bear Mary’s name.

    A son would have been named John Jacob Marie Droleskey, in honor of my late paternal great-grandfather, who walked four miles to Mass every day—and four miles back home—until two weeks before he died at the age of 97 in 1949). A third name, Norma, has been given to our daughter in honor of my own late mother, who was born out of wedlock and put up for adoption in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1921. Her chances of making it out of the womb alive today would have been negligible.

    Thus, Norma has been chosen to honor my mother—and all children born in circumstances in which most mothers today deal death rather than give life—as a proof that each life matters. If she had been killed, I wouldn’t have been conceived or born. There would be no Lucy Mary Norma Droleskey if that had been the case.

    Lucy weighed seven pounds and eleven ounces at birth. She is twenty-one inches long, and has a nice crop of auburn red hair. She is the spitting image of her beautiful mother.

    She was baptized on Easter Sunday afternoon at the hour of Divine Mercy, 3:00 p.m., at St. Patrick’s Chuch in Omaha, Nebraska. Father Eric Flood of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter baptized our daughter in the Traditional rite (with the salt and Exorcism prayer), thereby incorporating her into the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Catholic Church. Father Flood placed her on the altar of Our Lady to consecrated her just after her baptism to the Immaculate Heart.

    Sharon and I are grateful for your prayers. We are grateful to our Lord and our Lady. It is now our job to get Lucy back home to God from this vale of tears.