The Story of St. Valentine, in the spirit of the upcoming holiday...

So I have decided to share my thoughts on this holiday.  I am a love-y person.  I love love.  But this year is different.  "Love", or the closest thing I can think of, is just confusing.  And it's just depressing.  

These aren't my thoughts on love this year, but this is just really funny!

So my choir teacher inspired me to share the real story of St. Valentine.  Valentine's day wasn't supposed to be all about spoiling your significant other or being all romantic.  Valentine's day was about love.  All kinds of love.  Family love, sibling love, boy-girl love... Soooo anyhoo, this is what this holiday was based on: 

"In the third century, the Roman Empire was ruled by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. He was nicknamed Claudius the Cruel because of his harsh leadership and his tendency for getting into wars and abusing his people. In fact, he was getting into so many wars during the third century that he was having a difficult time recruiting enough soldiers.

Claudius believed that recruitment for the army was down because Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families behind, so he canceled all marriages and engagements in Rome. Thousands of couples saw their hopes of matrimony dashed by the single act of a tyrant. And no one seemed interested in standing up to the emperor.

But a simple Christian priest named Valentine did come forward and stood up for love. He began to secretly marry soldiers before they went off to war, despite the emperor’s orders. In 269 AD Emperor Claudius found out about the secret ceremonies. He had Valentine thrown into prison and deemed that he would be put to death.

As Valentine was awaiting execution, he fell in love with a blind girl, who happened to be the jailer’s daughter. On the eve of his execution, with no writing instruments available, Valentine is said to have written her a sonnet in ink that he squeezed from violets. Legend has it that his words made the blind woman see again, but some say that the woman accepted Jesus while Valentine was in prison and that faith made her see again.  It was a brief romance because the next day Valentine was clubbed to death by Roman executioners.

St. Valentine gave his life so that young couples could be bonded together in holy matrimony. They may have killed the man, but not his spirit. Even centuries after his death, the story of Valentine’s self-sacrificing commitment to love was legendary in Rome. Eventually he was granted Sainthood and the Catholic Church decided to create a feast in his honor. They picked February 14 as the day of celebration because of the ancient belief that birds (particularly lovebirds, but also owls and doves) began to mate on that very day."

So, I guess, happy Valentine's Day... <3

Important post! PLEASE READ

Okay, this is twice in a row, but I felt like I owed you guys an explanation.  This money you guys donate may not have gone all to our trip in December.  It goes to her treatment and help.

My mom, Suzzanne Carol, is nearly 53 years old.
She has two daughters and two sons.  Both of her sons are married with two children each.  Suzzanne babysits for them whenever she can.  She loves them to the ends of the Earth.

Her favorite TV shows range from British mysteries like Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes to Big Bang Theory to Bones and others.
She knits like an 80-year-old grandmother and sometimes talks like one!

The first time she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, my now 26-year-old brother was about 10 years old.  That time, a surgery was the biggest treatment she had to go through, and she got better.

Sometime in the fall of 2012, she was again diagnosed with breast cancer, type 3.  Just before school started, she had a surgery, trying to remove all of the bad lymph nodes.  Unfortunately, they could not determine whether they got all of the cancerous lymph nodes or not and whether it had traveled or not.  Honestly, I still don't know what all of the "official diagnoses" are, but, not going into detail, her second surgery's scar has never fully healed and she has a second tumor.

Our little trip to Mexico was very helpful, but did not do everything.  She is still going through treatments, but money for it is kind of tight.  I don't want to beg people for money, because... Well I don't want to.  Desperation does not look good on me.  But I do want people to know what is going on.

If you feel... led or something to give any money, the link for the fundraiser is below, but it ends in 19 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/healing-for-suzzanne/110746

But if you feel that you can give anything else, find me on Facebook (Abi Leigh) or comment on this post and I can get a hold of you!  Thank you all.  Thank you very much for everything that you do and will continue to do for our family.