The clover in my hand🍀

+JMJ

“For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

Matthew 17:20

I am excited to share this story because it is one that gave me the confidence to ask with such boldness, even so much as assuming there would be a miracle with my tooth on May 19th. Even texting everybody asking for them to pray for Wilhelmina's powerful intercession at 2:15ish, the time of my appointment. 

 But let's back up.  How did I relate a toothache to Sr Wilhelmina? And where did all that confidence come from? 

☘️ I picked a random clover ☘️

No big deal

On April 20th, 2024 our ICC Daughters of Mary and young ladies sodality took a visit to the Benedictine sisters. When we started out on our walk,  I found a 3 leaf clover in the field to press and bring home. I ended up carrying the thing all over the hike and then when we got back I placed it in a prayer book. I don't remember ever thinking to pick up a clover and care for it like I did that one! It seemed so random but so appropriate at the same time.  

The reason this really sticks out to me is because Mara F. suggested I could send it back to the sisters in a little card with a thank you.  We laughed so hard when I joked that they might recognize it as one of their own and know that I took it. "Hey! Isn't that one of our clovers?" I was laughing so hard I had tears, which makes it so memorable

I placed it in a prayer book but I don't know where it went. 

This didn't mean anything significant to me until the next year. So let's move ahead a year to 2025

☘️🍀☘️

The St Joseph Cloak

my second time through

At the end of March 2025, a friend and I decided to pray the St Joseph cloak novena together. This would be my second time through. I told her how fruitful it was when I completed it in 2023 so offered to pray it with her again.

This is a friend who is going through similar situation we had gone through when I prayed my first St Joseph cloak novena in May of 2023. On the day after we ended the prayers covering the month of April,  we met at 6:45am Mass in thanksgiving and stayed for the holy hour for priests. Our month long prayers had come to a completion on May 1st, just in time for the feast of St Joseph the worker. This was our plan.

Outside of the plan was the final date of the 30 days which was April 30th 2025, this just happened to be the long awaited date of the consultation with Dr Jones about Vincent's nasal mass. 

The next day was May 1st, the feast of St Joseph the worker. That day, was full but in a good way, and it even included the inspection that our oldest had ordered for his home purchse. The home which just happened to be on Joseph Ave. and the inspection just happened to fall on St Joseph feast.

So, I had dropped off the girls at ICC for marigold dance and then went to visit my parents nearby house until they were done and I could go pick them up.  

My brother was planting a tree in their front yard with his son and my dad. My mom was in a chair and I was sitting on a dark blue blanket in the grass with Vincent, cheering them on. My mom had brought out snacks left over from their weekly Thursday happy hour at their house. I was leaning back on my hands,  with one hand in the grass and the other in the blanket, really just enjoying the moment.  After a while, I felt something touch the inside of my hand and I instinctively closed it. I looked inside and was shocked to see that there was a 4 leaf clover in my hand!! Immediately after I saw the clover, I looked to my left as if I expected to see a person there. Then I looked down searched all around in the grass where my hand was, and, even though there was a lot of clover, not a single other 4 leaf. I was genuinely shocked and turned to my mom and said "Did you see what just happened?! There's a 4 leaf clover in my hand!" 

 I remember searching for a 4 leaf clover when I was young and I never found one. Then, when I'm not even looking, one appears in my hand, and it honestly felt like someone placed it there! My mom was sitting in the lawn chair and she witnessed my reaction. Though she didn't seem to think much of it because 3 leaf is the one that represents the Trinity. More on that later.

I didn't know what to think of it other than it was a gift. That night I would message 2 people about it. Allie Hengen and Jocelyn Stolp

🍀🍀🍀

I actually saw Allie at pick up from dance but I didn't get a chance to tell her about the clover because I first had to fill her in on the appointment Vincent had with Dr Jones, the ent, the day before on April 30th. As I was driving away I said,  "I forgot to tell her about the clover!" After I got home I messaged her and then I messaged Jocelyn. 

The next day, Allie got back to me.  

So, to recap, May 1st was the day the 4 leaf clover was put in my hand.  It's also the day of completion of my 2nd completed cloak, which we started March 31st and ended April 30th. April 30th was the date scheduled to visit Dr Jones for the first time to consult about the removal of Vincent's nasal mass. 

A couple days earlier,  on April 28th, I met a couple friends for burgers. We get together every few months to touch base and encourage each other.  

As I was just finishing up the April cloak novena,  I told them they should pray these prayers too. Later that night, I messaged them that I would pray it again with them if they wanted to do it. 

☘️🍀☘️

So as you can see, I ended up overlapping these 2 cloaks by 2 days.  All three cloaks are for similar intentions, with mothers suffering similar distresses. 

☘️🍀☘️

Okay but how does this relate to the dentist?

Remember that when I got home after picking up the girls from ballet,  I messaged 2 people?One was Allie, and the other was Jocelyn. 

Jocelyn is one of our dental hygienists at Mcmanigal dental. She was also at Longo when the kids had braces. She presses clovers into jewelry and sells them.  I only found this out when I had a table at a craft fair, and her table was placed right next to mine.  We recognized each other and got to chat for most of the day. Then both of our moms show up and we realized that our parents know each other from Sons of Italy. Kind of a fun triple connection.  

I remember asking her, when I saw the 4 leaf clovers that she had found and pressed, if they were real. The reason I doubted is because I had searched for them when I was a kid, and never found one. But Jocelyn seemed to find them all the time.  I invited her to join us at our ICC boutique that fall

 That's when I bought this one. 

Now I have to tell you,  I have always been annoyed at St Patrick's day when I see 4 leaf clovers. The whole point is that legend has it that St Patrick tried to explain the Trinity to the Irish using a 3 leaf clover. But I've learned some things about the 4 leaf clover and I'm not going to ignore a marvel of creation just because some people say it's "good luck." 

Believers recognize God's providence in our lives,  and non-believers call it luck. They just haven't recognized the source of it yet, for nothing is by chance.

🍀🍀🍀

When I later told my mom the story (after clover #3) my mom texted me and mentioned that the 4leaf clover is superstitious...

I responded with what I had found with my internet research😉

https://www.rd.com/article/four-leaf-clover/

Then I remembered Dr Higgins correlating good luck and Divine inervention when I asked him if he would call the MRI results miraculous. He said he definitely wouldn't rule it out. 

(See Vincent's menengitis story)

You also have to consider that I wouldn't have thought so much of it if it were a three leaf clover.  It would still be weird how it felt like it was placed there, but the 4th leaf really drove home an impression.  Plus the 4th leaf could be representation of divine intervention, like the Readers Digest article said. Either way, it ended up being a sign of some serious upcoming gratitude and contemplating of the Divine providence of God and how he connects us in the communion of saints for his greater glory! 

🍀🍀🍀

May 2023

The first cloak novena I started and completed was in 2023. The day I received the St Joseph earrings from Sandy Gonzolez at decoris.co, was the final day. So I went back and found the picture I took on the day of their arrival so I could send it to her with a thank you.  During 2020 I started selling color street nail polish strips,  which was also a very weird thing for me to do,  but hey it was 2020.  Since Sandy likes color street and I like her earrings, we would barter with eachother. I would send her a bunch of CS and then pick out some earrings I liked and she would send me those. 

Color Street was also the reason why I was at the craft fair where I was placed right next to Jocelyn who sells pressed clover jewelry.  Not sure I would have known that otherwise.

So that's how I remember the day that cloak ended,  because of the photo I took of the earrings to send to her after they casually arrived on the final day of my prayers. When I told her what she could send me in exchange, I didn't ever think they would be arriving on such a significant day. 

 It was June 5th 2023.

When I saw that the pure heart of St Joseph earrings arrived on that very day,  I took it as a sign that God hears my prayer and the answer is "not yet."  This gave me the confidence in prayer that I really needed. I had been praying hard for this intention for over 2 years,  not sure if the whole thing was going to end well or not. I had to keep reminding myself of God's control and not my own. That is sometimes hard to remember in the moment, and we wonder if God even hears us. We expect it to be done now to avoid any further suffering, but then we miss out on resting in the peace of abandonment to God's will.  God has mysterious plans and it doesn't always make sense when we are seeing it from our temporal perspective. 

 I wish I could remember who told me about the cloak novena. I don't even remember why I started it. But since I know I ended the 1st cloak novena on the 5th of June,  I must have started it on the 6th of May and oh what a May it was!

It was May 11th when we buried dear Fr Terrance Gordon. His funeral was at Immaculate Conception parish, and is the day when word leaked out about the miraculous Benedictines discovery.  His funeral was announced on the Friday before, and maybe that's why I started the cloak the next day, on the first Saturday of May. 

When we heard that they had Sr Wilhelmina laying out in the chapel, we knew it was time for a once in a lifetime road trip! So on May 22nd we loaded up into our big white chevy van to make the trip to Gower Missouri.  It was Stephanie Pacheco, her 3 littlest, and her mom,  and Brenda B and her son Alex. I only had my 3 year old Leo and 1year old Clare with me because the other kids were in school at Christendom Academy. We ran into the Palmers while we were there but other than that, there weren't many people there and we could really take our time.  

The first couple times I went in to touch her hand, it felt soft, like you would expect a hand to feel. I never smelled roses, like some people do. I only smelled the sweet incense left from Mass. I was pregnant for my 11th time with our little Basil William, but didn't even know it.  After our little visit, we went out to the place where she was originally buried, marveled at the whole thing,  and gathered a little bit of dirt into a small paper Dixie cup. We were able to come and go because there was absolutely no line,  so after that first visit and the walk around the property. I went in the gift shop and bought the book "God's Will," a black hematite rosary, and a small red decade rosary, then we went back in the chapel for another visit. I touched my scapular, 3 rosaries, (the 2 bought and the 1 mothers rosary I carry with me)  her book and 3 holy cards to her hand. We really took our time on the property and didn't feel rushed at all.  It's like time stands still out there.  We stayed the morning and brought a small snack for the kids, but soon it was time to go.  Before leaving, we went back in to say goodbye,  but this time when I touched her hand, I remember being surprised because her hand felt hard and cold like metal.  We said more prayers,  thanking God for shining attention on this little nun's life. 

 

I can't get over the fact that Stephanie got a picture of the moment I touched my scapular to her hand.  Unknownst to me she did a great job documenting this! If you don't know why this matters, read Vincent's menengitis story.

Broomtree trip (still in May)

Over Memorial Day weekend, from May 26th-29th we had booked a half of a cabin up at Broomtree family camp with some good friends of ours, the Wood family.  

I brought my Sr Wilhelmina book, "God's Will" up there and was absorbed in getting to know her.  I also got to pray my daily cloak novena up there too as well as our daily rosary. We also prayed the stations a couple times,  once all together as a big group even!

Our first Baby #11

Shortly after we came home, I found out we were expecting again. It was May 31st when I got the positive! On June 4th, Fr Berg came over to our house for dinner.  He gave me a blessing of motherhood then he and the kids played chess together. And since he had his book and holy water out, we had him also bless our large St Joseph statue which sits on our mantle. You can see part of it behind his face here. This is the only picture I got of this night.

On June 10th we announced at my parents in the family tradition of standing in a bathtub  to announce a pregnancy.

Fr Berg got to be present at my parent's house for that too, and since we had the reason of celebrating Andrew's birthday, they didn't suspect a thing. 

 

Then June 14th we experienced our first loss.

This loss really did come with so much peace though.  It's not like I wanted it.  It's just a disappointment that is out of our control, but even in the midst of it,  I recognized the timing of it, and was grateful for the short little life he had had with us. It was truly out of my hands.  We named him Basil William and buried him by our Mary statue with some dirt I had collected from Sr Wilhelmina's grave site. 

(Basil for the feast he was delivered and William after Sr Wilhelmina)

💙  

That pretty much sums up the first St Joseph cloak and how it relates to Sr Wilhelmina. 

Except let me add this. Vincent is the "rainbow baby"  a baby born after a miscarriage. After he was born,  I came up with this song. 

Vincent is heaven sent

He's our 11th sent

Vincent has baby scent

And we all love him. 

 The mention of a rainbow baby reminds me of this family picture we got later the next year,  just last fall, on Sept 26th 2024 at the pumpkin patch with our 11 children and a rainbow. 

☘️🍀☘️

Now back to 2025. There's a third clover. 

First was in Gower on 4/20/24. 

Second was the Four Leaf in my hand on May 1st

and the third was on my oldest son's 23rd birthday. 5/21/25

Here is that story..

On the 18th of May 2025, the first Sunday after Vincent got sick,  I got to go to Mass at 1pm at ICC. After the week I had, I was so full of gratitude and felt like I could ask for anything!

The next day was May 19th when I called to schedule my root canal. New wave dental said they could get me right in the next day. 

And then Tuesday at 2:15 was my appointment where I cried out "It's a miracle!" 😄

 I had reserved 3 nights of camping at Two Rivers,  Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday. I would have canceled because of the meningitis and the hospital stay, but we wouldn't even get back half of the full refund, plus I think Dominic, my oldest, was looking forward to it and he had taken a couple days vacation.  So on Tuesday evening,  he brought 6 of his siblings with him to set up camp and stay overnight.  Wednesday morning was his birthday so I texted Katie Wood, whose family was camping next to us, to make sure no one forgot to say something.  Tom came and took a shift with Vincent at the hospital so I could visit the camp ground where they were camping for a little bit that morning (wednesday)

As soon as Tom came to the hospital to stay with Vincent,  I drove home to get Philomena and some things to bring with us. We stopped at hyvee to get a cheese cake and a coffee to bring out. But when we got to  Two Rivers, Katie was about to leave with the kids for a hike.  I stayed by the fire to relax.  Just before they got back from the hike,  Kilian(10) and I were invited into their tent to get out of the wind and to see the set up with their camp stove. I was told that I could sit on Katie's cot and Kilian sat next to me.  Kilian mentioned that he did a solo last Saturday. And I asked Dan Wood and his son Jaxon if they wanted to hear it. I warned them that it's 3.5 min long.  They said they would like to, so Kilian began to sing the Salve Mater. Right as soon as he began to sing,  I looked down and saw a 3 leaf clover. Directly in between my feet,  with no other grass or dirt anywhere in the tent that I could see. Katie later told me that they always take off their shoes before they go in.  While Kilian began his song,  I picked up the clover and held it,  pondering and praying until he finished. 

Then I exploded. I told the whole story of the clover to the people in the tent.  As soon as I was done,  Katie and the kids came back so I told it again for everyone who missed.  Those still sitting by the fire,  and those who were on the walk.  By then, it was time for me to get back to the hospital, so I brought Mena with me and made a video recording of me telling the story of the clover for record keeping sake. 

Two things for clarification.  1) I usually don't wear socks with sandals but my feet were cold so I got some from our tent.  And 2) after the song and the story, I put the clover back where I found it and took that picture. 

It's now pressed in a prayer book. 

That evening, May 21st, when I was sitting in the hospital with Vincent, I finallly started to compile a "cover letter" to send the story to the sisters.  It was time! Then I got a text from Jessica S asking if I was going to report it.  So I got all ready to send it but I was still waiting for a final piece of the puzzle to come together regarding my tooth. However,  early the next morning,  Vincent woke up to nurse and I had a thought of "just send it already!" So I did.  I think it was around 2or3am on May 22nd but I'm not exactly sure on the time.  He was receiving his antibiotic every 12 hours at 4 and I know it was before then.  

And at the bottom of the "favors granted" box, I asked if they had been seeing any "unexpected clovers" there at the Abby, telling them that for me,  it's what connects Sr Wilhelmina to St Joseph and my tooth healing, adding "If not, I will still be satisfied with the little gifts I keep receiving in the form of actual clovers and providential timing. Resting in the will of God and whatever he wants to do with her story."

So many clues on May 19th

On the morning of the 19th, the day before my appointment at new wave dental, there were a few more blatant signs that I can ask boldly and confidently.

I asked Fr Truong if he could bring me Communion before the new wave dental appointment. 

I only told him the room number and didn't specify a time. Just in the morning.

I had already messaged a bunch of people to pray for Sr Wilhelmina's powerful intercession, 

between 2-3 on Tuesday the 20th.

 I was loaded with even more confidence, and when Kristi Black told me that she was just there in Gower. That's when it occurred to me that we were 9 days away from the feast of the Ascension and so I started sharing the novena of Sr Wilhelmina's prayer with everyone, and said to pass it on, praying for anything! Pray big and with confidence was my message.  

The morning before my appointment, by the time Fr Truong brought me Communion,  I had finally narrowed down what my intention for this novena was going to be.  It had to do with having a way for big, one income, fssp families to affordably send their kids to school.  When I told Fr Truong that the day that Vincent's 14 days of antibiotics are up is May 27th 2025, 30 years after the founding of the order,  he told me that the original intent of Sr Wilhelmina was to have sisters to be a help in the parishes. He listed some things they could have done, but all I heard him say was "teaching" Then I told him what I had already decided my intention was going to be. If you need proof, I had even sent a text, after I decided my intention, encouraging them to join me,  to the Hattons hybrid, where 4 of my kids go twice a week. It's very difficult for big families, who are having babies every other year, to have to teach their 4-8+ kids on one income, with one mother being the teacher, and this intention has been on my heart for a couple decades.

So that's it.  That's the story of the clovers and St Joseph and the Benedictines of Mary. Of course there are a hundred more things I could tell you, but it all worked together to let me know that this is a story spanning more than this week.   It just came to fruition after years of careful planning by someone with a much wider lense.    

*The picture at the very top was taken on the evening of May 22nd at two rivers.  My daughter Cece kept bringing me clovers since hearing the story I just told you the day before.   I took a picture of the boys playing and she held up the clover to get included. I just thought it was a beautiful picture and wanted it as the cover.

***UPDATE  FROM PART 1**

On May 22nd this was my conversation with my dentist. 

Thank you Sr Wilhelmina for your prayers 🙏 

☘️🍀☘️

Timeline of feast days & special days

2023

April 28th Fr Terrance Gordon dies and Sr Wilhelmina is discovered

May 6th I started my first St Joseph Cloak Novena

May 11 Funeral at ICC and we hear the news about Sr Wilhelmina

May 22nd visit to Sr Wilhelmina. Touched my scapular to her hand 

May 31st found out we were pregnant with #11

June 4th Fr Berg comes over for dinner. Last day of the St Joseph prayers. I get a motherhood blessing and he blesses the St Joseph Statue on our mantle

June 5th Completion day of the month long St Joseph Prayers. I received the Pure Heart of Joseph earrings in the mail and the gift of confidence.

June 10th pregnancy announcement at my parents house with Fr Berg in attendence

June 14th miscarriage of Basil William

November 11th Last menstrual (which places the due date for Vincent on Aug 17th)

December 14th discovered we are pregnant again! (announced Christmas day in the tub at my parents -it's a family tradition)

2024

April 20th visit to the Abbey in Gower when I carried a single 3 leaf clover all over the hike, planning to press it

August 11th Vincent Marcel born on his own at 39 weeks -sunny side up

August 14th Vincent baptized by Fr Audino at Immaculate Conception Omaha

2025

January 29th met with Dr Anne Edmonds ENT (she ordered the following 2 scans but then passed us off to someone more qualified)

Feb 18th CT Scan at Children's

March 12th MRI Scan at Children's

April 1st started 2nd St Joseph Cloak novena to end on the 30th culminating on May1st

April 29th started 3rd St Joseph cloak novena to end May 28th before the Ascension (overlapping by 2 days)

April 30th last day of the 2nd cloak prayers and consultation with Dr Dwight Jones about surgery for Vincent 

May 1st 2025 St Joseph the worker feast and I received the 4 leaf clover in the yard of my childhood home

May 2nd First appointment about achy teeth at McManigal Dentist. He took scans and I started antibiotics from 5/3-5/12

May 7th Vincent’s surgery to remove glial heterotopia in his right nostril

May 13th, the day we discovered his infection, is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima 

May 14th Gwyns water break confirmed at 2:03amCST Vinny had CT scan at 1am followed by lumbar puncture 2:23am and antibiotics started. 2:15pm -ish was Vincent's MRI with 2nd class relic of Sr Wilhelmina scapular and intercessions

3 days of unknown waiting Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 

May 16th,  the feast of St Simon Stock, (to whom Mary gave the brown scapular)  is the day we finally realized we may have received a miracle with the MRI. Also my goddaughter had her very Carmelite baby girl, laboring over the exact same 48 hours that Vinny started antibiotics, until he started feeling better that morning. Carolyn Victory 's birthday, a friend who recently passed from cancer. St Gemma's feast day (her's was one of the 3rd class relic holycards before the MRI) . Also that morning I went back to Mcmanigal dentist for a follow up scan (after stopping by to nurse Vincent)  After offering to do it himself, he referred me to New Wave Dental for a root canal the next week. 

May 17th 100 years since St Therese was canonized

May 18th After finally finding my copy of the book "Gods Will" that was published by the sisters, I brought it to the hospital and stuck 3 holy cards together randomly in the pages.  Later when I went to open the book, I noticed they were randomly stuck in the page dedicated to St Joseph❤️pg 63 The next morning blood labs saw it laying there and he asked "whatcha reading?" I woke up from sleep and told him all about Sr Wilhelmina!

May 19th Fr Audino baptized goddaughter's baby, Adeline Therese Majella, in Virginia'  Fr Audino had also baptized Vincent last August 14th here in Omaha

May 18th went to Mass at ICC at 1pm and felt like I could ask big with the faith of the woman with the hemorage

May 20th Started and shared novena leading up to the Ascension and feast of Sr Wilhelmina. Fr Truong brought me communion. New Wave Dental Appointment showed no fracture and the root is fine!

May 21st My oldest turned 23 and I received clover #3 in the tent at Two Rivers as my 10 year old son started singing his solo of Salve Mater

May 22nd the date I touched the brown scapular to Sr Wilhelmina in 2023, is also my goddaughter's birthday! This is Gwyn, who just had the baby. Also the feast of St Rita. Vincent’s nurse this day is Jen who is his 3rd cousin and it’s her mom’s birthday May 22nd (my2nd cousin)

May 26th Got released from the hospital. They had squeezed the last couple days of doses tighter together so we could be released a day early. Originally 14 days of antibiotics would end on May 27th. 

May 27th 1995 is the date Sr Wilhelmina founded the Benedictines of Mary. Thirty years later, to the day, we were able to drive to the Abbey to attend Mass and give thanks to Almighty God and to Sr Wilhelmina for her intercession

May 28th final day of prayers for my 3rd St Joseph Cloak Novena. 

May 29th Feast of the Ascension and 6 years since the death of Sr Wilhelmina. We went to Fr Sulzen’s first Mass at noon at Immaculate Conception Omaha in culmination and thanksgiving for my 3rd St Joseph Cloak novena and Sr Wilhelmina novena

May 30th My oldest son closed on his house on Joseph Avenue (just an added aside:) It's been a big month!