From Gerry & Caroline

A Baby Sent From Heaven. (Continued, page 2)

Gerry and myself had not thought much about adoption, we had our minds set on our own family, so we decided to find out. (Little did we know, that our Lord knew our lives were already paved out his way.) After our meeting with the social worker, we were told that both of us were too old to have a baby, as there were very few babies now due to abortion, single parents, and contraceptives. What a sad world we live in. When the social worker told us we were too old (at this time we were in our late thirties) and our only option was and older child, I could not believe that I was too old, let alone that I had to. I needed time to think, my life was falling apart around me. No baby of my own, no baby to adopt, just and older child. How could God be so cruel to us? But what was about to happen would change our lives forever.

One day back in 1994 while Gerry was out working (we have a ice cream van), a customer gave him a newsletter about a place named Medjugorje, where it was said that Our Lady was appearing to six young people. Well, the only way to describe the transformation that happened to Gerry was, as he would say, like a light bulb being turned on in your head. He believed at that very moment of reading the newsletter that Our Lady was indeed appearing in Medjugorje, but for me I found it hard to accept. Gerry never stopped talking about it. Sometimes too much. I had enough on my mind trying to cope with not being able to have a family -- never mind Gerry reading books about Medjugorje, praying and always talking about Our Lady. (I was beginning to that Gerry had lost his mind) I could not stand the change in him, I just wanted a baby and I could no nothing to make this happen. "God why?" As I said, I still had one more treatment on the IVF program, one last chance. It was during this break in my treatment, that Gerry had been approached by one of his customers, and the lady asked him if he knew anyone that organized pilgrimages to Medjugorje (the lady had been before without a guide, and she felt that we would benefit more with a guide). So, the next day Gerry made a phone call which was to the turning point in our lives.

Gerry telephoned a friend he knew in England. When the person answered the phone at the other end, Gerry then discovered that he had dialed the wrong number, so Gerry made his apologies and was about to put the telephone down when the man on the other end asked Gerry why he was trying to reach this person? Gerry proceeded to tell this gentleman that he was looking for someone who organized pilgrimages to Medjugorje and told him about his own interest in Medjugorje,. This is when the gentleman interrupted Gerry's conversation to tell him that it must have been for him to telephone.  The gentleman went on to tell Gerry that when the call came that his friend had just arrived, and to Gerry's amazement, this friend took pilgrims over regularly to Medjugorje an that his friend (whose name is John) would like to speak to Gerry.

I will let Gerry take it from here.

Gerry explains:

John introduced himself to me, and explained that he had taken over many pilgrims over the years, and that I must come over with him. And again to my amazement he told me that we, (Caroline and I) would stay with him in Evanka's grandmother's house. I knew as did Caroline that Our Lady had appeared to Evanka in that house many times, and also it was from that house that the visionaries Evanka and Mirjana left to go for that walk in June of 1981 when our lady first appeared to them. Can you imagine how I felt, to stay in the house where Medjugorje all began?  Here I was telephoning for someone else, and being invited to go there! Not a penny to my name, and Caroline never did have much interest in Medjugorje, how could I convince her otherwise?  So I said to John, that I would ask Caroline. John told me to phone back as soon as possible, as there were very few places left. John had told me that if we went, it would be for a week in which the feast of the assumption would fall. I said goodbye to John, and told him that I would phone him to let him know. I came off the phone and asked Our Lady to help me when I asked Caroline as I made my way up the stairs to the bedroom where Caroline was. I told Caroline all that John had said, and with out hesitation she told me to phone John and tell him that we would go. I could not believe Caroline was telling me she would go. Her change of mind was because we were to stay in Evanka's grandmother's house of which Caroline knew all about. I wasted no time to phone John to tell him the good news. And to make matters even better, John told us that we did not have to pay until we arrived in Medjugorje. This gave us the time to organize for the pilgrimage. Our Lady was indeed leading the way.

Our Trip

We were to leave for Medjugorje on the 10th of August, 1995. The war was at its height, and our families were very worried for our safety. The funny thing was that it did not worry us. (Our Lady was taking care of everything) We met John and the group of pilgrims we would be traveling with at Gatwick airport. We were on our way. On our arrival in Medjugorje we made out way to the grandmother’s house. She made us feel so welcome and at home. She even gave up her bed for us and she, for the week we were there, would sleep on the couch. This was horrifying, and embarrassing for us as she was over eighty years old, but John told us that she had always done this for pilgrims and she were never change. (Evanka’s grandmother also had the grace of being lead by the hand of Evanka during an apparition, and touched Our Lady) How fortunate we were to stay in this house during our stay in Medjugorje.

We were to meet five of the six visionaries. This in itself was very special, as most of the time they (the visionaries), would be traveling to different parts of the world to meet and explain to people why Our Lady was appearing in Medjugorje. To have five of the visionaries here at once was indeed exceptional. Each day John would arrange for us to meet then take us to the visionaries’ houses.

Each day outside their houses, the visionaries would talk to the pilgrims about why Our Lady was appearing in Medjugorje and what she looked like. As the day went by Caroline still wondered why she had come this far. She tried her best to pray but all she wanted was to adopt a baby, not a older child.

One day after listening to Jakov, who is one of the visionaries, we made our way thorough the fields as we were listening to a young girl explain in detail what it was Jakov had been saying. (She had originally come from Croatia and was now living in Canada) so we listened to her translate part of the Jakov’s talk, which we could not understand. When she had finished talked I said to Caroline. "Why don’t you write down how you feel and ask this girl to translate it for you to give to Evanka in her own language and Evanka in turn could present our letter, with the many others, when our Lady appears to her?"

The girl was happy to write the letter for Caroline. When we arrived to Evanka’s grandmother’s house she gave the letter to the grandmother to read. After reading the letter, she came over to Caroline and gave her a loving hug, and as she spoke we knew what she was trying to tell us. It was to pray to the Gospa from the heart. She then put the letter in a safe place to give to her granddaughter.