Bonovox

Whew....its been a "whirl wind tour."

We left on 2/21 with the whole family and T-Mo/Justin for 4 days with our good friends the Pullanos, who live just north of Adirondack Park.  We had some winter fun, consisting of sledding and hockey and food and fellowship.  I am always happy to be with my beautiful goddaughter Anourine...whose turned out to be quite the card shark.  Don't play yahtzee or Rummy-O with her unless you want your butt kicked!

So we got home on Sunday, and I left on Mon (2/25) for NIU.  Only a snowstorm struck the Chicago area that day, causing my plane from Buffalo to be late, thus my rendezvous w/ Fr. Kevin from OCF was screwed up, and I ended up being stuck in the O'Hare area overnight.  But I got picked up Tuesday morning and we headed to Dekalb.  We met up with Kathy the OCF faculty advisor and Fr. Xristos the priest in charge.  That evening we sang the Trisagion at the memorial, and conducted a Post Traumatic Stress Debriefing w/ the 10 or so students and faculty.  The next day we met w/ a couple of the lads who wanted to talk some more.  They are beautiful people, keep them in your prayers.  Last year I affirmed that I wanted to be Hokie, as those kids were (are) my heroes.  I can equally state that I also want to be a Husky, and I view these young men and women as equally courageous.  I guess some Huskies will be going down to Blacksburg for the one year anniversary of their tragedy.....I think they will be a great support for each other.

So I flew home on Wednesday, but there was a mechanical problem with the plane, so they had to get another one, and it was smaller....so I got bounced.  I did catch a later flight and was awarded a free ticket to use in the next year, for my trouble.

So after getting to Buffalo at midnight, Kelley and jumped in the car and drove to St. Vlad's in Crestwood, Yonkers or Tuckahoe, depending on what map search your using.  We had a great time in the car together, sans kids and felt like newlyweds.  The drive through the Catskills with all the fresh snow, on a sunny day, was breathtaking.

St. Vlads is a great place, and the students, staff andf faculty were so warm and friendly.  We got to meet a deacon and his wife, who have four kids (and also homeschool) and left everything to be there, so that was encouraging.  Unfortunately they could not get a 3 bedroom apt, so they have all 4 kids on two bunk beds in one room.  But they were making it work.  Hopefully we will have a 3 bedroom, but if not, we know we can do it too, by God's grace.  We worshipped in the chapel with the community, and got to sit in a class; "iconology," taught by Dr. Richard Schneider....good stuff!  We also met with Fr. Steven, the Dean of Students....very encouraging.  Thanks also to Daniel Bethancourt who is our recruitment officer....who faces ordination himself this summer, and a new baby!

We arrived home, through a steady snowfall, on Friday night, to find a letter waiting for me.  It was from Metropolitan +PHILLIP and it expressed that I have his blessing to go to St. Vlad's AND that I had been awarded a full-ride scholarship!  Thank God!  Now if the house would sell.......

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.