~A Sign For Our Baby~

Three of my four children were all baptized when they were just infants.  Like me, they were baptized Catholic.  During the time my first two children were baptized, I was practicing the Catholic faith.

I would attend mass most weekends, and for the most part, I actually enjoyed attending.  My first two children enjoyed going to mass with me, especially my eldest.  My first two children also attended a Catholic school.

By the time my third child was born however, I was more or less finding myself walking a new path, and it was a path that was leading me away from the Catholic faith.  In my heart I had been questioning many things for quite some time, and I was slowly turning away from the teachings of the Church.

When I became pregnant with my fourth child, I was newly re-married and no longer practicing or following the Catholic faith.  It had been years since I had even attended mass.  

While pregnant with my fourth child, I brought the issue of baptism up with my new husband.  He is not a religious person and does not affiliate himself with any particular faith or religion.  He believes in God, but does not follow any particular set of beliefs.

I asked my husband about whether or not we should baptize our baby.  I did not really feel in my heart like I wanted our child specifically baptized Catholic, I just didn't want our baby to feel left out since his/her older siblings have all been baptized.  

My current husband was not sure about what we should do any more than I was.  I decided to visit a dear friend of mine, an older Catholic priest.  He not only baptized me, but all three of my children as well.

He is a very kind, caring man that I very much admire.  He is exactly what comes to mind when one wonders what God must be like.  He is such a nice man, so soft spoken.  I can't even find the right words to convey how much I care for, respect and admire him.

After visiting with him and talking to him about whether to baptize my fourth child, he asked me if I was following the teachings of the religion any more, which I wasn't.  I then realized that it didn't make much sense to baptize my child into a faith I no longer believed in. 

As only a man of God would do, he suggested that I ask God about what to do, and put my trust in Him.  I very much agreed with him, and decided to do just that.  

When I arrived home, I told my husband about what Father John and I had talked about and that I had decided to simply put it into God's hands.  I told my husband that I very much believed that God would send us a sign.  My husband agreed with me and we left it at that.

A few months later our son was born.  The night after he was born, it was around 9 p.m, and I was in the washroom.  I was cleaning myself up and getting ready for bed.  I was washing my face and brushing my teeth.  My husband was sitting in our hospital room watching t.v, holding our newborn baby boy in his arms.

When I came out of the washroom, my husband informed me that an older woman had just come into the room and asked to see me.  My husband said that he told her I was in the washroom but I would probably be out in just a moment.  She apparently said, "Oh, it's okay.  I'll just leave this here for the baby."  

My husband then pointed to a small box that was sitting on the bedside table.  I asked him what it was and he told me he had no idea.  I picked up the box and opened it.  Inside was a rosary.  I was rather confused.  I asked my husband why someone would bring a rosary for our son.  I then asked my husband about the woman that brought it.  He said that he had no idea who she was.  She never told him who she was or gave him her name, and he said that he had never seen her before.

It didn't make sense to me.  Months prior to my son's birth, when filling out all of the paper work required to register for my labour and delivery at the hospital, I never checked off any religion.  I also never bothered writing anything down.  I had simply left all of that blank. I hadn't identified myself with any religion.  So, why would someone bring us a rosary?

I sat down in my hospital bed, still holding the rosary and looking at it.  All of a sudden I realized something and I began to smile. My husband asked me what I was smiling at.  I said, "I think God just gave us our sign about what to do about our baby being baptized."  

My husband just looked at me, smiled and said, "I think you're right."

Copyright © 2013 A Haunted Life

 

~An Image Of My Son~

One year for Christmas, I decided to have a family picture taken of my husband and I with our two little girls at a portrait studio. The picture ended up turning out quite well. I was rather happy with it. Everyone was looking at the camera and smiling nice natural smiles.  I was so happy with the photo that I ordered Christmas cards with that photo on it to send out to family and friends. I also purchased an 8 x 10 of the picture.

When I received the photo and Christmas cards, I went out and bought a really nice picture frame with a mat to frame the photo. I then hung the photo up on the wall. As soon as I looked at the photo hanging on the wall I immediately stepped back while looking at it and said to my husband, "You know what, something is missing from that photo."

My husband said, "Nothing is missing, it's a good picture." I shook my head no and said, "No, our little boy is missing. He should be sitting right here." I then pointed to a vacant spot in the bottom of the picture. My husband said, "What?"  I said, "Yep, I picture a little boy with lots of dark wavy hair, blue eyes, in fact he's going to look just like Ashley (our oldest daughter)." In my minds eye I could clearly picture my little boy perfectly and what he would look like.

My husband just said, "Hmm, I don't know about that." At the time, he was quite happy with our two little girls. But after my vision and seeing a little boy in the picture, I insisted that I knew we would eventually have a boy. I was also beginning to feel like I really wanted to have another child. I longed for the little boy that I knew I was meant to have.

And, after hanging up that family picture, I continually envisioned that little boy I knew I was to have one day every single time I looked at the picture. My husband however, would insist that he couldn't see it happening.        

I even told my parents about my vision of my baby boy that was yet to even be conceived. My dad joked, asking if the baby would look like him, since both of my girls and I, all resemble my dad. It`s funny how genetics works. I looked just like my dad, then when I went on to have children of my own, they too looked just like my dad. My mom used to joke that it was because my dad is bossy and his genes are too.

Sure enough, a little over a year after having our family picture taken, I gave birth to our third child. It was a boy. A beautiful little boy with lots of thick, dark hair. He looked exactly like my oldest child when she was born, but he had much more hair.

When my son was approximately 6 months old, just before his first Christmas, I decided to take all three of my children to have their photo taken at a portrait studio. It was after we had picked up the photos, and were back at home when my husband asked me, "How do you do it?"

I asked him what he was talking about. He then said, "Remember when you said that you pictured our son and what he would look like?" I said, "Yeah."

He said, "And remember I told you I didn't think we would have another child, I couldn't see it happening, but you insisted it would happen." I said, "Yeah."

My husband then said, "Well, not only did you get pregnant, but we did have a boy. And look at those pictures." I asked him why when I had already seen them. He told me to look at them again.

I pulled the photos out from the envelope they were in and looked at them. My husband said, "You pictured a little boy with thick, dark wavy hair, blue eyes, and you said he'd look just like Ashley. All of that came true." I looked at the photos, laughed and said, "Well, what can I say, he was obviously meant to be born."

My husband asked me, "But how could you possibly know what he would look like?" I told him I had no idea, I just saw it. My husband just shook his head in disbelief.



How could I have possibly known that I would go on to have a boy?  How could I have even guessed at what he would look like?  I already had two girls and while one had dark wavy hair, the other had light blonde hair that was very curly.  I could have easily gone on to have another girl, or a boy that had blonde hair like my youngest daughter.  As well, red hair runs in my husband's family.  We could have had a child with red hair.

But instead, I went on to have a boy that looked exactly as I had envisioned.  I believe it's because my heart just knew.  I loved him even before I conceived him.


Copyright © 2013 A Haunted Life

~The Conjuring- My Thoughts~

For anyone that isn't aware, there is a movie currently playing in theatres entitled 'The Conjuring'.  It is a film that is based in part, on a family's experiences with ghosts while living in what is believed to be a house that is haunted. The family is the Perron family.    

The eldest child who is now grown, decided to write a book about the many odd experiences that she, and all of the other members of her family experienced while living in that house.

The story for the movie however is told from the perspective of the two paranormal investigators that were involved with investigating the case.

The house is very old, and has a history that includes deaths and suicides as well as a murder on the property.  It also has a history of being haunted. The Perron family were not the first to experience any ghostly or paranormal phenomena while living there, nor were they the last.  Previous owners of that house that lived there also experienced odd, ghostly phenomena.  And even the current owners today admit that they too have experienced odd happenings in the house, and of seeing ghosts.

Because I am curious about anything to do with ghosts and the paranormal, I have looked into, and read with much interest, some of the personal accounts that the Perron family members reported to have experienced.  I have also watched a few videos.  While visiting and browsing various web-sites, I have come across numerous comments from people; who like me, are very interested in this story, and this type of topic.

The one thing I can not understand though, is how quickly many people are willing to quickly jump to the conclusion that the entire thing is "likely fake", and "simply made-up".  "Hoax" is a word I've seen used rather frequently.

While I realize that you can't just blindly trust someone fully and question nothing.  I can't understand what it is that people want or expect from someone that claims to have experienced seeing or talking with ghosts.

For instance, I look at myself and my own experiences.  There is absolutely no way I can possibly prove that any of my experiences of seeing deceased loved ones and other spirits, and communicating with them did in fact truly occur. Yet I know for certain what I experienced, and how I felt when it occurred.  Yet I have no way of proving it.

With all of the technology we have, science still can not adequately analyze and/or study ghosts, or even prove that they do or do not exist.

I know from experience that it takes quite a bit of courage to admit to, and talk openly about experiencing any ghostly activity.  While it is becoming more accepted and people aren't as likely to simply chalk someone up to being crazy when they report seeing ghosts, they are however still likely to question the validity and truth about it.

I personally have no idea as to what actually occurred with the Perron family while they lived in that house, nor does anyone else. One thing I do know though, is that while some of their claims may sound far-fetched and possibly made-up to some people.  I too have experienced things that sound completely ridiculous and made-up.  Yet the experiences truly did occur.  I most definitely experienced it.

So what is one to do when they have experiences and share them, yet have no way to prove they really did or did not happen?

Copyright © 2013 A Haunted Life

~Cemetery Ghosts~

I am posting a photo that I find quite interesting.  First a little background info...

Three or four years ago, my husband had decided he wanted to go and visit the grave of his grandma and his mom.  My oldest daughter really wanted to go and asked if she could borrow the camera.  She wanted to take photos at the cemetery.  She was hoping to catch a ghost on film.

My daughter finds the entire topic of ghosts really interesting.  I believe her curiosity has occurred due to all of the rather unusual experiences I, as well as many others in my family have had, including my daughter.

So, I gave her the camera and we all piled into our car and headed to the cemetery.

Once we arrived at the cemetery, I helped my husband place some flowers on the grave.  My daughter immediately began snapping photos.  She would just aim and shoot.  I told her to pay attention to where she was aiming the camera.  I told her to look and to be certain there was no one around, so that if something did show up on film, that it wasn't simply someone that happened to have been in the cemetery at the time she snapped the photo.

She agreed and began snapping away again.  After placing the flowers on the grave site, I walked with her a little bit around the cemetery.  Where we were, you could see quite a distance off into the cemetery and there was no one around.

When we got home, I uploaded all of the photos my daughter had taken onto our computer.  There were a few that appeared to have caught something.  But on further examination of the photos, I figured out that it was simply the reflection of the sun off of a shiny tombstone.  And in one of the others, it was simply the way the shadow of a tree was reflected in the shot.

One picture however struck me as odd.  I was with my daughter when she took this photo.  My other daughter was there too, and we saw for ourselves that when this photo was taken, there was no one there.

However, in the photo it looks like a person, a child perhaps? wearing a blue helmet and a yellow jacket, riding a bike or something.  And just to the right of that appears to be a man walking, who is wearing jeans and a black jacket.  His legs at the bottom, seem to simply disappear into the grass.

I have posted the original photo, and I have also posted some photos where I have altered the colour so that you can see it a bit more clearly.  I have also posted a photo where I have outlined what it is I'm seeing in the pic.

I would appreciate any and all feedback from anyone as to what they think it could be.



This first photo is the original photo.  It is a bit grainy because I have enlarged it.

Here I have altered the colours a bit so you can see what I'm seeing, a bit more clearly.

Here I have outlined what looks to me like a person in a blue helmet, wearing a yellow coat, riding a bike. And to the slight right of that, I see what looks like a man that is walking.  He looks to be wearing a black jacket and jeans.

Here again I have altered the colours slightly so you can see it a bit more clearly.

And again...

And again, here is the original.

Copyright © 2013 A Haunted Life