“Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.” Psalm 126:3 

Dear family, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today is one year since Maximilian John Pio Irenaeus Gabbard was born. I remember when it all started, August 19, 2022; I was taking an afternoon nap on the sofa and my water broke.  I couldn’t believe it as I was just over 34 weeks pregnant.  I called Matthew and told him my water broke and I remember very clearly what he said, “Are you kidding me!”.  I said, “Yes, I mean no, I am not kidding you, we are going to have a baby in 24 hours!”  As he was working 3 hours away he told me to get Alexander to drive me to the hospital and he would meet me there.  Matthew thought to himself, “Here we go!”  Boy what a ride it was.  We will share a few thoughts as we reflect over the past year.

God gifted us with this precious soul to share with others. Matthew is actually very good at sharing and happy to do so.  I am more private and not as good at sharing, but Matthew did encourage me to share Maximilian and I did get better at this as the time went by and I saw that this was God’s plan to share Maximilian and his sufferings. God was using us as his instruments, and we needed to correspond to His will.  It really was a beautiful thing to share and allow people to help and support us on this journey.  It definitely lightened our load.  Your prayers gave us the graces we needed from God to carry this little cross.

When we think of Maximilian’s short four months living in this world, we see the incredible way God used him to touch the lives of so many people.  It brings joy to our hearts to think about that. God’s plan is truly beautiful.  When the world is so fill of anger and hate towards life, Maximilian showed us the beauty in life.  God is the creator who creates each unique and precious soul. Is the world fill with so much evil that it cannot understand that?  He had a special plan in mind when he created Maximilian.  We do feel Maximilian’s suffering was for souls.  To make reparation for sin.  We also feel he was suffering for the Restoration of the Church and  our family was offering up our suffering for this cause - the Restoration of the Church and in particular one local church:  St Irenaeus Chapel.  A large and magnificent limestone church with 19-foot tall, glorious stain glass windows of: The Crucifixion, Our Lady, St. Joseph and the 12 Apostles.  A church that has stood on a little hill in a small town for 150 years and had weathered storms, tornadoes, a derecho and had been neglected for 20 years but still in fine condition as it was built to stand the test of times.  They do not build grand churches like this anymore.  What a wonderful thing to be part of a Restoration project.  Over 22 families have come together to work on the Restoration and there has been over 2,600 hours of volunteered labor.  Maximilian’s story is so entwined in St. Irenaeus Chapel’s story.  It is really amazing.  If you are interested, you can check out the website at: www.stirenaeuschapel.org  The Updates link will show you all the process made over the last year and will record future progress.

After Maximilian’s death on December 12, the beautiful feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we were very busy preparing for the funeral in the wonderful church mentioned above.  There was so much to do but so many people helped to get everything ready in time for the funeral.  We thank God for all these wonderful Catholics families for their kind charity.  The funeral was beautiful.

We are surprised and so touched how many people have told us they ask Maximilian to help with this or that request they have. It is so beautiful that our little boy is called upon in heaven to plead to God to intercede for certain intentions.  It warms our hearts to know that our son is helping family and friends. 

Over the winter months we dealt with a lot of sickness and health issues. Our family had COVID (again), Stomach bug, flu, Chickenpox and then I had a miscarriage requiring an emergency DNC.  We are now all fine, thanks be to God, but on reflection that this did slow life down and give us lots of time for reading, prayer and spiritual mediation, board games, movies and just laying around taking it easy.   A blessing in disguise.  After such a crazy and hectic four months with Maximilian I think my body and mind needed to slow down and have down time to recover at home.  I really struggled at that time but now I thank God for many many weeks sitting in a chair taking it easy to recover.  Matthew was only sick briefly and was able to work with Alexander and Zachary and a bunch of men on the Restoration Project.  

We feel our children have adjusted well after Maximilian’s death.  As Hannah did a great job running the house while I was in the hospital for 9 weeks in total with Maximilian, the house had order and peace so our younger kids lives continued on much like normal.  I remember back in 2009 after Xavier passed away in the hospital and and I finally came home after being gone 9 weeks straight, Alexander, 5, Zachary, 3, asked me every night for 1 week if I would be home in the morning when they woke up and I told them, “Yes, I will be here in the morning, I am not going anywhere!”  They were scared to wake up and I would be at the hospital.  Hannah aged 2 (bright little girl who could speak very well for her age) asked me each night for 1 month if I was going to be home in the morning.  This is a long time to keep asking me the same question and getting the same answer.  It pained my heart to know that she was so worried I won’t be there in the morning.  I didn’t realize how much me being away at the hospital affected our kids, especially Hannah.  So, Matthew & I are extremely grateful to Hannah for running our house but more importantly for caring for her younger siblings, so they didn’t have to experience what she did back in 2009, while I was away at the hospital. 

As parents we raise up our children to know, love and serve God.  Proverb 22:6 says it nicely about training up a child in the way he will go so when he is old he will not depart from it.  In July, Alexander, 18, went on a Vocational Retreat in Minnesota for one week.  He came back and told us that he has decided to give God the first shot and try out to be a priest.  On August 30, he will leave home and start his PreSeminary year.  We are so proud of Alexander for trying to discern what God is calling him to do – it may be to become a priest and help souls or he may try it out, decide it isn’t his calling and then return to the world to become a tradesman with a wife and children of his own to help them get to heaven.  As a mother I am so sad that he is leaving us.  I so enjoy his company and wish I could keep him home for ever. Do other mothers feel like that? Alexander brings such energy, joy and laughter to our house and boy, do things get done when he is around – he is such a hard worker and so self-motivated.    Matthew will miss working with him. Alexander is a great machine operator and carpenter and it will be an adjustment for Matthew not to have him by his side.  Why did Alexander have to grow up so fast?  18 years flew by!  This new season of life is tough – raising them only for them to leave. We feel it is even harder having just given back Maximilian to let go of Alexander. However, it is beautiful also.  Even though we am so sad, we am so happy for him.  We can’t wait to go visit him and can’t wait for him to come back home to visit in October and Christmas.   We are sharing this so that you will pray for him.  It feels like the devil will attack people with Religious Vocations, so he needs lots of prayers, penance, and sacrifices for him.  We pray that Alexander will also do God’s will even when it is tough. 

Now for an exciting update about the headstone for Maximilian.  It was taking a long time to make as there was a supply problem.  However, we got the call on Friday, August 5, that it was finally installed.  Matthew and Alexander, after working a 70 hour week, got home at 8:00 pm we quickly loaded up in the van and drove 10 minutes to the cemetery to see the headstone before the sun set.  It was such a beautiful sight to see the smaller single headstone with Maximilian’s sweet face in the middle of the headstone which is right beside the larger double headstone of Xavier and Benjamin. The front of the stone lists our family motto; Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.  (For the Greater Glory of God) The back of the headstone has a lovely picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Maximilian died on her feast day.  It took Hannah and I one month to find a nice digital picture of Our Lady.   On the back it is written that Xavier and Benjamin are Maximilian’s brothers.  We will post a few photos to share, one the front and the back of the headstone and one with all 11 of our children.  We started this post with a Bible quote about children being an inheritance of the Lord and that is so true.  We are so blessed with our three little saints in heaven, praying for us, and 8 living children.  Matthew and I are not rich in the worldly sense but spiritually we are so rich. Three saints praying for us in Heaven and then 8 souls on earth praying for their parents. Also, we are surrounded by our wonderful Catholic family and friends – our brothers and sisters in Christ, praying of us.  Yes, we are truly blessed!

We will end with mentioning that there were so many families who helped us carry the cross of caring for Maximilian.  Thank you – God bless you for all your help!  There are too many names to mention.  So many ways you helped us.  We truly thank you!  Those words don’t seem adequate but know we pray for you, our benefactors, every day.   There are some very special families who we want to write their names down here to publicly thank but of few of those families would not want to be publicly thanked so we will just say to these special families, you know who you are (we hope so).  We are truly thankful for everything you have done.  May God bless you immensely.  Know that we pray for you daily and Maximilian is praying intensely for your family.  We couldn’t have carried this cross alone.  That was not God’s plan.  We carried it together.  It was a joy to carry it together.  Through Maximilian our families will always be united, and we pray that one day our families will be united together with Our Lord, Our Lady and Maximilian in heaven.  What a joyful thought! What a heavenly thought!

Restore all things in Christ

St. Irenaeus, pray for us!

St. Xavier Gabbard, Pray for us!
St. Benjamin Gabbard, Pray for us!
St. Maximilian Gabbard, pray for us!

Matthew & Elizabeth