In keeping with the tradition we started on our honeymoon, we headed to the Eiffel Tower first, only this time we we had our beautiful baby doll with us.  It was a cold, windy day, unlike the sultry, warm June night of 2007.  The tallest structure in Paris, it stands at around 81 stories.  We made our way up all three elevators, each with their steeper ascents, to reach the top.  Burk and I decided to have a champagne toast and we bought plastic fluted glasses that lit from the bottom.  Multi-colored lights flashed up through the sparkling wine as it fizzed and tickled my nose.  For me, this was full circle and well worth the symbolic splurge.  I had the true love I had waited so long for and now our miracle child for whom I had so fervently prayed.  In keeping with that knowledge, the next place we revisited on our short weekend was Notre Dame.  The church had been blacked from years of candle soot and incense the last time we visited.  We were shocked to discover the entire interior with its high vaulted ceilings had been scrubbed clean and I thought these ribbons were particularly resplendent in Easter’s wake.  The whiteness of the stone only served to heighten the splendor of the rose windows.  It turns out we were lucky enough to be enjoying the 850th anniversary celebration of the famous French Gothic cathedral dedicated to Our Lady, the mother of our Lord.  As you walk along the church, different naves are dedicated to her and her manifestations to people around the world.  Our child did not walk at a year like others and I was not the least bit concerned;  I waited 41 years to hold my own baby.  I remember she was getting squirmy so I decided to put her down.  To our utter amazement and true delight, our Marian child began walking completely on her own in the church dedicated to the mother of Christ.  She started at the Virgin of Guadalupe and just kept going.  We could not even keep up with her and I found myself whispering “excusez nous” as we weaved in and out of visitors, frantically keeping eyes on our suddenly independent and mobile toddler.  Transcending all the languages I heard being spoken as I passed, people from all over the world smiled kindly and they could see by the glow of pride and astonishment on my face that our little one had literally just started to walk.  My husband and I were beaming.  With sudden clarity I knew this was where she was meant to take her first steps — surrounded by the Ever Blessed Virgin Mother Mary.  The French abbot Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said this:

“In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary.  Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart.  And that you may more surely obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps.  With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.”

I have written before of the unexplainable connection; I wanted to honor that when I named the child she had promised me.  And so Maris Grace began her first steps in Notre Dame.