The Announcement
Chapter One
Friday, December 20, we woke up to snow covering the ground. Snow for Christmas! It was the last day of school before Christmas break - so much festive anticipation as the boys left with their wrapped cereal boxes for their Christmas “brunch”/cereal exchange, and the girls got all dressed up in their fancy dresses for theirs. The older girls had flown in Wednesday night, and Martin and Thérèse and Joan were arriving at noon! As the girls brushed their hair for school and I sipped coffee, Brian told me he’d just gotten a text from a guy on Trump’s transition team saying he’d reach out later that day. That’s interesting, we thought… wondering what it meant. Maybe they’re going to start the vetting process. That must be it.
I left to drive the girls to school. My plan was to drop them off, then go back home and shower and dress and go back myself for the Christmas brunch, since as faculty, I was invited (I never made it back for the brunch). When I got back home 15 minutes later, Brian walked into the kitchen and told me that Trump had called! I nearly fell over, then yelled “Trump!! He called! Did he call? Oh my gosh!!!” Jumping up and down, hugging Brian as he’s laughing. I should’ve known something was up when all the big girls were up and in the kitchen looking at me and smiling. So right after I had left the house, around 8:30 am, Brian got the phone call from the transition guy who said, “I have the President for you,” and just put Trump on the phone! So yeah, Trump called my husband and asked him to be the United States Ambassador to the Holy See… and then went on to have a 15 minute conversation about a range of random topics. The older girls figured out what was going on and popped out of bed. By the time I walked in the house, Brian had just hung up.
We were frantic with excitement, wondering what to do next, who to tell first. We thought we’d have a couple days to tell close family before the news was public. But within a few hours, they told Brian they were going to release the news soon. That sent him into a panic to tell the people he needed to and get the ball rolling with Catholic Vote about releasing the news… they’d need graphics, social media posts, an email, etc. I was in charge of our personal list of contacts, and finding a good family picture to send out. The first priority was telling our kids - Martin and Thérèse were about to take off on their plane, and at first we thought we’d wait to tell them in person, but when we realized the news might get out, we decided to tell them right away. I didn’t want Martin to see it on Twitter (ok, X) first! Luckily we caught them before they took off - they said they were silently screaming with joy trying not to disturb the other plane passengers. A little while later, I tried to text Sam, hoping he’d see the text and call home before someone told him, and I also called his school trying to catch him. He ended up not checking his phone though, so Sam and Ben walked in a few hours later with no idea. They wondered why Brian was home, sitting at the kitchen table working on his laptop, til Libby blurted out in her scratchy sore throat voice, “Dad got a Trump call!” and broke the news. (I had had to go pick Libby up at school because she wasn’t feeling well). Gracie and Ella got the same announcement when they walked in.
We were all so amped up, I was nervously pacing around annoying Bridget because I couldn’t sit still. We were monitoring twitter closely to see when the news broke. And then Bridget saw it - “It’s out!” Everyone switched into execution mode - sending out the texts. Our phones were blowing up. Of course, I texted our parents and siblings first, and then close friends and our pastor. Within minutes, I was fielding incoming congratulations from everyone, including people I hadn’t heard from in months. Brian was getting 10 times more of course. Everyone was just thrilled for us and so wonderful, sending heartfelt congratulatory messages and promises of prayers.
Then I had to leave for the airport! I may or may not have gotten a little distracted and missed my exit, but it didn’t matter because Southwest lost one of their bags so they had to wait a bit anyway… but soon I had Martin and Thérèse and little Joanie safely in the car headed home. I had to fill them in on the morning’s happenings of course, how it had all happened. They loved seeing the snow which by then was mostly melted. When we got back home, finally everyone was together - it was Christmas break - and we were in celebration mode!
Around 5 o’clock, friends and family started stopping by, champagne and appetizers in hand. We had a spontaneous party… eventually I just made the huge pot of shrimp pasta I’d been planning for dinner and everyone dug in. Father Tom even came over when I texted him that we were celebrating. Brian gave a toast telling the story of how it had all come about - the novenas, the waiting, the networking, the phone call…
The next night, my parents hosted an elegant Christmas party with all my siblings and their spouses so we got to celebrate again. My mom gave us little pins of the Vatican and American flags together - she said she had bought them recently, not really knowing why. Now she knew.
And what better way to kick off our Christmas break! I was and still am so grateful that we got the news on the day when all our kids were home under our roof to celebrate together. Each one of them was so proud of Brian and so happy to be here with us that night. As a mother, being together that day was THE BEST. All those weeks of waiting and praying, and God had the perfect plan all along. Cheers!