SPOTLIGHTING THE FUTURE – THE BOBOS – ONE OF OUR YOUNG FAMILIES
by Valeria Stokes

Assumption is located in a rapidly developing urban residential area.  Serving the community for their faith based needs is important and can be a challenge to address changing landscape and generational lifestyles of the area.  Sometimes the transient nature of the community may interact with our ability to sustain a welcoming place for worship.  To that end we would like to spotlight a resilient faith based family, Stephen and Karen Bobos, their toddler Scarlett Ellen Bobos and new born daughter, Daphne Josephine Bobos who have conquered the pace and found solace with their faith. 

Stephen and Karen are very familiar to the 7:30 am Sunday mass.  While living in Streeterville, Karen started attending mass here in 2002.  Karen, a native Chicagoan, and Stephen from NW Indiana are Catholic baptized and reared.  They were married on January 1, 2011 by our pastor Fr. Joe Chamblain and began attending mass regularly at “whichever mass worked with Stephen’s work schedule”.  They became regular attendees of the 7:30 am mass after Stephen’s sporadic work schedule changed.  The 7:30 mass was perfect because they enjoyed starting the day with mass, followed by their family time with a nice quiet breakfast.  Once they had children, they realized the mass time worked perfectly with their schedules and has continued to be a part of their family weekly schedule. 

Karen says, “Father Joe has always been so available for any questions we may have. He blessed both our pregnancies before the girls were born. He even came to the hospital to baptize Scarlett the day after she was born.  She was born with a rare skin condition and did not know her prognosis until months after her birth.”  Scarlett was born on September 12, 2013 and her baptism was completed in church on November 2, 2013.  Daphne was born on April 17, 2015 and baptized on June 6, 2015.

Karen and Stephen have grown to feel that the regular attendees of 7:30 am mass, although they do not know everyone's names, have become like family.  “We love having everyone visit our pew after mass to see our little girls with their genuine interest in their well-being.  We truly look forward to seeing everyone each Sunday. We appreciate everyone's understanding of our 20 month old's constant verbal distractions. It is our goal to have our children learn how to behave at mass by making sure this has been a part of their life from day one. Both of our girls have only missed mass the weekend after Daphne was born.

The Bobos plan to be “city residents”, rearing their children in a culturally diverse environment.  When asked why Assumption their response was:  “We are comfortable here with our children.  Assumption offers a welcoming atmosphere of worship for families with young children.  We do not feel judged if we come in late because of unpredictable delays.  Scarlett is received well even with the noise.  She loves to look at everything, and the mass is interesting and relates well to our life.  The prayers work well with the child’s attention span and our daily routine.  We are able to listen to Father without controlling the activity of the child.  Mass is part of our family day and routine:  Mass is a celebration for our family.  We dress up for church, attend mass, followed by breakfast.  It is our family time.”  They are most grateful to the blessings of God.  Their advice to young families:  "Assumption has the ideal environment for families to attend mass and educate their children on the importance of having a faith-based life without feeling the need of being stuffed into a quiet room in the back of a church. Knowing that children typically wake early, we recommend trying the 7:30am mass to see if it would fit as a part of their weekly routine, as it fits so perfectly for our family. It is not an extended mass, which works well with little-ones' short attention spans. The regular attendees have always made us feel so welcomed.  Scarlett gets excited on Sundays when we tell her we are heading to church."  Assumption welcomes the Bobos and all other young families to be a part of our community.

 ===============================

ASSUMPTIONS FRONT YARD - THE BLESSING OF OUR GARDENS
By Susan Gold

Our Garden Club has worked extensively over the last few years to create the most beautiful respite in the neighborhood.  Springtime is so lush with beautiful color from the blankets of flowers that flow around and through the front yard of Assumption welcoming anyone who stops to look or walk through going in or out of the rectory and the Church.  It’s become a place that brides want their wedding pictures taken to record their special moment in time and tourists come to record their visit to Chicago after attending mass with us.  A haven has been created for people working in the neighborhood to stop and eat their lunch in the quiet surroundings, ignoring the noisy traffic passing by.

One section is known as Bridget’s Garden.  To celebrate the life of Bridgett Kennicott, Katie Kennicott’s granddaughter who suffers from Batten Disease, a rare infantile disease that has no cure.  Katie has spent many many hours working on our front yard but nothing gets her attention as much as this special garden.  As he does every year after the 9:00 a.m. mass on a Sunday in June, this year June 14th, Fr. Joe blessed the front yard and all its gardens,  especially Bridget’s.  We had a very nice crowd there and John Eskola sang several hymns.  It was a very rainy day but God had the sun shine brightly for the one half hour we needed to gather.  A true blessing that we all were a part of.  Please enjoy the gardens and next year come to the blessing, there’s always coffee and donuts too.

These are a few pictures of that lovely Sunday morning.  One of them is Katie and her gardening partner, Jan Miller, along with little Bridget and Sarah her mother.  (To learn more about Batten Disease go to Hope4Bridget.com)