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bettertomorrows-ao3 · 3 years

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Souvenirs from Space

Ellie is off on a year long mission in space. JJ wants a souvenir. [ao3]

“I’ll bring you back a gift from space, but it’ll be a surprise instead. Is that okay?”

Tags: Astronaut Ellie, Astronaut AU, Family Time, Fluffy times, Cuteness overload Rating: General

WARNING: I am now a fluff writer, apparently.

EllieDina Week // Day 7 // INFINITE

Name: Ellie Williams

Position: Mission Specialist

Duties: Survey effectiveness of vessel

Mission: Project Circinus

Duration: 392 days

Dina discreetly read the paper formally inviting Ellie on her first mission to space.

The news wasn’t sudden, of course. Ellie’s team had been petitioning for the trip for a decade, just a few years before they started dating. They always hoped for the best, but they weren’t expecting the world to catch wind of her wife’s passion project so soon.

It was on the third year of their marriage, when Ellie received word from her superiors that the President was personally interested in her project. They celebrated then, mostly shocked that Ellie’s project got picked up so quickly.

392 days is a long time to be separated from her wife, but Dina would be the first to reprimand herself if she ever stood in the way of Ellie’s dreams. They’d handled long distance before—that is if a three-hour drive counted as long-distance.

But that was a different time. Dina was in Dallas finishing her final semester at college, and Ellie was sent to Houston to start training camp at NASA. They saw each other on weekends and holidays, and it never really felt like they were separated at all.

This time is much more different. The trip to outer space is the most obvious contrast but explaining the distance and the location to their 7-year-old son was a different experience in itself.

So, Dina watches as Ellie and JJ lie down on the grass in their backyard. She’s sitting on a bench on the porch while her wife points out constellations to their little boy. The weather isn’t perfect for the occasion, but the scene is enough to warm Dina’s heart all the same.

“Are you going to disappear?” Dina hears JJ ask and finds herself laughing with Ellie.

“Nah, I’m just taking a big spaceship to visit the stars, Spud. Think of it like I’m going on vacation,” Ellie responds.

“Can you bring me one back?”

Dina sees the cheeky smile on Ellie’s face. She can tell how hard her wife is holding back her excitement to see their son so interested in her work.

“You want me to bring you back a star?” Ellie beams at their son.

When JJ eagerly nods, Dina is the first to burst out laughing.

She pictures Ellie hauling a giant rock after a year in space. Dina is sure that Ellie would be the first to jump at the chance to bring a souvenir back from her trip if she was given permission.

Bewildered by his mother’s amusement, JJ begins to fuss, misinterpreting his parents’ laughter for ridicule.

“I want the biggest star!” JJ stretches his arms wide to show the size of the gift he’s expecting.

With Ellie still winding down from laughter, Dina goes ahead and tries to explain themselves.

“JJ, honey, stars are giant rocks. Bigger than the Grand Canyon. I’m not sure your mom will be able to carry a star back home.”

Their son sulks into Ellie’s side, clearly unhappy with her answer. Dina’s heart breaks at the thought of having her two favourite people separated from each other.

“Tell you what,” Ellie gently coaxes him out to face her, “I’ll bring you back a gift from space, but it’ll be a surprise. Is that okay?”

Ellie’s words seem to do the job, and the surprise gift is all JJ talks about after her wife’s ship lifts off from the ground and into the stars.

It’s exactly 400 days from lift-off, when Ellie finally comes back home.

JJ is overjoyed and all Dina can feel is a strong sense of calming relief.

The same words repeat themselves in her mind: Ellie is safe. Ellie wife is home.

Getting their son to calm down was a challenge that night. His energy bounced off every room of the house, until it was time for him to go to bed. Much has happened over the past year, and as children’s thoughts quickly flit from one thing to another, JJ’s mind had forgotten about his request to get a souvenir from space.

He and Dina are in the master bedroom watching Ellie unpack her suitcase when JJ notices a gift-wrapped package poking out of the bag. JJ swiftly snatches the object and holds it up to Ellie.

“Is this for me?” he asks, eyes wide and twinkling.

“It’s your gift, bud. I promised you something from up there remember?” Ellie moves the suitcase off the bed and sits next to JJ.

Curious with the exchange, Dina sits up to peek at the object in their son’s hand. JJ immediately rips into the wrapper and holds up a small but empty mason jar, confusion replacing the smile on his face. He inspects the item before attempting to pry the lid open.

“Ah ah ah!” Ellie stops his hands from opening the lid, “you can’t ever open this container, bud.”

Dina’s brows furrow, but Ellie’s grin only widens when she sees the confusion on her wife’s face.

“What is it?” JJ asks, and Dina is glad at their son’s inquisitive nature. She wants to know what the empty jar is all about.

“I couldn’t bring you back a star, but I thought I’d give you something even cooler!” Ellie points at the little container, “this little thing? It has air from space inside it. That’s why you can’t open it because it’s special.”

“Air?”

“Yeah, Spud. There’s more of this up in space than there are stars,” Ellie explains, and JJ is quick to buy into the little gift he was given.

“How many more? Like, a lot a lot?” his little hands cradle the container, handling it with as much care as a child can muster.

“An infinite amount, dude. There’s so much of it that there’s no number to count. And the best part is,” there’s a lilt to her voice that makes JJ light up with delight, “you’re the only one on earth that gets a bit of it.”

The whole moment should be adorable, and Dina thinks it is. She’s amazed at the creativity behind Ellie’s gift, but an idea comes to her which makes the scene more comical than it looks.

It’s much later, when JJ is finally asleep in his room, and when Dina has shown Ellie just how much she’s missed her that the thought comes back.

They’re languidly swimming in the aftermath of their intimacy, but Dina needs to know something before they nod off.

“Babe, you still awake?” she mumbles.

“Hmm… a little bit?” Ellie responds, her voice sleepy but alert.

“I need to ask you something and you promise to give me an honest answer?” Dina feigns uncertainty and is content when her wife falls right into the trap.

Ellie stiffens in her arms, her eyes showing the tiniest bit of worry. Dina has to fight the smile threatening to expose her.

“You know you can ask me anything.”

“Did you give our son your space fart jar?”

“Oh my god!” Ellie relaxes and shakes the bed with her laughter.

“I knew it!” Dina teases.

“Of course, I didn’t!” Ellie exclaims, “I’m not stupid enough to keep methane gas in an enclosed container. That would just be reckless. Do you know the fire hazards that—"

Dina cuts her off with a kiss until she feels Ellie melt in her hold. Once certain that Ellie had forgotten her science-filled speech, Dina chimes in one last time, “space air, fart jar, same difference right?”

#elliedina week #ellie x dina #fanfiction #i almost titled this jar of farts kind of like that song...jar of hearts.#i obviously decided against it lmao #short and sweet fluff to end this fun event #fart jokes. best jokes.#and yes i'm in my 30s LOL #edw

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anastpaul · 6 years

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Saint of the Day – 27 September – St Vincent de Paul C.M. (1581-1660) “Great Apostle of Trumpets”

Excerpt from the His Holiness Pope Francis’ Message to the Vincentian Family on the Fourth Centenary of the Charism – 27 September 2017

“Vincent was always on the move, ever open to the discovery of God and himself. Grace entered into this constant quest, in his priestly ministry, he encountered Jesus the Good Shepherd in a striking way in the poor. On one occasion in particular, he was deeply touched by meeting the gaze of a man pleading for mercy and by the faces of a destitute family. There he saw Jesus himself looking at him, unsettling his heart and asking him no longer to live for himself, but to serve him unreservedly in the poor. Vincent would later call the poor “our lords and masters”(Correspondance, entretiens, documents XI, 349). His life then became one of unflagging service, even to his dying breath. A verse from Scripture showed him the meaning of his mission: “The Lord has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor” (cf. Lk 4:18).

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Burning with the desire to make Jesus known to the poor, Vincent devoted himself passionately to preaching, especially through popular missions and by careful attention to the training of priests. He quite naturally employed a “little method”, speaking first by his life and with great simplicity, in a familiar and straightforward way. The Spirit used him as the means for a great outpouring of generosity in the Church. Inspired by the early Christians who were “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32), Saint Vincent founded the Confraternities of Charity, who cared for those in greatest need by living in communion and joyfully sharing their possessions, in the conviction that Jesus and the poor are the treasure of great price. As he loved to repeat, “When you visit the poor, you encounter Jesus.”

The “mustard seed” sown in 1617 grew into the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity, then branched out into other institutes and associations and became a great tree (cf. Mk 4:31-32) which is the Vincentian Family. Everything, however, began with that mustard seed. Saint Vincent never wanted to be in the forefront but only a “seedling”. He was convinced that humility, gentleness and simplicity are essential for embodying the law of the seed that by dying gives life (cf. Jn 12:20-26). This law alone makes the Christian life bear fruit, for it teaches us that in giving we receive, by losing our lives we gain them and in hiddenness our light is best seen. Vincent was also convinced that this can only come about in union with others, as a Church and as the People of God. Here I cannot fail to mention his prophetic insight in recognising and appreciating the remarkable abilities of women, which flowered in Saint Louise de Marillac’s spiritual sensitivity and human understanding.

Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). At the heart of the Vincentian Family is the effort to seek out “those who are poorest and most abandoned”, together with a profound awareness of being “unworthy of rendering them our little services” (Correspondance, entretiens, documents XI, 392). I pray that this year of thanksgiving to the Lord and of growth in the experience of your charism will prove an opportunity to drink from the source and to find refreshment in the spirit of your origins. Never forget that those wellsprings of grace streamed from faithful hearts, rock solid in love, “lasting models of charity” (Deus caritas est, 40). You will be filled with that same primordial freshness only if you look to the rock from which it all flowed forth. That rock is Jesus in His poverty, who asks to be recognised in those who are poor and have no voice. That is where He is to be found. When you encounter human weakness and broken lives, you too must be rocks – not hard and brittle, impervious to suffering but rather a sure support, steadfast amid the tempest and unshaken by adversity, because you “look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the quarry from which you were taken” (Is 51:1). You are called to go forth to the peripheries of human existence to bring not your own gifts but the Spirit of the Lord, the “Father of the Poor”. He has sown you throughout the world like seeds that spring up in dry land, like a balm of consolation for the wounded, a fire of charity to warm hearts grown cold by indifference and hardened by rejection.

Saint Vincent embodied this in his own life and even now he continues to speak to each of us and to all of us as Church. His witness invites us to keep moving, ever ready to let ourselves be surprised by the Lord’s gaze and His Word. He asks of us lowliness of heart, complete availability and humble docility. He prompts us to live in fraternal communion among ourselves and to go forth courageously in mission to the world. He calls us to free ourselves from complicated language, self-absorbed rhetoric and attachment to material forms of security. These may seem satisfactory in the short term but they do not grant God’s peace, indeed, they are frequently obstacles to mission. Vincent encourages us to invest in the creativity of love with the authenticity of a “heart which sees” (cf. Deus caritas est, 31).

Charity, in fact, is not content with the good practices of the past but aims to transform the present. This is all the more necessary today, given the complexity and rapid evolution of our globalised society, where some forms of charity or assistance, albeit motivated by generous intentions, risk abetting forms of exploitation and delinquency, without producing tangible and lasting benefits. For this reason, Saint Vincent continues to teach us the importance of reflecting on our practice of charity, developing new ways of drawing near to those in need and investing our efforts in formation.

His example also encourages us to make time and space for the poor, for the new poor of our time, of which there are so many and to make their worries and troubles our own. A Christianity without contact with those who suffer becomes disembodied, incapable of touching the flesh of Christ.

I pray that the Church and each of you, may be granted the grace to discover the Lord Jesus in our brothers or sisters who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, lacking clothing and dignity, sick and imprisoned, as well as in those who are uncertain, ignorant, persisting in sin, sorrowing, offensive, irascible and annoying. May you find in the glorious wounds of Jesus the vigour of charity, the blessedness of the seed that dies to give life, and the fruitfulness of the rock flowing with water. May you also find the joy of leaving yourselves behind, in order to go forth into the world, free of nostalgia for the past, fully trusting in God, and creative in the face of every present and future challenge. For love, in the words of Saint Vincent, “is infinitely creative”.…Vatican.va

St Vincent De Paul is among the Incorruptibles.

#stvincentdepaul #september27stvincentdepaul #catholic #catholicism

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letsviewonlinepaydayloans-blog · 6 years

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