We are a home-based, family-run apostolate and publisher, and while we do strive to ship within a few days, there are times when family events and emergencies may arise. We ask for your patience with us and remember that we are not a large online company with many employees, but a Catholic homeschool family like most of you, and we will take care of your needs as best we can. While we cannot keep the stock of a large company, we do attempt to make that up with our personalized service. God bless you and your families!

+Mrs. Rita Davidson, Founder
Little Flowers Family Apostolates
Little Flowers Family Press &
Our Lady's Martyrs of Purity Crusade©

Most people would like to know just a little about us and for anyone who knows about our work, they know us pretty well too. Our 'Family News 2' newsletters that came out every year detailed the ups and downs of our family and apostolate work and was sent free the years we put it out.

Other than that, the editorials in our publication Our Lady's Request... also fill in some of the gaps of our life and work. Others learn more about us from the introductions to our Little Flowers Family Apostolate Catalogue & Modesty Resource Guide and flyers or when they call us, and lastly, others still learned about us through the many articles I have written in the past in publications like The Catholic Health Letter, or Full of Grace and others.

But to all others we would like to say, Welcome to our Family - our Family Apostolate!

We are a Traditional Catholic homeschooling family with eight children, two in heaven (so far!). We began this work, when our previous work suddenly came to an end a month before Christmas in 1996. Not knowing what to do, I prayerfully took the last of the money we had and bought a new computer system. Just months before I had begun publishing The Catholic Health Letter on a friends' computer and had a small hand-typed Little Flowers catalogue and now that seemed to be the only work there was left for us! The investment in the computer was the only way I could see to be able to 'speed up' and professionalise the work I had just previously begun. So began our journey.....

After eight years experience with a Natural and Environmental mail order catalogue business I thought my past experience would be a great help to my newly founded Little Flowers catalogue founded on a newly refreshed and fervent faith that had begun when we began home schooling our eldest so many years before. Now I had a great desire to help other families rediscover this Faith that I had finally found. Little did I know the plans God had in store for us.

At the very beginning of our new journey, we were thrust into such overwhelming poverty that it often brought us many sleepless nights. We found our rosaries and our knees and a religious friend who encouraged us in prayer for God's providence and over time helped us to discern that God was leading us to a life of holy poverty. I was fighting with tooth and nail about accepting this holy poverty all the while whining and complaining and worrying.. Then came the proof of God's watchful care, through supporters who appreciated our work and felt called to offer help, donations or whatever. It came in the form of comforting letters, bags of good used clothing, meals dropped off to us, extra food sent our way, donated labour to build a website for our apostolate (four times now), donated curricula so we could continue homeschooling each year, a new used van bought for us when we went five months house-bound because we had no vehicle, our first fax machine given us for our apostolate work, a large donation just in time to cover our small mortgage that had bounced, a last minute donation that helped us print and mail a new catalogue and each year brings us more such stories of God's good providence...

In fact, all these things came and do come JUST when we need it and not a day earlier. There were many other items through all of this that we discerned was something God didn't want us to have, since it seemed impossible to keep it. Like the three washing machines we went through in one year before finally resorting to permanent hand washing for four full years when we were finally helped to buy a new machine with a blue console right on the Feast of the Assumption! Or, our three TV stations that we used to get, being knocked out for good when our antenna was knocked down or the bread machine that worked for a dozen or so loaves before quitting for good and the cramped space of 800 sq.feet that we used to live and work in, that had no end in sight for us to expand..until God finally directed to us to this new place we now call home. A GIANT miracle story all by itself! ... and so our family lives and works.

All the time and effort involved in writing and publishing two newsletters(now only one), my book on modesty, typesetting our many publications and various creative items for families, and reaching families with our work plus home schooling leaves little time for us to accomplish much else, so we discerned that we were to rely on God to provide for our material needs, like he takes care of all the flowers - the least of His little ones, as so we continue our work, always begging God for what we need and He has never let us down! Whenever we are faced with a difficult situation and we assume God is leading us, perhaps, to another path of work, we are again shown that He can accomplish ALL THINGS if we but trust in Him. A few years back our apostolates had grown deeply in debt and the debt was literally strangling all of our work. We pleaded with God for months, and the waiting was excruciating for us. So, after begging St. Philomena's help we finally saw a glimmer of hope, but little did we know that through her she found for us a generous soul who donated enough for us to cover most all of our debt! And so we were led to understand that God saved us because He wants us to continue and so we do. And so we beg all our friends, new and old, to pray for us. Pray for our continuing spiritual and temporal needs. That God will inspire those who He wishes to use as His hands to help us, since He has no other hands to help us except those who respond to His call.

And we continue to serve families attempting to live in the spirit of holy poverty. Relying entirely on God's providence for our daily cares while we work to provide families with the tools they need to teach the faith to their children through the items we have been inspired to create or the books we have been inspired to write or publish, or the thousands of prayer cards and items that we freely distribute to families everywhere like our Catholic Family prayer book, now out of print, and many others. We hope to serve many more families and we are grateful for all those that have passed our way already that we consider our friends. We have come such a long way since we began in 1996....

On a more practical note I will introduce you to our family who all lend a hand in the work we do:

*Our eldest, Sierra, is our first homeschool graduate. She now works for Little Flowers Family Apostolates and is happy to remain here with us. She works in the shipping, bindery and accounting departments for us, content to be useful. She loves being home and has no desire to go on to further education and so keeps herself busy planting the garden, cooking and canning when not working for us. We love having her here with us for as long as that might be. She is a great help in the kitchen too and just about everything including recommending to us some items that have become bestsellers for us!

* Kenna is 16 and is our up and coming author! Her past publications of her story "The Sad Angel" and poems like “Requiem” she has a long list, including her first novel we hope to have ready in 2007 which she wrote when only 14! She also helps Sierra in the shipping department too. At other times she helps watching the little ones, packing orders, cleaning our work area and with mailings. When not working for us she is an avid writer and has proved her worth in excellent written pieces. (Like Mother like daughter?) She does little errands for us and is an excellent reviewer of items such as her reviews for: Princess and the Kiss, Fr. Dudley Series, Catholic Talks for Young Women.

* Hannah is 12, and still helps with mailings and testing some of the prototype items we make while keeping her little brothers busy too! Especially running after her busy brother Joseph! She has now become an avid artist, and has taken up piano and is entirely self-taught. She has remarkable abilities with her piano and art and we are hoping to use her drawings for future publication as well. We'll keep you posted!

* August is nearing 10, and is a neat and busy growing boy. Either trying his hand creating something from the many materials around the house or loading the woodstove! He is very helpful to us by lifting heavy boxes (when he can) and opening them with his homemade wooden jackknife from Dad. Other than that he is still great at making little Joseph smile and his other brother Andrew yell!

* Andrew is 6 now, and keeps himself busy working on intricate drawings or train layouts, he can also still yell, not surprising for this our only red-head! we were relieved when this late talker finally learned all his numbers and ABC’s ahead of time! He still loves trains, the sandbox, and blocks and now k’nex; building intricate layouts with them. He has a harder time getting along with Joseph now but is learning patience. :)

* Joseph, is nearly 3 years old now and recites and recognizes all his ABC’s and is counting to 10. He is is even more busy than he was before and we have to be extra watchful of him. But, his big blue eyes are so happy..it’s a real joy to watch him grow and absorb all around him. He enjoys Pat-a-cake and other songs if we can slow him down long enough!

* Lastly, but not least, Mark, is Dad here our silent St. Joseph, and helps keep the younger ones entertained making wood bows and hand carved swords for the boys (and girls too!) when he isn't busy repairing the many little things on this big old Victorian house we now have, (or keeping the three fires we have stoked in winter!) or cleaning up our bush, and so on..and pitching in with dishes and supper (he is a great cook too!) when needed.. and giving his full support so that I can accomplish the work that I do by helping with parcels and so on.. It is with his full support that makes all this work possible.

* And then there is me, Rita, mom first and homeschooler and then: writer, publisher, typesetter, designer, marketing dept, customer service and soon webmaster. All the various other titles that come with apostolate work that I do, including all the bindery now that we’ve added our own printing equipment in-house. I accomplish all this work with God’s grace, from our old Victorian General Store that is our apostolate home, Deo Gratias! But I have some of the greatest help available besides our lovely family (yes, I am biased! :) and with all the heavenly help we have interceding and working for us.

They are:

	St. Theresa the first inspiration for Little Flowers and the constant inspiration for our simple life.
	St Francis of Assisi who has been a great comfort and inspiration in our dedication to living in holy poverty to accomplish our apostolate work.
	St. Raphael who is Patron of Health and therefore, Patron of The Catholic Health Letter© too.
	St. Maria Goretti, Patron of Youth and Purity and so appropriate Patron of Our Lady's Martyrs of Purity Crusade for modesty which we founded in 1999.
	St. Maximilian Kolbe, Patron of all our publishing efforts as he believed in using whatever technology necessary to accomplish his publishing efforts and so we use whatever technology God provides us with to accomplish the same.
	St. Philomena, our latest, Patron of our financial needs, since she was is so effective in obtaining for us the funds needed by our always struggling apostolate every year and the new vehicle we needed after five months without.
	And lastly, St. Michael the Archangel, who is the great defender of God and now Patron of all our work but especially our redesigned website and all our online work, which was originally uploaded on his feast day and we pray for his constant protection of our family and our work and his ever watchful guidance and care as we seek to do God's will in our life and work.

God bless you and your families....

In Christo Rege!

+Mrs. Rita Davidson, Founder
Little Flowers Family Apostolates
Little Flowers Family Press &
Our Lady's Martyrs of Purity Crusade©