Welcome to Fairest Love Families! This series highlights families throughout the United States who have a love for their Catholic faith and a devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Meet Sofia Niño, her husband Charles Dana, and their three children.
Charlie is from California, born in Virginia but then raised in Sacramento. Sofia is a first generation American born in Connecticut, and throughout her childhood made regular visits to Argentina often to see relatives. She and Charlie met in Texas when they attended the University of Dallas. They noticed one another at daily mass and eventually met in a social setting. They have three beautiful children: Alvaro who is 4, Milagros is 3, and Lucas, who is 1!
What role does your faith play in your family life?
Our faith is an integral part of our family life. We recognize that children need their parents to show them how to pray, to be virtuous, and how to love! In that responsibility we as parents have, we pray with them, talk to them about Our Lady and about Christ, and bring them to Mass.
Charlie and I grew up in families with strong family traditions, but we have also felt it extremely important to bring some new traditions that are ours into our family. Although our kids are still little, we try to build our traditions heavily around feast days.
What religious traditions do you have as a family?
Charlie and I grew up in families with strong family traditions, but we have also felt it extremely important to bring some new traditions that are ours into our family. Although our kids are still little, we try to build our traditions heavily around feast days.
We’ve incorporated into our family celebrating the feast of the three kings, always on January 6th, as it is traditionally celebrated in South America and Spain. The kids prepare food and water for the camels, and lay out their shoes. Once they’re in bed, Charlie and I decorate the entire living room with chocolates, candies, and put the baby Jesus on display as receiving all the gifts. We try to create something with an air of royalty, but enough for a child to digest. So, lots of gold colored candies and we wrap the door to the living room with wrapping paper as a topper to the magic. We feel like it’s really important to celebrate this feast day, as it illuminates in a clear way the importance of Christmas. A holy day where we properly adorn the Child Jesus, just as the Three Kings did.
What is your favorite family devotion or prayer?
Our favorite is saying the family rosary. Back in 2019, we had a miscarriage when Alvaro was just 9 months old. It shook us deeply. We were still new to marriage, new to being parents. After we lost our baby, that we were so excited to have, it made us recognize that we needed to lean deeper into our faith. So we decided to start saying the daily rosary. It has been our rock, and we feel it has protected our family beyond measure!
What do you hope your children understand from this devotion?
We want our children to understand that the Rosary is our strongest line of defense. We want them to understand that through a devotion to the holy rosary, Our Lady will keep them protected.
Share a moment when the Blessed Mother has helped you through a difficult time…
It feels like the Blessed Mother has helped us through every crossroad we have faced. First, when we miscarried, and again when we moved to Italy. We had only been living here for a few months when Milagros, who at the time was just 6 months old, had an accident while she napped one afternoon. The day of her accident I was folding laundry, as I prepped bags for a trip we were taking the next day. I don’t know why, but I felt inspired to say Memorares for each of my children as I picked up their article of clothing to fold.
That morning, without realizing, I had only folded Milagros’s clothes, so I had spent the morning praying for her. After that I went up to check on her and found her unconscious in my bed, where I laid her napping. After shouting at my neighbors in broken Italian for help, I awaited an ambulance and performed CPR on her the best I could. She breathed new life again after many moments of me continuing CPR, with the help of my neighbors. The ambulance came, we went to the hospital, did many tests and check ups on her, and she was perfectly healthy.
I’m not sure what happened, but I attribute it all to Our Lady, whom Milagros is named after. Nuestra Señora de los Milagros!
What about your faith do you hope to impart on your children?
We would tell them to build a relationship with God the Father, with Our Lady, with Christ. To talk with them through all the highs and lows of each day, so that they can create a strong bond, particularly for the future when they’ll be making their own decisions in their lives. This is so that they will already have a good understanding of who they need to go to for help.