I Could Possibly Be The Luckiest Mommy In The World...

Really, I think I am. My kids are such a tremendous blessing to me. The other day I got Sophia dressed and she told me, "mommy, I a cutie pie". I told her she very much is and she told me to take a picture of her. So outside we went. Here are a few pictures I got of her. Words cannot ever describe how incredibly blessed I am and how thankful I am.

One Sick Mama, Sick Kiddos, and Valentine's Day

Well, the worst happened. We all (except Juan) caught the stomach bug. Sophia's was short lived, thankfully. By Monday she was reduced to a cough that the doctor said to keep a close eye on. Luckily it went away without any type of medicine. Monday morning I was feeling very nauseous and decided to put a bag in my car incase I got sick on the way to take the kids to school. I made it back home and was feeling a lot better so went on about my day...lots of washing since Sophia had been so sick. I went to pick Merci up at 2:00 and she was crying that her stomach was hurting really bad. I pulled into the shopping center to go in and get her gatorade. I decided she wasn't well enough to go in so I wanted to take her home to stay with Juan while I ran back to the store. I gave her the bag just incase. Thank the Lord I did, because within seconds she needed it. I pulled over very quickly and tried to not throw up myself. I cannot stand the thought, site, or smell of vomit. I just can't. Ugh. I get her home and fixed in her bed and ran back to the store. By the time I get home she had thrown up a lot more so I called the nurse hotline. She tells me to take her to the ER, which I thought was silly. I already had the medicine from Sophia's prior visit on Saturday and knew there wasn't much they could do. But I took her in anyways. They inform me there is a nine hour wait. There were two people in the waiting room waiting who insisted they were having a heart attack. I knew it would be so ridiculous to stay there for nine hours just to be sent home. So I took her home. We were home about five minutes and I started throwing up. A lot. I was miserable trying to take care of sick Merci and a spunky two year old. Juan and Andrew tried to keep their distance from us hoping they would avoid the virus. By 10:00 p.m. Andrew ran down the stairs throwing up. This was a nightmare. Juan looked like a chicken with his head cut off running around trying to tend to all of us. I gave him Merci and Andrew duty and I made a pallet in the downstairs bathroom. Juan went Tuesday morning to pick up the rest of Sophia's medicine. Luckily the doctor gave us extra knowing we would need it. We took some and that was the end of the throwing up. Juan went to work and we laid on the couch all day watching movies. It was an adventure. The kids were back to school on Wednesday. Thankfully it was a short virus.

I am so glad we were all better because Thursday we drove over to San Diego and met up with an old friend from Florida. Him and his wife became very good friends of ours and their daughters are absolutely precious. He was here for a short school so it was only him but we had a great time. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack on the ocean. It was beautiful. We played catch up and had a fun time. We headed back home and the kids finished up their Valentine's Day cards for their parties.

On Friday, the kids celebrated Valentine's Day and had a blast. I was combing Andrew's hair and he said, "mom, don't make me too hot, ok." He makes my heart smile, really. Merci had fun decorating her cards and spent extra time on her "favorites".

Juan was so excited about our gifts he gave them to us on Friday night. He got the kids books and play dough and some other things. He got me a two year package to a tanning/spa close to our house. It is awesome. I have been a lot since he got me the package. It is so relaxing!

Andrew had his first t-ball practice on Saturday. He did great! He is loving this sport, I don't know if he will ever go back to soccer. Merci starts soccer practice on March 1st and is super excited. I know she will do great.

I feel so blessed. And I have said this before and I will say it again, our God is truly amazing. The power of prayer amazes me and I feel incredibly blessed to serve Him. I look forward to growing each day in Christ. I am only human and recognize my faults and thankful I am forgiven for them.

The Invisible Mother

I have over a thousand unread emails in my inbox. I do not log on to my email by the computer very often unless I really need to and I do not like reading them from my phone. So a lot of them go unread. However, I was checking my email to see if Merci's soccer coach sent any information out and saw an email my mother-in-law sent. The title "The Invisible Mother" caught my attention because I can relate. I opened it up and began reading. It was a very touching email. It spoke of a mother who, over the time of raising her kids, began to feel invisible to everyone. She merely felt like a woman who sacrificed so many things for her family being a mother and it all went unnoticed and unappreciated. A friend gave her a book about the cathedrals built in Europe. The little book changed her entire views. The people who dedicated their lives to build the cathedrals made a tremendous sacrifice for something they would not even see the end results of. One of the most touching things I took from the email is when she concluded "the passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything." This is true about mothers as well. There are days I am sure my husband comes home and probably thinks to himself "wow, what did she do today?" If he only knew...

Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs. As clique as it may sound, it is very true. There are days I am sure it would be easier to put the kids in daycare and head to a 9-5 job. But I want to raise my kids and we are blessed enough for me to be able to stay home with them. I love being able to watch them grow and knowing what is going on in their lives. So as some days it may appear I am "griping" a lot, it is because it is a very stressful adventure. It isn't only about making sure they get their homework done and are at school on time, it is about making sure they are being raised so they can function as adults in a society that is so harsh. It is about making sure the values you want them to have are implemented on a daily basis so they never forget. Because once they are out on their own, their is very little you can do to change your mind about how you want them to be. It is teaching them about their faith and how turning away from God will only bring them hardship. It is teaching them about the consequences of their actions and how much they can affect their lives. It is teaching them about waiting to have sex for when they are married and not to do drugs, and having to do that without being so harsh about it that they want to rebel and do it anyways. Being a mother is hard. A lot falls on our shoulders. A lot. And I am not at all saying it isn't hard for fathers. I know it must be extremely stressful to have to worry about financially supporting a family and making sure your family doesn't go without they need. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my husband and the sacrifices he has made, not only for us, but for our country. I know him better than anyone else and I can honestly say he is an amazing man. At the end of the day we both want the same things, to be appreciated and recognized. I am certain God sees what I am trying to do for my kids and I am certain as long as I keep praying and believing he will help me achieve what I need to. And if my kids turn out to be respectable people and serve our amazing God, I will feel that I accomplished what I need to in life. And if it goes unnoticed to others, I know God has seen the sacrifices I have made and he will always appreciate me.

The last thing she says that I found point on is this "No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become". (These were her thoughts of what God would say to her)

I think after reading this email, I should make an effort to open more of the unread ones.

Oy!

There are only a few things I can think of that are worse than seeing your baby sick. Especially a two year old little princess. And the fact that it came out of nowhere makes it a tad worse. Saturday we got up super early and took the kids fishing at Pond Park. It is a catch and release pond so we just took Merci and Andrew's poles and let Sophia be in charge of the net. You aren't allowed to use live bait so we took a loaf of bread and hot dog weiners. We were walking up and saw an older man with a lot of fishing gear ready to fish. He was ahead of us and already thrown out his pole. The pond isn't huge. It is way more long than wide. We stayed a good distance from him but what my kids did next made him look at us like we were the most evil people he had ever seen. What did we do you ask? We threw a piece of bread to a single duck. This caused about 50 ducks to come out of nowhere running across the water, over the man's fishing line. They were quacking and diving for bread and it seemed like there were a million of them. I couldn't imagine why the man would be so mad. It wasn't like you were trying to catch dinner. It was a catch and release. And arent' parks more for kids anyways? I looked at all of the signs and nothing ever said to not feed the ducks. Finally the kids stopped feeding the ducks and started fishing. After a whole 2 minutes they were discouraged they weren't catching a fish. So they ran around and threw more bread. Another man walked up with about seven fishing poles and he had his game face on. Really? It is a catch and RELEASE pond. He knew every fact about fish. And I mean EVERY fact. He even showed us pictures. Finally we decided to walk the kids to the very end of the park so they could finish off the bread. They had a blast and afterwards climbed some trees. The perfect day. Around 10 pm Sophia told me her tummy hurt. I didn't think much of it and she fell asleep without a problem. I took her to bed and after I got out of the shower I heard her crying. She had thrown up all over her bed. I changed her, put the sheets in the washer and took her to my bed. She threw up again. And again. And again. By 1:30am she had thrown up about twenty times and I knew she should go in. As I am getting her out of the carseat she does it again. I take her in and they give her a pill and within 30 minutes she is feeling much better. But as we all know the ER is a very slow place, meaning they are bad about getting you in and out. At least that's how this hospital is. We finally get home by 6am and we are exhausted. The other part of the virus soon set in and Sophia was miserable. She finally fell asleep at 3pm and slept until 6am. Now she is feeling much better but has a nasty cough. I am hoping for a few things...Sophia feels better, the sickness skips me and Juan, and the sickness skips Andrew and Merci.

Prayers

Life is short. Life is unpredictable.

I keep up with a family whose daughter is fighting brain cancer. I have followed the story for a while now. I have cried and rejoiced with the family. I have found myself on my knees begging God to heal this little girl. And things were going well. After a horrible round of treatments, she was considered in remission. And this family has kept their faith better than anything I have ever witnessed. And today, as the little girl went in for a routine scan, they were very confident they wouldn't find anything bothersome. But they were wrong. Another spot was found. I have never met this family and my heart hurt for them as if it were my own. I was in shock, as the little girl has come so far and has not shown any signs of a new tumor. The parents are begging for prayers. Praying to God for a miracle. They know He can heal her. I pray, and I ask you to join me. We serve an awesome God and He can heal her, if it is His will.

After I read the news of the little girl and said a prayer, I looked over and saw Sophia sleeping. She looks so peaceful. I cannot put into words the feeling that I had. For a split second I imagined her being the one who is sick. I couldn't fathom it. I had to quickly change my thoughts and pray some more. It could easily be her, Andrew, or Merci. Or me. Or Juan. Or anyone in our family. I cannot imagine the pain the family is going through. I cannot imagine the thoughts the little girl must have. All I can imagine is our Father. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. None of us, no matter who we are. Rich or poor. Beautiful or ugly. White or black. The only thing that is for certain is we are all children of God. We all have a chance to be saved.

Here is the link to her website. Please pray for her and her family. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

Juan is now a Captain! I am so proud of him and very grateful for his hard work. He is very dedicated to the Marine Corps and they are very lucky to have him!