Meli's world

Even though I was reminded I havent blogged in 52 days, I had to write my end of year blog. Before I can even think, plan or imagine what 2016 can hold for me, I have to reflect and thank God for the wonderful year 2015 has been. At the beginning of the year, I felt God tell me the word for the year would be BRAVE, and all I could imagine was to face the year with Courage, without Fear. So the year started like most with my birthday..... turning 26 and feeling great about where I am in this point at my life. I could hang on to a million regrets about not having gone to college or having a "career", but I look at my husband, my kids and all that we have created and i know i am right where God wants me. Its been His grace and mercy that have provided and continue to sustain me. I can say I didnt blog as much as I did last year, or as much as I wanted to. But I did feel like I was investing and being present in the moment with everything i was given. I have gained so muc

This past weekend, we decided to take the kids to watch Peanuts. I grew up reading Charlie Brown comics in the Sunday paper and loved all the TV Holiday specials so much. I thought it would be a great day for our kids to gain appreciation for these old classic characters. And Emeli thinks Snoopy is just the cutest dog ever, so they were just as thrilled. We, as parents, are very selective with what movies we support at the box office and what  we allow our kids to watch, but with a "G" rating and good reviews it sounded like something that would really just be innocent fun cartoons. We didn't know what to expect as far as the story line, but as someone who lives in a cartoon world in my own head, I was pleasantly surprised there were no villains. Besides a red airplane that Snoopy daydreams and writes about. The main story line was Charlie Brown's "inadequacy". He always felt he was just ackward, with no real talent, or anything to make him stand ou

Tonight we got home from church and Manny, my 7 year old son was a bit hungry. He ate some of the leftovers from dinner and asked me for chocolate milk. Being tired and in the middle of packing lunches I did what any good mom would do, I gave him a bottle of chocolate milk. The ones I pack in his lunchbox instead of making him some. It was most convenient at this moment, not necessarily lazy. Almost immediately he was in the kitchen asking me to open it for him. Kind of bothered he was interrupting my flow again, I said "No, open it like you open it at school". To which he replied: "I don't, I get Sean to do it." Now I wasn't bothered at his interruption at all anymore, I was bothered by his lack of effort and finding out he hasn't been opening his own milk.  The conversation that followed though, thankfully is full of the type of Gold moms dream of. "Manny, how old is Sean?" - 7 "What grade is he in?" -2nd "How many

The past couple of weeks  I have really been diving into the goodness of God and just wanting to get plugged into more of Him, and to seek Him more. A couple weeks ago our pastor said "Draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you" James 4:8 ..... so what do you do when you want to be closer? You seek Him more. It all started with me really digging deep into the study I've been doing Saturday nights with the kids in family ministry. The one theme we have been learning about is all the things God entrusts with and one of them was experience. We don't always choose what happens to us or what we go through but it's all about what we do with those experiences.... and then came the women's event "Unshaken". That kind of went with the theme. Because here I got to hear from women of God like Nagmeh Abedini whose pastor husband has been violently imprisoned in Iran for 3 years. Her testimony, her strength and her unwavering faith in God was inspiring.

  I know it's been a while since I last wrote, so why not break the dry spell with what I've been going through and what I'm learning. School started about a month ago here in Florida. For my little one Emeli, that meant starting pre-k. I'm not sure what she envisioned it to be but she was super excited. She talked about it for weeks, we went shopping and she couldn't wait to start. The first week went ok. Then the next week, she hated the place. She was refusing to go. Crying about it at home. Didn't want to talk about school at all and just was making herself miserable and anxious about it. So we did what every parent would do and switched schools. She started there fine too. And it seemed to be a more hands on and playing curriculum than the other school. However a couple days into it, again she was refusing to go. Except this time we knew she loved it. She was coming home talking about her friends, all she did and how nice her teacher was. Thi

It's been a while since I followed up on the Marriage is awesome series. 6 months actually and marriage hasn't stopped being awesome, I have just been working hard to make sure it stays that way. My husband and I have been connecting in other ways developing friendships, and serving at church on top of our full time jobs and kids of our own. When I started the blog and this series in particular, I felt led by God to tell of my experiences and what I've learned to be encouragement, to be light, to be salt. I knew not everyone would be interested in what I'd have to say but if at least one person read it and was encouraged to grow in their faith, their love or marriage, then it was all worth it. In a culture where people don't believe in marriage, marriages are ending in divorce and it's hard to tell the married people apart from the single people, I felt led to tell the world why and how marriage can be awesome. Instead of other people.painting a picture

  I tried to write this while we were in Trinidad last week and I was inspired by my surroundings. Mountains!!! Something we never see in Florida. It's funny cause just a couple of days before that I heard Usher blaring somewhere and I remembered what I considered my favorite song at one point ::: Moving mountains. You know the sappy love-break up R&B song???    About 5 years ago I could relate to everything that song was saying. A love gone wrong. The bad taking away the good. lyrics from Usher's "Moving Mountains" Trying and trying and nothing seeming to work. I really contemplated divorce at this point in my life. My husband and I had been married close to 6 years and had a baby boy. We were struggling to make it out of my parents house and everything seemed to be a fight. I don't know looking back I felt a lot of resentment for entering marriage so young with nothing, struggling to find an affordable place where we could feel

So it's tuesday, and at this point it's been over a month since I last blogged. There's been so many different things try to come up and take my time and defeat me in feeling writing has no purpose, but when Manny asked me this weekend what my favorite Bible verse was, I was reminded of my goal, my vision and mission to encourage others through writing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11, therefore to encourage others. My life verse. My blog verse. My email signature. No matter what I am going through I was reminded God has called me to encourage others with everything I go through myself. Talking to my husband this weekend as well, I was reminded of childhood dreams to be a writer and a teacher. After bypassing college, getting married and having kids, I put those dreams behind me. I could never imagine exactly how I would end up doing what I love. I have a job, bills to pay. But God does have a way of giving us the desires of our heart once we delight ourselves In Him, and when we

Note: I am a 26 year old woman who has been with my husband for 11 years and married 10. I am writing this in response to a column entitled "5 reasons we can't handle marriage anymore". I think marriage is one of the greatest relationships we can experience and wanted to paint a picture to the other side of the story. Marriages today can still work. The million dollar question? How? Its a pretty simple concept- you choose to love, to commit and share your life together. Our great grandparents and grandparents did it. and for many of us so did our parents. How can we? Many of you will ask what me gives me the right to share my opinion. I've been married myself. And I'm only one of the many people today who have succeeded at marriage. And while some of us have decided to persevere at marriage for better or worse, others have chosen divorce and convinced themselves they're better off. These same people, though, are quick to point the finger

Today is the end of a season for our family. For the past 4 years my husband has had a second job to help cover expenses and to continue to provide for our family. Today I can happily say its his last day! He took on this job 4 years ago.. (when this picture was taken and we were expecting Emeli) and it has been a great blessing and income for our family as we  prepared for the new addition, to buy a home and just tackle all the expenses that come as homeowners and parents. We haven't gotten rich yet and we can still plan for those unexpected expenses but its no longer a necessity. Our focus as a family has shifted into having more time for one another, investing in the kids real family time, in friendships, and in continuing to serve in the Kids ministry at our church. We have realized there are things far more important than making money and time is something it can't buy. I have to say it scares me a bit to let go of the extra income, but I know I will love my husband

I think its awesome how God works with me in themes. I'll be going through stuff not knowing what's going on and He will point me in the right direction with just a song or a verse.  The past couple of weeks I have been consumed by a million little things. Colds, allergies, my husband, the kids, the volunteer hours, the budget, the bills, the appointments, my discipline and self control and failure to keep up with my eating, my exercising....and even things that I pick up from those that I love and I wish I could help. I didn't feel stressed or overwhelmed cause I rarely ever admit to it. But I haven't even felt like I could write.  However as I stopped at a red light yesterday, one of my favorite worship songs came on and at that red light that took two cycles to turn green on me, I had no choice but to be there soaking in the lyrics.  But the chorus really got me and it said::: "I'm running to your arms, the riches of your love will always be enough, not