Meli's world

This past week I was fortunate enough to take a family vacation to Colombia. My parents homeland. A nation I had not visited since 2004. It was a privilege to be able to see family and relatives I missed and I was able to go with my parents, husband, kids and my sister, husband and nephews. Though we were staying in Cali, the city. We were able to spend a few days in a town called Darien up in the mountains with a splendid view of Lake Calima. This was my view. With plenty of land. Two guest houses. An outdoor kitchen and patio. A pool on the edge and chickens down below. It was a perfect kick off to the vacation for some relaxation and family time. Except, everything at this height scared me. The kids running around. Horse playing. Being kids. -- frightened me. There were hills and cliffs and edges. And a sidewalk without railings that separated the two guest houses. Plus the pool that seemed almost like an infinity pool that was very close to a cliff.  I feel like I spent t...

I find so many of the lessons God teaches me come through parenting. The week before last, I encountered one of those situations as a mom that made me feel like Momma bear ready to protect her cubs at all cost. My son Emmanuel, has been dealing with a difficult kid all year long. I found that it seemed like no matter what, it was difficult for my son to get along with this boy. He told me stories of this boy being rude, calling others names, and making fun of anything my son did including him getting new glasses. Our response as parent, was always for Emmanuel to choose kindness and respond with an encouragement for the kid to remind him he could do better. Emmanuel was slowly losing his patience.  And I couldn't understand why they budded heads so much when they were once friends in 1st grade. I didn't address any of these stories with my son's teacher until the day he came home telling me the other boy kicked him. That same day an email went out to my son's te...

If I am going to be honest, when I started this blog I wanted to name it Meli's Messes, because when it comes to marriage, and motherhood, I feel I have made a lot of messes of it all. I struggle with feeling inadequate and like a complete failure at times. I am not sure what triggers this when I thought of myself as "confident" and the fact my truth is rooted in God's word (for the most part). Perhaps it is the pictures we paint on social media of perfection. Perhaps its our brains are oversaturated with looking at images of other Moms who seem to do it all. Work 60 hours a week, meal prep cooking gourmet healthy meals for the family, working out 5 hours a day even becoming body builders, or running a home based business, all while being able to homeschool or be present at every school event, and looking completely wonderful with their blowdried hair looking like they came out of a salon or stepped out of a Tresemme commercial. Their nails are done...

Today, my husband of 12 years turns 30! and to think that I have known him since he was 16 leaves me a bit emotional. I am very blessed to call him mine and be the one who gets the privilege of being his wife. But if you happen to call him family, friend, or co worker, you are pretty blessed too. This guy exudes so much of what I hope to be one day..... loving, selfless, generous, humble and easy going....... Here are a couple of the reasons I love him. I am bypassing the traditional birthday card this year and going all out with this blog..... Babe, 1) You Seek Jesus first! - nothing is more important to you then seeking God, His kingdom, and His direction for your life! “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33 ” 2) You serve! This has always been something that attracts me to you. you are so willing to help anyone in need and give up your time to do for others.... anyone needs help you are there! Mann...

The sun rises on 2017, as the sun set on 2016! And a new year is always time to reflect on what has been. At the beginning of 2016, God gave me the word MORE. Which I thought was so vague. Yet looking back, I see God makes no mistakes. And the word more was going to describe and encompass so many areas of my life. First it started with more GROWTH. More seeking God's direction for my life. We started the year off in a church wide study entitled free and even joined Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes. This series along with these classes convinced us there was more to living than being slaves to debt and that God has called us to have freedom to be generous givers. This was just the beginning of the journey this mentality would send us. There was also more serving....in the kids ministry. Yup, Saturday nights remained our night to teach, to lead and to give God our time to sow into kids lives while their parents get their time with Jesus. It has been ama...

Dear Emeli Sofia, My princess, my chiquita, mi niña linda! Happy 5th birthday! Today you are 5! Its such a huge milestone.....  As I lay here next to you watching you sleep I can't help but thank God for your life, for choosing me to be your mom and for letting me experience such a love. You are everything I didn't know I needed. You are one brave young lady. And though you just started kindergarten less than two weeks ago, you have already matured so much into following directions, making friends and being away from grandma or family for such a long period of time. It probably makes it easy you already know so much from your alphabet, to colors, and simple math. This past year has brought ypu lots of growth. Its a big difference to when you cried everyday refusing to go to pre-k. Its awesome to see your personality blossom and watch you become the unique you you are right before my eyes. You love swimming!!! And fashion trying different colors, hairstyles and ac...

I know.... what a dramatic title. But most of you who know me know one of my favorites is Christian hip hop. And in the words of Lecrae, this is something I've been thinking about a lot the past couple of weeks. "If I die tonight, I gon' know that I Gave this with my everything If I die tonight If I die tonight, you ain't gotta cry Cause I know that Heaven waits If I die tonight"- Lecrae I started trying to eat healthy and clean a couple of weeks back.  I figured I would start feeling better more energetic and this time around I'd finally conquer my weight. Except, I started feeling like I hadn't before. Tired. Out of breath. No energy. Headaches. Sweating and feeling hot almost daily.  At first, I thought it was just my allergies and the b-12 deficiency I've dealt with in the past. But it was worse. And soon, I felt I couldn't exercise or have the energy to meal plan at the end of the day I wanted to sleep. one day, I looked at my hands...

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 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...

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 ...