Meli's world

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...

  A couple months ago I prematurely announced on my facebook to family and friends that I have decided I want to be a teacher.... and I still do. Except with the thought of loans and school debt, and lots of praying, came the selling of our home. Selling our home allowed us to wipe 12 years of debt and also to look forward to going to school and obtaining a Bachelor's in Elementary education which is my goal and dream job. However, in these months we have been going through the process of selling not only our home but also getting rid of a lot of our possessions, moving, and still continuing kids ministry at church, I have had a lot of time to think, pray and reflect. And wait. I didn't sign up to start in the fall like I originally wanted since life has been hectic. But I'm thinking God wanted me to wait since my heart doesn't feel as confident anymore. I know the heart is deceitful above all things, but making a life decision like this this definitely h...

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...

This past week some days were cloudy, dark, and rainy with just a few hours of sunshine in between. And sometimes that's exactly the state of mind we fall in to. Cloudy, rainy and barely sunny.  I wallowed in self pity about almost everything and my mood was deteriorating fast.... it was like my mind went from Sunny Florida days to thunderstorms rolling in almost immediately like a typical summer afternoon. I was frustrated with my cravings and lack of weight loss despite doing more then ever before. I was frustrated with what seems to be the kids never ending fighting and bickering.  I was feeling annoyed by my husband despite him being the sweet loving guy who comes home to help me with dinner..... I was lamenting that right now is not a good time to pursue education.... I was even listening to the voice that says I can't blog about what I'm learning. ...... I haven't learned it yet. For the past two weeks, I was more attentive to my feelings then the word of...

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. ...

Last night we decided to make it a movie night since I was sick all day. We always like to pick family movies that we can enjoy with the kids. We ended up watching "Mom's Night Out". The movie was all about a stay at home who had 3 kids, and always felt overwhelmed with everything. These kids' misbehavior was definitely exaggerated for the movie. She was a clean fanatic who was also trying to run a blog. She seemed a bit OCD trying to have everything in order and under control all the time and there was so much in her that I could relate to! As a mom, there were so many expectations I held in my mind before I actually had kids. I still have expectations in my head on a daily basis. All ones that I'm learning to let go of. In my mind, the kids will be great, we will have a nice family meal, do school work and still have family time or reading time. In my mind everyone will say yes mom and get things done. In my mind, I won't burn the rice. The kids will eat ...

  Our family before you. When I was just a mother of one. When I thought I had the whole parenting thing figured out. When I was all into boy stuff and didn't know what having a girl was all about.   Eme, my baby girl today you turn 3 years old. 3 seems like such a big number to me. Perhaps, because you're my baby and I'm not ready for you to grow up. I remember finding out we were having you. I didn't think I was ready but after that dream of me buying pink baby stuff, I took a pregnancy test to find out indeed you were on the way. No one could convince me you wouldn't be a girl. And the name Emeli, your dad had made up a few years earlier for his video games combining both of our names was yours instantly. Emeli meaning eager. And an eager little girl you are! We tried to find a middle name that would go perfectly and decided Sofia meaning wisdom would make you an eager wise girl. We were still living at your grandparents house saving up to buy a pl...