Parenting: A Burden or a Blessing?

Today I worked late and as I was driving home I was silently praying that the kids would already be asleep while wishing that I didn’t feel that way. As I drove home I grew anxious…almost dreading the inevitable…my kids, my WIDE AWAKE kids!! I tried to suppress the impending dread by replacing it with beautiful thoughts of two little people greeting me with BIG HUGS and smiles and love as they normally do. I tried to remind myself that I LOVE them to pieces…I do…I really do…I tried to imagine a peaceful bedtime with no screaming…just stories and sweet lullabies…I imagined a fairy tail, where I am transported to this beautiful land where there is only laughter and happiness, rainbows and sprinkle cookies.

Children are a gift from God. But they can sometimes feel like a burden. They take a lot from us emotionally and have the potential to suck the life force out of us. A few weeks ago Alexis put me to bed…I mean, after 2 hours of tantrums and sheer and utter emotional torture of watching my sweet darling baby go from a baby to a toddler right before my eyes I laid on my bed and cried. I was exhausted…emotionally exhausted. This is parenting.

Birthday Celebrations!

I can’t believe it has been one year Alexis has graced us with her beautiful presence! I find myself holding her ever so tightly not wanting this baby phase to end. To say that she was a good baby is an understatement! Each day I have been blessed to have her smile light up my day. Jared’s dad said she lights up like a 100-watt bulb whenever she sees me! And so she does. I look at her and she smiles…Ohhh, and I don’t want it to end. We are celebrating her today and the rest of this week, culminating with a birthday party on Sunday. I am so excited for her party and thrilled we actually have friends to celebrate with since we have only been in Miami 7 months. Even with that I see God’s blessings as we slowly build our new community.

There have been times I have felt so alone on this journey. Especially since I don’t have my mother to share these special moments with because of her mental illness. I remember sitting at a traffic light in Tallahassee a few days before Alexis was due and tears filled my eyes as I longed to have my mother…a mother… to share this journey with me…Its times like that I felt alone. 

Home Buying 101

About five years ago we purchased our first home. Here’s a little bit of what I wish I knew then BEFORE we purchased our home.

If you know you are not going to stay in a home for at least 5 years DO NOT BUY! I didn’t know this even though I did a lot of research prior to buying. We knew we had about 3 and a half years and thought that once Jared was in his last few months of residency we would just list the house and boom it would sell. WELL, we listed the house for 3 months prior to his graduation and received not one offer. Not even a low ball offer! We found renters at the 99^th hour that paid for our mortgage, property taxes and homeowners insurance. That was a blessing. TODAY our home is back on the market and we are looking for renters. We have no idea if it will be sold or if we will find renters in the next 10 days. Once September 1 reaches we will be footing the bill for everything and wondering if and when we will be relieved from this burden. Research shows that it takes about 5 years for you to break even with your home…NOT make a profit, but break even! Let’s think about this for a moment, if I buy a house for $200K and sell for $200K, why do I need to wait five years just for that to happen? Well let’s look at a breakdown of the expenses we had in just our 3 years of owning a home.

Parenting is Hard Sometimes

Hello blog! I know, it has been a WHILE since I last posted! Shrew!

So the latest, I am 17 weeks pregnant and Jayce is turning two…More like the TERRIBLE two. OMG, I feel like I am loosing my mind sometimes.  Parenting can be so rewarding and yet at the same time so frustrating!! Ugh! It’s also something that really highlights our inadequacies.  I lack so greatly in patience and tolerance sometimes. This is the stage for testing boundaries and being very demanding. His new thing now is saying, “mine! Mine! Mine!” And if you don’t give it to him its meltdown mania! It’s constant battle of redirection and ignoring foolishness. But sometimes it’s hard to ignore…And sometimes, though you understand intellectually what’s happening, emotionally you are on a tight rope!

How to help a family who has lost a child

I came across this blog post and found the suggestions beyond powerful! Sometimes we don't know what to do when people hurt in the most devastating ways. Here are some helpful suggestions…I especially LOVE the coordinated effort to write a letter once a week for a year…Amazing!

http://www.gracecoversme.com/2014/02/in-her-shoes-ministering-to-women-whove.html