Birthday Month: One Day At A Time!

What breakfast looks like on a good day (missing - string cheese)

So I continue to celebrate my birthday each day, somehow! Since my last post, I ran the Neon Run with my friend Sara. That was fun! Pictures will come later. (Unfortunately, they are at home on my camera.) That was this past weekend!

So lately, I have been reading this:

One of the ladies in my support group read this after having her miscarriage. She said it helped her out a lot. I didn't realize the book she was offering for someone to read until, at the end of our time together, I looked over since nobody went for it and took a second look. This is EXACTLY the book that I wanted to order a couple of months ago!

I had been listening to John MacArthur's series in the mornings about what happens to babies/children when they die. It perked my attention for obvious reasons - I had a miscarriage last year. I have never really heard a pastor talk about this with such compassion and detail. He was not giving your typical pat answer. So with good intentions, I meant to call their ministry to obtain this book for free but that time went and left but it was always somewhere in the back of my mind. So when I asked if I could have the book, she said, "sure!". And when I picked it up, I was like, "Thank You Jesus!" I was meant to get that book at that time and it was so encouraging. It's moments like that, though I know His love never stops, but it's those tangible moments that I know God really does love me (us) and He does answer prayer!

Recently this happened to my dogs:

Both doggies got groomed! It was a Happy Birthday present from me to them :)



And last but not least I got to watch this:

Sorry for the quality, but you get it.

Last week, on April 9th, my birthday twin called me, while she was having 3-minute apart contractions to see if I wanted to come to the hospital to watch the process of her giving birth. Um, YES! I was so excited and honored that she would even ask me. One of the songs that played while on the way up to the hospital was "Happy" by Pharrell. Such a good song and appropriate for the moment.

I arrived at the hospital around 6:00p.m. and went to the top floor of the hospital and called both her and her husband's phones. He answered and peeked his head out of the room. I walked down to the room and inside to find her laboring in the tub they had in the room. In between contractions, she was able to talk but I tried to give them as much space as possible. Kind of like being a fly stuck on the wall.

As contractions increased, I headed over to the waiting room where my husband brought me some dinner and we ate together. I love that my husband was there and at the same time, I felt like I was a nurse on call. After 30 minutes or so, I told Adam that I should go back to the room and he so wanted me to stay with him. We had no idea when baby was going to be born, but I didn't want to miss a thing and he wanted to be with his wife, since he was not allowed in the room. So, I decided to stay in there with him for another 30 minutes and while in there my friend's husband ran into the room to drop off a cup for me to fill up with water to take back and went back to his wife's room. So I filled up the cup, told Adam I would be back and went to the room.

She seemed to be doing well but by now in a lot of pain. They had ordered up an epidural by then and were waiting. So I went back to the waiting room and waited there a little bit longer.

I said goodbye to my husband and went straight to the birthing room! I'm so glad I did. Her nurse midwife was coaching her through her contractions, which kept coming like the waves of the ocean slapping on the shore. They were getting closer, like 90 seconds apart.

That was 7:30 pm. They finally got her out of the tub for a second time (since I've been there) and took her to the bed where she was in extreme pain, still waiting for the epidural. As the nurse was trying to coach her to breath, I sat on the side of the breathing "for her" and praying. The nurse asked her was she pushing. Whatever her body was doing, that's what she was doing.

The nurse midwife, tried to wait for the doctor but she called some other nurses in to get the cart ready and to set up the room. And they did it quickly and efficiently! One nurse even introduced herself to me. How nice!

My friend wanted a mirror so that she could see the birth. But that baby was not waiting because by 8:00 p.m., the nurse lifted one of my friend's legs and there was a head and the other nurses helped his little body the rest of the way out!

She had her natural birth! She wanted a epidural but by the time they had ordered it, she was already 8cm.

He came out and started crying. Tears came to my eyes the miracle that was happening before me!

Amazing! Extremely Amazing!

Happy birthday little guy! Thank you for making my birthday month a bit more special!

Until next time,

Mrs. M

Ready, Set, Glow!!!

via Neon Run Facebook

Yes, it is that time again where I push myself to do a 5k! I know, no big deal, right? It's just 3.1 miles! Like I've said before, I am NOT a runner. Okay, maybe just a little.

The times that I do get out to run and maybe push myself a little farther than before, I feel SO good! I'm a little halfway there. I ran an estimated 2.2 miles this morning! Ha ha! I run with my little chihuahua/retriever mix (don't ask) :). She does pretty good for herself! Of course, there are times where she wants to stop at a scented spot here and there that's new to her but I tug at her harness and tell her to keep going. But sometimes the stops are a welcome relief. There are other times, where she will start sprinting and so that encourages me to move a bit faster. It's nice to have a cute running buddy!

One day, oooone day, I'll get to a half marathon! I'll put that on my bucket list.

Oh, birthday month update! So this past weekend was a blast! I have several other April birthday friends and I got to celebrate one of them this past weekend. I celebrated with my friend, Gracie, who by example, showed me I need a little, no A LOT of color in my life! It's amazing the colors that you can put together. You should try it this spring and summer! There are so many colors to wear! You just might pick up someone's face with a smile!  It was fun spending part of her birthday with her and some other friends.

Gracie is in the middle!

My friend Nefertari (above picture, right), came and visited too! I know she was so happy to see Gracie and to hang out with us. Nefertari is not only my friend but a purse diva, I carry one of them with me all the time! She's also a food connoisseur. On her way down to visit us, she stopped at a couple of her favorite spots to pick up some of the items she loves, so she can take them back home to enjoy, a little at a time. She even brought me an early birthday cupcake from DOTS. It was so very moist and though the cake was not too sweet, the icing made up for it. Thank You Lord for friends.

Sunday, I was so exhausted from the weekend that after we went to church in the morning and looked for a microwave, I just wanted to go home and take a nap. And that's just what I did, a two-hour-nap!

Later on that night, I had a good cry. I found out I hurt my husband's feelings, more like embarrassed him and I didn't realize it. I was caught up in the moment. But I should have known, by the small signals he was giving me or the look he gave me.

So after our heated exchange, I left the table to cry. I wanted to stop the tears but I'm like, you know what, it's a okay to cry. I gave the situation to the Lord and asked Him to help me to understand my husband better and to help me be aware.  I told my husband that I was sorry for what I did. Though it was a hard night, he forgave me. We talked about it later and I got a better understanding. Plus, we had the best make up ever!

So here's to another week of birthday fun and celebration!

Love, Mrs. M 



 

The Last Day of April

Well, it is the last day of April, April 30th to be exact. It has been one wonderful month of celebrating life in so many ways. And I can't wait to catch up!

I think it's been a week or maybe longer since I have written anything and I have a lot of catching up to do! But I will spread it out in the next several posts.

I hope you all have been doing well. I'm looking forward to reading most of the posts that YOU have already written. They are waiting in my queue to be read.

For the past week, my husband and I had the wonderful opportunity to help build a home in Ensenada, Mexico for a very needy family.  Along with some people from our church, we connected with another church with a ministry called  EOC YUGO Ministries.

This ministry comes along side the local Mexican churches to be the helping hands and willing hearts to help care for the poor in their area. They invite churches to come along side them to help build homes for those in need.

I wish I had some pictures on hand but as some of you might know, I am at work and most of those pictures are at home. I will download some for you in the next post.

It was a great experience to say the least! When you are put in an environment that you are not accustomed to and in a land where you barely speak the language, you are more than likely to be stretched! And if you don't come away grateful to God for what you already have, then some heart "surgery" needs to be done.

Before we left, my husband had been complaining about our yard and the house this or that. But the last day that we were there at the dedication ceremony, the mom cried and said that she had NEVER lived in a place like what was built for her and her family and how she was so grateful to God for this place. (Imagine a basic house with no running water and only a outhouse for a bathroom. There is only dirt around your house, some grass (if you could call it that) by the side of the road and water running down the road from a broken pipe.)

My husband cried. He said after that, he had nothing to complain about.

But aside from the poverty, there was a lot of beauty that I saw. The smiling faces of kids, the eagerness of those kids to help us get the house painted, the sharing hearts of the family who made us lunch with the little money they make, the ocean that you could see in the FAR distance from the house, the love that you saw emanating from the mother toward her family and the simplicity of our surroundings.

After several days of wearing the same jeans, fitful sleep, riding on some of the worst roads, doing my best to communicate in my broken spanish, learning to choose to have a good attitude aside from being uncomfortable at times but working with some great people, I would do it all again.

I'm very grateful that God gave my husband and I this opportunity to work on this project and just to be His hands and feet aside from ourselves.

Talk to you later!

Love,

Mrs. M