Mother's Day

I know I am late in writing this, but I have had so much going on and am now playing catch up. Mother's Day was fabulous this year.

Alessandro takes over on Mother's Day every year and won't let me lift a finger, unless I have to! I don't cook, do dishes, laundry or any other form of "housework". He tries to completely take over where the kids are concerned, but naturally, there are some things that only a mommy can do (nurse)!

Dro usually has to work on Sundays, but he traded shifts with someone so that he could spend the day with us.

After a fantastic church service, Alessandro took over the kids and Hailey and I got to go out for lunch, just the two of us. We went to Oregano's and had delicious salads! I don't get much time alone with Hailey these days, so my time at lunch with her was definitely a highlight!

Once we got home, the kids were still napping, so Alessandro insisted that I nap too. It felt so good! The kids woke up and played outside in the water for a while.

When playtime was over, bath-time commenced. We put Nora to bed at about 7:00 p.m. and Hailey took responsibility for Luca. She fed him and put him to bed so that Alessandro could take me out to dinner. We went to my favorite restaurant, True Food Kitchen where I had the delicious Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad, Local Arugula, Beets, Pomegranate, Lemon, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, followed by a Banana's Foster Milkshake from Zen Burger and a walk around the Biltmore. Truly Amazing!

The only thing missing this mother's day, was spending it with my mom...I really wish she lived close by.

Thank you for a fantastic Mother's Day! I am so thankful for the family God has so generously blessed me with!

Nora's First Birthday

My sweet, sweet baby girl is already a year old and I feel like she was born just last week! Some of Nora's attributes...she is such a content baby, she loves to cuddle and be held, she has a smile that just melts me, she loves to hear her own voice (in a pleasant way), she only cries when she is teething, hungry or needs to be changed, when she is tired she starts to grab her ear, and everything she does is dainty. She was even dainty eating her first piece of birthday cake! She would grab pieces of it with her index finger and her thumb and kept herself clean for a while! Once she got a little comfortable with the taste and feel of it, it was coating her hands! So precious!

I am so thankful to Jesus for Nora, I am overwhelmed that He would choose me to steward over her life...what a big responsibility, I hope I do a job worthy. At times, I just want to freeze time. I just want to make it stop because these moments are precious and they are going by way too fast.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

God's Protection

Friday was one of those days where I had just about every minute planned out and accounted for and in an instant, all of my plans were debunked. We went to get Hailey's passport for her mission trip to South Africa on Friday morning.  She was following me in her car and there was bumper to bumper traffic as it was 8:15 a.m. On a two lane road, with a ditch to the right of me, traffic began to move and so did I. Before I knew it, the cars in front of me slammed on their brakes, and in order to miss hitting the vehicle in front of me, I did too. Not only did I press hard on the brakes, I swerved onto the gravel to avoid collision with another vehicle. In doing so, I lost control and landed in a ditch. My little ones, Luca and Nora were in the backseat unaffected emotionally or physically. They just continued to watch their movie. Like I said, Hailey was behind me and she got out of her vehicle and in a panicked voice asked if I was okay. In her words "I thought you were dead!". She said that all she saw was my vehicle bounce up into the air and land in the ditch. From my position, in the car, it felt as though it were almost completely on its side. I thought for sure the car was crushed on the passenger's side. I called Alessandro and told him we were okay, but that I didn't think the car was going to make it. At that moment, Hailey came up to my window and told me that the body of the car was not touching the ditch. Obviously, I didn't completely believe her, but I climbed out of the car and saw for myself that there was very little damage done to the car, and it was in fact, not touching the ditch. Hailey almost rode with me and if she had, there is no telling what condition she would be in. She took her own car because we figured she would get to school faster that way. It was as if God lifted my vehicle and placed it into the ditch very strategically. I remember thinking that I wished I had my camera with me so that I could take a picture because nobody was going to believe me.
The police officers were very kind and went above and beyond. So beyond that one of them got Nora's stool on him. So gross and a very long story!
Okay, I guess I have to elaborate a little on that one. Of all days and times, Nora's diaper leaked up her back and I pulled her out of the car first, without knowing the state of her back. She rubbed against Luca's car seat and got it dirty. The officer took Luca out of the car, but left him in his car seat and he grabbed the exact spot of the soil. He was so gracious about the whole thing!
So, anyhow, the guy with the tow truck showed up and decided that if he pulled my car out himself, it would cause damage, so he called for another truck and together, they slowly and steadily lifted my car out of the ditch and because these men took the extra time and took pride in their work, I was able to drive my car away after a couple of hours.
I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to meet these 6 very kind men who were so helpful and considerate. I feel overwhelmingly blessed and grateful to the Lord for his hand of protection over my children's lives and my life.
So, my plans were thwarted and my car very slightly beat up. Big deal! I was told several times by several different people, "I hope your day gets better" and my response was, "I can't really complain about today because my kids are safe, I am alive and my car is drivable!".