In November Sergio asked me what kind of gift I would like for Christmas. I quickly responded that I did not want any gifts this year. I had already decided in my heart that I truly did not need a thing and after looking around at all the treasures my home held it was confirmation my needs and wants have been met. After the puzzled look came off of Sergio’s face I continued to tell him my plan. I honestly had put a lot of thought into what I “wanted” this year.
I got down to his level placed my nose against his nose, this is how I get his attention, and begged him to honor my wishes. I explained to him that I have everything I need and I would feel so much better if I would stat to give all the extra things in our home and pass them on to someone that needed them. I knew of families that have very little and here I sat with extra and some. He agreed with my idea.
Once I had the opportunity to actually give some of the items away it made me realize how I started out with hand me downs and how much I appreciated them. Now I remember them given to me in love. This is something that I want to encourage others to consider doing. Look around at all that you have been blessed with. Do you have some things in your home that you no longer use. Do you have things that you are hanging on to that you could do without. Think about your neighbor that may not even have a Christmas tree or a nice dress to wear on Christmas day. It is a win win situation. Blesses the giver and the receiver.
This Christmas take the time to look at how blesses you are. Take time to reflect on how God has taken care of all your needs.
For my family and friends that want to give me something for Christmas here is my list.
Time
Love
Respect
Kindness
Understanding
Hugs
Kisses
Laughter
Compassion
Patience
Grace
Or if you’re feeling ambitions a gift I would enjoy is for you to come over and clean my house, daily, or weekly, I’d even settle for monthly. Or just once will always be appreciated.
As I tread though.
What are some gifts you’ll be giving this Christmas?
This week one my my good friends lost her son. It has been a struggle to watch her in pain. The battle she faces will have many turns and will take so much time to overcome. All I can do is pray.
Dear heavenly father today I ask that you make your presence known to her. Lord please help her hear your voice over her own sobs, help her see you beyond her tears. Please come and wrap your arms around her and whisper that you are near. Flood her mind with only soothing memories of her beautiful son. Let her see only his contagious smile and his ocean blue eyes. Lord let her hear his voice and smell the fragrance of his soft skin. Please Father rock her softy at night so that she may sleep. Help her to find the strength to open her mouth and poor nourishment into her weak body. Put people in her path that will lift her up, ones that can sooth her. Lord I beg you to help all that come in contact with her slowly piece together her shattered heart. I ask that you help me be the friend that I need to be, help me show her light in the dark days that may turn into weeks, months, and maybe years. Lord help her to see that she is safe to morn, that she does not need to put a mask on to protect herself. That she can be free to kick, scream, run and throw things if needed. Help her lips to say that she is hurting. Lord hold her, let her feel you. Amen.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever.
Lord, I want to take this time to thank for for all that you have done for me and my family. Thank you for all the ways you take care of our needs. I thank you for our health and our safety. How you have placed an armor of protection over us. God you have blessed us in so many ways. I smile when I see your hands continue to lovingly care for us. I thank you for helping me find my way up when I fall flat on my face, or for guiding me to simply stay down place my knees under my body and pray. Thank you for always loving me, even on the days that I find it hard to love myself. Thank you for placing people in my life to empower me when I need it the most. Lord thank you for teaching me how to forgive myself when I stubble, how to learn and grow from my mistakes. Thank you for showing me the importance of sharing with others that I struggle. I know Lord that you want me to keep my heart open to the hurting by sharing that I too hurt as times. Thank you for teaching me to take off the masks and to understand that I am not perfect. Thanks for teaching me to embrace the truth that as long as I continue to work towards growth I will always hear your voice. Lord I thank you for your unfailing love for me. The kind of love that helps me see that the path you have set before me may at times be difficult but it leads to beauty. Amen As I tread through.
At one time it was just Sergio, Ashley and I. Birch Street looked and sounded a little different. Wow how things have changed how the wheels have turned and because of God’s divine plan for us, we have several family members within eyes reach.
My mother and stepfather live across the street, and to the left lives my sister-in-law, my father in law, and my cute little nephew. My brother and beautiful niece don’t live that far from us and a block away from them lives my one and only Ashley.
Sergio, Ashley and I moved to Yuma first, and our family followed. Not sure why they wanted to be so close? I think they must love us or something? The truth is when it comes to family events it is fun watching the kids run back and forth with excitement. Family time is so fulfilling. My son Jason enjoys having the family so close. Being a teenage boy he is always hungry and someone always has something “good” to eat in their fridge. The kids have it made around here. They are always getting spoiled.
With living so close to one another one would think that we get together all the time. The truth is there are some weeks that go by where we simply wave at each other as we pass on the road. Life’s demands tie us down. However once we make plans to slow down and have family time we do just that….. Have family time.
A time and day is set and out goes the mass text messages with menu ideas and the reposes come back with what everyone plans to make. The meal is made with love and that spice is awesome. Some of us get creative and try new recipes and other of us have our specialty that is always requested.
If someone arrives five minutes early it’s my step-dad followed by my mother announcing that he “just has to come early.” When I hear singing that’s usually my brother and when I hear slow wheels across my wooden floor that would be my father-in-law because when I hear fast wheels it is Sergio and watch your toes if he’s got meat to put on the grill. He’s got this crazy timing thing going on where you must time the meat to cook it to perfection.
When I hear “it smells amazing in here” that’s my Ashley, she loves our cooking. When you see a cape and not a word is spoken that would be Batman Aka my nephew. He is always here to protect us. When I hear the sound of cute shoes (I know what cute shoes sound like) followed by “need some help” that would be Sergio s baby sister.
My favorite part of family time is listening to the kids. I love hearing their laughter. Then comes the time for the adults to share their story of the week. Some of those stories get kind of crazy depending on who the story teller is. If it’s my husband you are sure to be me amused and if it’s my mother your jaw is dropping. If it’s my brother telling the story it gets out of control quickly. The combination of the three of them gets down right crazy.
When I hear the sounds of my family voices and smell all the different foods I smile thinking of how far we have all come. How we each have made it through many struggles. None of us have arrived to our destination yet. We travel in our own unique way. Sometimes we go backwards, fall in a ditch but with God’s grace we refocus, turn our WHEELS, get back on the road and move forward. When we receive that text we put good food together with love, prepare to share our stories and head over to what we call Family time……….As I tread through.
Our relationship was one that was not supposed to last. So many bets and side bets were placed against us. To believe in our relationship was a risk not many were willing to take. I smile when I think of all the money that was lost because of our unfailing love.
In August of 1994 life had gotten a little tougher for us. We were trying to settle in a small town after we lived our entire lives in big cities. Sergio was struggling to find a job and to leave his past life style behind him. He would often return to Colorado Springs during these times of frustration. On one of these trips he was the victim of a drive by shooting. As if being a paraplegic and the trauma that occurred from that wasn’t enough, he would carry an even deeper scar. We both had so many changes and uncertainties we were dealing with at a critical time in our relationship. We reached the point of make it, or break it.
We decided to travel on the road to make it.
I remember vividly the day Sergio arrived home, from the hospital, days earlier then I expected. He was supposed to stay in Colorado Springs to recover from his gunshot wound while I would return to work and care for Ashley. He was to do some soul searching and make a plan as to how he would transition back to small town living. Even though we never said it out loud the other option was for him to stay there and never return. The spoken plan was that Sergio would come home after having the many staples removed from his head. To be honest I needed time to recover from this fear and trauma that clouded my mind and pierced my heart. I needed to trust that this would never happen again because it was hard to understand how it did happen again.
Sergio had a hard time following instructions so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I heard his car pull up to our little handicapped accessible apartment and that he still had staples in his head. Seeing the car pull in the parking lot gave me the feeling of anxiety and love stirred together. I was afraid of our future but the love I felt for Sergio was one that I could not deny. Once we were face to face the anxiety started to melt away. This was the day he looked me in the eyes and asked me to be his wife, the day we sat in the car, pulled out a calendar, closed our eyes while my finger landed on the month of October. October 15 it would be. We were getting married! We started our journey to make it, understanding that we could never venture down the road of break it.
Almost 20 years ago Sergio and I with the help of my mother put together a simple wedding ceremony in two months. In front of a small amount of family and one close friend I headed down the hall of my mothers home to say “I do” to a broken man. A man that I vowed to honor and cherish till death parted us. The song Always and Forever played softly as I approached Sergio. The preacher who performed the ceremony knew very little of us or our story. He knew nothing about our trauma, our pain, nor our fight to stay together. He had just learned our names weeks before. On this day our faith was small and we choose the traditional love scriptures because we honestly did not know much about the bible. I wore a dress that was given to me and Sergio wore a borrowed suit along with a borrowed ring. The night was made complete with a pot luck style meal and a cake that was given to us as a gift. With music playing off the radio we spent the night eating and drinking with our guests. As time grew late Sergio and I headed to spend one night at the only hotel in town. This night would be our honeymoon.
Now my life is completely different, I am writing while my best friend (Sergio) is cooking a meal and watching the Denver Broncos play football. He gave me the opportunity to sit at my desk and write so I can share how we are planning to renew our vows. We both want to celebrate so we can share our love and joy with our friends and family. In 20 years Sergio and I have grown in faith and grown closer to each other. I don’t think anyone would place bets against our relationship today. When we started seriously writing our book and The Wheels of Grace website was complete we knew without a doubt that we wanted to fully share our story with the world.
With all the retelling of our love story and our 20th anniversary approaching we felt it was time to celebrate.
Fall has always been my favorite season, and I love how God guided my finger to land on the month of October. 20 Years later Sergio and I will celebrate in October, our month of love. The decorations for our renewal include pumpkins, wheat, and leaves. We will play the song Always and Forever, along with other beautiful love songs. We will have the ceremony in our church home in front of our family, church family, and many close friends. Our preacher who knows our story and knows us personally will conduct our wedding vow renewal. Our preacher who has cried with us when we have struggled and rejoiced with us when blessings have come. He is as excited as we are and we are grateful to celebrate with him.
Sergio and I will enjoy the beautiful colors of fall on the property of our best friends. We will have fajitas, cupcakes, caramel apples, s’mores, yard games, music, dancing, laughing, love, and mostly important the presence of Our Father. I look forward to October 18, 2014 when I have the opportunity to look Sergio in his eyes and share my vows telling him how I promise to love him more tomorrow. As I tread through.
Follow us on Instagram to see pictures of our special day.
