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.
November is the month where we give thanks, it is the perfect time to share what I am most thankful for this year.
1. Family
I have an amazing family who is always there for each other no matter what. We stick together when times are hard and we lift each other up when the times are good. We often spend Friday nights having dinner together or Sundays watching football. Those are the days I cherish the most. I love to be around them because I know that no matter what they have to love me!
2. Friends
My friends don’t have to love me like my family does, but I know they do. Our relationships are at the point where they are family. If too much time passes when we don’t see each other it doesn’t matter because we can always pick up right where we left off.
3. Coffee
It is my favorite beverage and without it I couldn’t get through any of my days. I wake up and think about coffee every morning. Making it or stopping by a coffee shop to purchase it has made me late to wherever I needed to be since 2003, maybe sooner.
4. Forgivness
I am the least spiritual person in my family and it is something I constantly work on. There are people who read my parents posts and their love for the Lord radiates through them. I often take their values and try to instill them in myself and I can honestly say that it is difficult. I can catch glimpses of God working in my life, but he isn’t always present and he isn’t always the person I turn to first. That is why I am thankful for the forgiveness that God has. I am thankful to know that even in my weakest days he will be there.
5. Prayer
I may not pray every day, but there is one thing that I am certain of; my mother prays for me every day. She is my constant reminder that prayer is important. If I am struggling she asks if I have prayed and she makes sure I know she is praying for me. Those prayers hold a special kind of power.
Share your thanks this month! We all have so many things to be thankful, even the little things.
If the walls could speak in our house, I wonder what they would say. I’m not sure what they would say about the first 90 years of their existence, because we only started roaming around these walls since 1997. That was when Norah and I were introduced to the place that we now call Home.
The first time I saw our home it was dark outside and very cool; winter was a few weeks away. Norah and I were unsure if we could afford to purchase the house. Pulling up I saw a wrap-around porch and 4 steps leading to the front door. I started to wonder how was I going to get in, but it wasn’t a problem because Norah turned my wheelchair around so my back wheels were against the steps and pulled me up onto the porch. As i wheeled myself through the front door the first thing that caught my eyes were two sets of French doors with glass going from top to bottom. The doors were stained a light brown showing the grain of the wood. I was speechless and all I could do was imagine me and my family calling it home!
The walls must have as
ked, “Who are these three new faces?”
I could imagine the walls saying the little one better not write on me, the mom looks like a painter, she better not think about it. The man is in a wheelchair, he’s going to bang us
up.
But the Lord said YES! He answered our prayers and we were able to buy the house. God is good!
Today the walls would say, “My, look at how beautiful Ashley has become, she’s all grown up, finished school and starting her own life.”
Maybe the walls would describe how they remember Ashley playing Barbies in her room for hours. The walls would wonder if she still had the phone that she helped wire in so many moons ago.
They would ask, “I wonder how many books she has read and if she still plays volleyball?”
The walls would have a story to tell of a young girl becoming a women and that when she was 14 her life changed from being the only child to becoming a big sister to Weslea age 5 and Jason age 4.
The walls would speak of how they saw Ashley give her all to her new brothers, and how she would protect them. The two little boys now belonged to her family. The walls watched Ashley become a great big sister.
The walls would hear that Weslea asked a lot of questions because he was very smart and very curious for a 5 year old. The walls knew that he never forgot anything, and he made you keep your word.
The walls could see that Jason was a cute kid who got his way just by smiling and showing his dimples. They knew that Jason wanted to be a football player, wrestler, and a basketball player.
BOYS! The walls would say, “What a joy these two boys are to Ashley, Norah and Sergio!”
They could see how the boys filled a gap in their lives. And how our family filled a gap in the boys’ life. God must have had this all planned the day we walked and rolled in the front door of our Home.
The walls knew they needed to expand to make room for the family of 5. One wall was torn down to make room for an addition. Each person in the family had a room of their own, and they no longer all had to share 1 bathroom.
The walls were just as surprised as the family was when Gese, age 2, came to live with
them. The boys were blessed with a little sister at ages 11 & 10. They had to teach her the rules of the house. As big brothers they needed her know that she wasn’t allowed in their rooms and that she couldn’t touch their stuff.
But the walls knew the boys were softies and enjoyed to watch them cuddle while watching cartoons with their little sister.
If the walls could speak today they would all say, “It is amazing how Norah and Sergio have grown as a family. They went from a family of 3 to a family of 6. God has his hands on this family, and they are blessed.”
For the past 17 years the walls of our Home have been filled with the noise of memories, the place where we played, a place where we grew, making us a family.
Remember having somewhere to go is a home, having someone to love is a family, having both is a blessing!!
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.
