Children Are Such A Blessing!

Yesterday I had my two week appointment.  I was almost two weeks late.  I forgot what life is like with a newborn.    I don't remember what a good nights sleep feels like.  I had to keep rescheduling my appointment.  I finally made it!  LOL! 

Leilani will be one month old on July 25.  It is so hard to believe!  Time is really flying by.  It seems like just yesterday I was praying for a safe delivery.  I love staring at her face and (when her eyes are open) into her eyes.  I am so in love with her.  I remember wondering how my mother (mother of 8) could have  enough love for all her children.  As I look at my children, I now understand.  I love them so much and each individually.  They are so different and I can't imagine my life without one of them.  My dh and I are even thinking of having another.  I know we sound crazy......we just had one!  It's just a strong feeling we have.  We want another.  Our new joke when one of our children misbehaves (yes...my children are not perfect) is, "Are you sure you want another one of those?".   

As I prepare the down stairs area with our school stuff I can't help to think of how Blessed we are.  I thank our Lord for placing me on this path of being a SAHM Homeschooling my children.  I can't think of a better way of spending my time/life.  They will grow up so fast and soon be out of our nest, most likely with families of their own.  I want to savor every bit of time I have them as children.  The other day I was reading a post by my dear friend Belinda at With A Taste Of Chocolate.  I had to laugh.  It is so true that most of the world now in this day and age we are in do not understand why we prefer to stay home and care for our family.  It reminded me of the time I used to work outside of my home.  I missed out on so much of my children's years.  Last year was my first year homeschooling and we had so much fun.  I feel like I rebonded with my children.  Not to mention having enough energy to pay attention to my husband.  When we both worked and came home to cook, clean, and do homework there was no energy left to even have a conversation with him.  Now we are all so much closer as a family should be.  I give God all the Glory for setting me on the right path.  As I was praying about this last night and thanking God for my family I was reminded of Psalm 127:3-5.  It reassured me that there is nothing wrong with us wanting a large family, being a housewife, and homeschooling my children.

³Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

   ⁴As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

   ⁵Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. ~PSALM 127:3-5

Chocolate Attack!

I opened my email this morning to find a message stating Rick at Organized Doodles left a message on my other blog.  I did not recognize this person, so I decided to take a look at his blog.  I laughed so hard thinking, "Yeah, this is exactly how AnaMaria and I act.  Especially around certain times of the month."

 R.I.P. Camilito and Welcome into our lives Leilani Rain!

On June 1, 2008 we finally made the move of our dreams.  DH and I have lived in FL all of our lives.  I personally have never seen snow.  Neither have our children.  My DH received a job offer and we gladly made the move from sunny Florida to Maryland.  We were ready for a change.  I was 35 weeks pregnant. 

On the afternoon of June 24, 2008 I received the horrible phone call telling me my sweet nephew passed away:

 We are a very close knit family, so you can understand how devastating this news was for me.  Especially since I was so far from home and being 38 1/2 weeks pregnant there was no way I could go and be with my family.  I was thrown into a fog of despair.  This started my labour.  By the early morning (6:50am to be exact) of June 25, 2008 my beautiful daughter, Leilani Rain Lopez, made her entrance into this world weighing 8 lb 14 oz:

It was bitter sweet.  I prayed so much to be able to have a VBA3C and the Lord blessed me with a beautiful, natural birth at home.  I couldn't believe it!  After having 3 C-Sections, I finally had an all natural birth v*ginally at home.

My daughter is now 2 weeks old and I still have that bitter sweet feeling.  I feel so much joy that my daughter is here and that her birth was so beautiful.  Everything I dreamed it could and should be!  At the same time I feel so heart broken that such a huge part of my family is gone.  He was so young and still had so much to live for. 

Am I Doing a Good Job?

This happened a few days ago, but I've been so busy lately that I have not been able to blog:

I woke up one day wondering if homeschooling really was for our family.  I was wondering if the words I've heard so many times from the nay sayers were true about harming my dc socially.  That day we decided to go the Museum of History.  They were having a huge display on our Native Indians.  We had the whole museum to ourselves.  My dc decided to take clip boards and paper just in case they saw something interesting.  For some reason when we walked in my two older children gravitated to either side of the museum.  There was no one else there so I let them thinking we are here to have fun.  I wanted them to enjoy themselves and not think about "school".  I stayed with my little one who surprised me with his interest and hunger for knowledge.  I had to read every plaque that described what was in the different displays.  If he did not understand what a word meant he would stop me and ask me to explain.  My 11 yr old ds was sitting on the floor in the middle of some displays drawing everything he saw.  He would then read the plaques and in his own words write a small discription underneath his drawing.  When he finished with one section, he would get up and find another spot and do the same thing.  My 15 yr old was also reading every plaque and taking notes of what she read. 

Then a field trip arrived of High Schoolers.  They were very loud and rumbustious.  You could see my dc getting real upset.  Especially my dd.  She could not believe how they were acting.  Not listening to anyone.  My dc asked if we could leave as they could no longer concentrate and were feeling uncomfortable.  I mean these kids were cursing and being nasty.  We started to walk out and at that moment the Museum director came up to me and asked if I homeschooled my dc.  When I stated "Yes", he told me what a great job I was doing.  He stated he was watching them and was really impressed how they handled themselves and how they took the initiative to learn by themselves.  He stated how rare that is in this day and age (he was an older man).

When we got home, my dc took it upon themselves to take their notes and each did a paper on what they learned and put it in their history notebooks.  All of this without me even asking!  I was impressed to state the least.  My dd then told me how thankful she was that I pulled her out of PS.  She stated she had forgoten how kids act when they are all bunched up together like that.  She stated she would not have learned anything if she was on that field trip.

When dh got home my little one gave him a play by play of everything he saw.  How did he remember all that?!?  He even used the words he did not know when we were there and then explained to daddy what they meant incase daddy did not know...LOL .  The other dc then read daddy their papers.  They were so excited about the things they learned.  My dh had a smile from ear to ear.  You could tell he was proud.

I went to bed thanking God once again for reminding me why I homeschool and reassuring me that I am doing a good job.  We serve such an Awesome God!

BTW.....I have an appt tomorrow and another one on Saturday with two different doctors who will be checking my medical records to see if they can approve me for a VBAC.  Please keep us in your prayers!  This is something dh and I really want.  It is very important to us.

Looking into Having a VBAC

Hello everyone!  I am so sorry, I know I have been neglecting my blog lately.  There are a few things going on over here which have left me with very little time to myself let alone anytime at all to blog.

I am trying to think of a way of getting Wizdom's portfolio together for evaluation.  I have received a lot of help from our dear sisters at the Homeschool Lounge.  I think I have enough and being that the evaluation is being done by another homeschool mom I feel a little more comfortable.

The big thing going on is the fact that I am going for a VBAC.  I had all three of my dc by C-Section.  My first was when I was 18 and the reason was because I did not dialate (not sure of spelling).  When I had my second I was not comfortable at all.  I was in a lot of pain and no one was helping me with the breathing or anything.  My family and the nurses were engaged in a shouting match not paying much attention to me.  My family wanted them to do another C-Section as they believe once a C-Sect always a C-Sect (I believed it too).  The nurses on the other hand were trying to explain to my family that this was not so and insisted I have a natural birth.  Well my family won.  My third baby was scheduled as soon as we found out I was pregnant.

With all three of my births I have always felt like I left something behind in the hospital.  Always an incomplete feeling.  I was letting my feelings about this out for the first time on the Homeschool Lounge, when another mother advised me that the nurses were right and my family was wrong.  She explained VBAC to me while another mother referred me to ICAN (a website all about VBACs).  I have also checked out some materials from my local library to help educate myself on the subject.  My dh and I are so excited to state the least!  After so much prayer, could the Lord really be answering my prayers?  Don't get me wrong if the Lord is still answering "NO", I will also be prepared for that, but well educated.  Knowing my rights as a mother and a person.  This time I can actually go through the labor in a more productive and meaningfull way.  I've found out that going through the labor, even if you end up having another C-Sect, is good for the baby's health and also for the mother's health and mental state.  Maybe this is the reason my ds has so many breathing problems?  Who knows?  The Lord made Labor for a reason as everything else in this earth and up above.

Anyhoo, this is the reason I have been lost for so long.  I have been spending a lot of time learning from the mothers at the Homeschool Lounge, while at the same time reading and studying as much as possible about VBAC so that I am well prepared for the journey the Lord has placed in front of me.

Blessings to everyone and please keep us in your prayers!