On your 4th Birthday

Dear Liam,

As your birthday approaches each year, I am always filled with so many emotions...reflective on your years of life and praising God for everything you are - I stand in complete awe of God's miracle plan for you and our family.  Your journey has not been easy, but looking back and being able to see God's hands in every ounce of your life, from your very first appearance on the sonogram to you counting all the way to 100 in the backseat of our car, has been an extraordinary experience.  I have become truly thankful and grateful for the orchestration of events in your life and ours - that has brought us here to the place where we are right now.  I am humbled, honored and blessed to call you my son - that God would chose me to be your mother.

I see a greatness in you far beyond anything I can explain.  The Lord has spoken to me many times about the glory He will bring through you and it excites me to no end.  I can only imagine the glory you have brought to Him up to this point - Can you see it, my sweet one??  He created every fiber of you to be great for Him - and you are doing just that.  I have already seen Him grow a quiet and gentle spirit in you, a deep love and compassion for others and a kindness and truly happy disposition.  Everywhere we go, people always take notice of you, and you know why?  Your sweet, happy self is always drawing other's into God's love and pure joy - they find that in YOU.   Complete strangers SEE that in you, as well as your many family and friends who know you. You are a constant light of God's goodness and a testament to His promises fulfilled.

And to watch you grow (literally!) into this little person - 4 years.  You have an unmatched sense of humor and a gift of story-telling beyond your years.  And like a little sponge, you love soaking in everything around you -new things and experiences you savor - and you have been gifted with the love of learning.

To say that daddy and I are blessed seems an understatement.  So on your 4th birthday, I pray you may fully know how much you are LOVED, honored and adored.  May God grant you with His everlasting peace and JOY as He reveals to you His purpose and calling on your life. I pray you recklessly seek Him, serve Him and love Him.  May you fully experience a bold and courageous faith and lead others to do the same.  You are a PRECIOUS son, heir to the throne and a PRINCE of the Most High King - May you continue to serve and bring glory and honor to His mighty name.  We are so proud of you...Happy birthday our sweet, sweet Liam.

Love you forever and always,
Mommy

Our adventures of the present

Our summer officially comes to a close next week…Liam will start his new school 2 days a week and we will be back to our “normal” schedule.  I am a bit relieved (as probably most moms who work from home in general are!), but sad to see the summer sun fleeting and the busy fall/holiday season approach!  We enrolled Liam in a new school this year, which is so close to us we can walk there, which is very cool.  It is at a local church, and I am excited about this new beginning for him to connect with kids he will most likely be together with for a long time in school and start developing those lasting friendships – and I’m equally excited to meet some new moms in the area too!  I feel now that we are settled in, I want to make the most of where we are right now, in this moment and enjoy what God has for us right now.

Which leads me to our recent decision for me to be 100% work from home.  I still worked at my old office on Tuesdays for the past 2.5 years, and yesterday was my last day.  It was bittersweet, but the long commute and not having a full day to commit because of our new school schedule lead us to trust God’s provision will come elsewhere (I am praying through my art business!).  I will still do my accounting work from home and hopefully be able to spend more time on my art business, as well as hopefully keeping the blog updated more frequently ;).  

In other good news, Liam is slowly being weaned off his thickener!  I haven’t posted in awhile on his swallowing progress, but the older he gets, the better he gets at being able to take the thinner liquids.  In fact, we are now having him drink mostly without the use of thickener, but through a coffee size straw for slower flow.  The only time I’ve been using thickener is when we are in the car traveling or at night when I leave him water bedside.  We are excited about this!  I’m hoping to slowly increase straw width (tricky to do, but Ikea sells straws that are narrower than standard straws…weird information to know, but hey, that’s our life!)  Hopefully someday we can start working on cup training without a straw…but I hesitate to move too quickly!  I see Capri Sun’s being the new drink of choice in our house for now, lol.

Liam is doing great – he has been so healthy and VERY active lately, and it’s great to see.  He is loving anything to do with numbers (BINGO is his new favorite game) and is starting to work on reading and basic math, like algebra and pre-calculus…Haha, just kidding (although mommy has taught him made him memorize some basic algebra and multiplication).  But he “gets” numbers like nothing I’ve ever seen in a 3 year old before, so I am praying that sticks!  Life will be so much easier if he gets math!  He is also really into sorting things (like Legos – which can be an unending task)…hmmm, he is very much like his mommy in those regards.

I can’t believe he will be 4 next month!  We are planning to have his birthday outside at his favorite “castle” park, since a lot of our house is currently a work in progress =)  It will be a lot of fun and he cannot stop asking how far away his birthday is…Am I 4 today yet??

More updates soon, I promise this time! 

Where has the time gone??

Just wanted to pop in real quick to do a short update!  Liam had his 6 month cardiology appointment last Friday and it went really well!  Our last visit was PRE-cath back in February, so I was expecting the pressures to be down slightly, but instead there had been no change - which for us, is a GOOD thing! Probably another heart cath sometime in the future, as we had expected, but we have another 6 months to worry about that at least!

We are all moved in to our new home and it is wonderful...projects are coming along slowly, but surely!  Hence, my lack of posts lately as we have been super busy, but I have lots of updates that will be coming soon!  Thanks for taking time to keep up with us, we are SO very blessed!

{I just realized I put an exclamation point after every sentence!  Things are good around here!}

My first photo dump...and what have we been up to?

I'll be honest, when things are running good around here, I get L.A.Z.Y. with the blog!  But considering this is more like a digital scrapbook for me, I need to get with it and catch up on some pictures and happenings!  So consider this fair warning, haha!  There will be lots of pictures and crazy ramblings of our happenings the past few weeks (or later than that even?)

Main big event the past few weeks has been our NEW HOUSE!  YAY!  We closed 2 weeks ago and have started the renovation process, including building a new pantry (a staple in our house and it didn't have one!), scraping walls, patching walls, re-texturing walls, new floors, all new paint from ceilings to floors and a myriad of other little things that are in need of repair.   We are doing most of the work ourselves, as we hubby is handy!

Always a fun day at The Home Depot!

Sheetrock and joint compound have become common household terms now! Ha!

Before picture of the main renovation - the kitchen - texture gone bad and the problem of no pantry (oh, and the floors to boot!)

Walls scraped and mudded...beginning form of the pantry!  And pre-sanded walls

Studs going up!  And yes, hence the METAL studs we are using, we were surprised to find out in the inspection, we have a steel framed house!  Really unheard of around these parts, but I guess it's an ok thing!

Hubby will have to forgive me, but I need an action shot!  Drywall going up - meanwhile, I AM working too, sanding away on those walls! Taking a picture break!  It was only my 18th "break" at that point, ha!  

Finished pantry enclosure - we are finishing it up this weekend - I am SOO happy with how it turned out and the placement we thought might be a little strange, actually flows really well. We are doing a bench on the other side all the way to the back wall of the kitchen to utilize the corner space in the back of the kitchen...can't wait until it's all done!

I told you I WAS working...As you can see by the above "evidence"...So for evidence, I took a picture to prove I contributed.   Sanding walls is exhausting, but really any work is exhausting...

We wanted a fixer upper, so it fits the bill perfectly, ha!  It's been fun working with Dustin on "projects" and we love to do stuff like that together, so while it's been hard work (more for him, than me) it's been really fun to spend time together as a family, even Liam has helped some....

He started practicing his letters on the old linoleum floor we ripped up.  I told him this will only be allowed this one time and not when our new floors go down, ha! You can see he was trying to write my name, starting it backwards...pretty good!

This was the first try on the drywall (again, I was telling him "Go write on the wall!" then realizing I probably should explain a little better that he can only do that on THIS wall!)- he was still writing backwards, from right to left at first, but even still, his letters looked great and recognizable!

We were texting Mimi and Baba, so he was writing their real names =)...This is without ANY guidance of hand by me!

 ....or at least he's been learning his letters!  I was surprised he is writing SO well - we do not really work on writing much at home, so the fact he was able to write the letters I was spelling for him was amazing! We have another couple weeks of work, then we should be moving in mid-July!  I cannot wait, this will be an adventure for sure!  I really want to chronicle all our DIY projects we have planned (we have some cool ideas I am really excited about, mainly because this house has some quirky areas and we are having to be CREATIVE to make space work) on my other blog, but am praying if that is really were God wants me to spend my time right now...While I would LOVE to get more into design and sharing ideas, I'm just not sure I need to make an outlet for it.  Anyways, on with the show - that's it for now on house stuff!

Let's see, I will go back to the end of May when my sweet nieces had their dance recital - They were precious, I love to watch them dance!  Liam sat through the recital like a gem, and he really enjoyed it too!  Here's a couple pictures...

Tori, Lauren, Grace and Liam =)

We also found a new park recently, and it ROCKS!  It has little themed houses and structures all over and a lot of neat "things" for kids to explore and play.

And Liam is loving the camera lately, more so he likes to take a bunch of pictures of random things, but is enjoying being in front of the camera more as well...

This picture cracks me up!  We went with Dustin while he photgraphed some good friends of ours engagement pictures.  We actually bought some cool retro suitcases on the spot that day at a nearby antique shop we fell in love with and thought would make good props (and cheap!).  Anyways, Liam wanted to take some pictures on the suitcases, and here a train was going by in the background, hence he was holding his ears from the noise!

Poising for the camera!

Wish it wasn't blurry, but he was being so goofy, but NOT holding still!  I was desperately trying to capture his silliness and the moments of laughter we were having!

Liam confiscated my phone and went wandering around my parents house taking pictures of just about everything...

I startled him here, he didn't know I heard him coming and I turned around quickly!  Ha!  He actually caught the moment well! Haha!

Liam enjoyed a fun week camp at his old school  in early June.  He had the best time, and it was GREAT to catch up on work that week and not feel like I was neglecting him (working from home has it's downsides!)  They "visited" a different museum each day, and at the end of camp, they had an art show for the parents - very cute and creative idea!

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Summertime fun, trying to get out of the house before it hits 105 degrees is a little challenging, but I managed to get out about 7:00 am and we went to the Nature Park creek to throw some rocks...it was actually really nice outside and we ended up staying almost 2 hours!

Last weekend, Dustin's sister and family came in town, so we spent time with family and had a blast together!  We all had a big sleep over at his other sister's house not too far from here, and it was fun staying up late and just hanging out!  The cousin's had a lot of fun and played their little hearts out!

Antique horsey ride!

It proved very challenging to get all 3 younger ones to BE STILL for the camera...or at least at the same time!

At this point Liam was just being ornery!

 And LAST but not least, Dustin had a graduation event - He completed a 2 year course at our church for ministry.  It is an intensive course and weekly commitment for 2 years, but he did it! Proud of you hun!

That about sums. it. up.  For now at least!  Thanks for checking in! 

A Mess...defined

mess  /mes/Noun

A dirty or untidy state of things or of a place: "she made a mess of the kitchen".

Verb Make untidy or dirty.

Synonyms noun.   confusion - muddle - disorder - muss - jumble verb.   disorder

I always find it so intriguing to look at other people's messy homes....you know those blog owners who have the beautifully designed and decorated homes that look like they have it all together, then they post some shots of their house on a normal day, kids running rampant, surfaces busied with toys and daily clutter?  Well, I LOVE those pictures....I don't know about you, but THOSE pictures always make me feel better about myself....so, to make someone out there feel good today {or maybe just me!}, I thought I'd post some pictures of what our house usually looks like today....

Why yes, that is a styrofoam cooler in our living room, fancy huh?

And, yes, that is Liam wrapped up in a big plastic tarp...yes, I also know the warnings on that.

I think our house makes us happier when it's a mess....or at least for Liam that seems to be the case.

Granted, today is a rainy day here, and we are held here captive by sickies of pink eye and an ear infection {poor Liam, although. he seems to be feeling ok otherwise...see pictures of his creations above, ha!}, but I would say this is pretty normal for us.  And I don't feel bad about it.  It's good to take a peek sometimes and feel relief when we know we aren't the only ones who feel like they never have it together.  Although, I love a clean and tidy home like the rest of em, striving for that perfection is not my goal, even if I have to remind myself of that 1000 times a day =)


Lots of updates to come soon, thanks for stopping by and sharing life with us!  We love you all!

Somtimes we escape reality

I'm sitting here alone this morning, while Liam is away at Mimi and Babaw's and Dustin is at work, trying to tackle my to-do list...I'm reminded to update Liam's medical history sheet I keep for him, not remembering the last time I had updated it.  I grab my medical notes in my "waiting to be filed" file and start filling in the missing entries....Currently I'm on his recent Cardiology visit and reading over the ensuing notes from his appointment....thinking to myself, sometimes we can escape reality, but it always seems to creep back in.

There's a strange comfort for me in googling his list of 13 Echo interpretations, including convoluted terms such as "right bundle branch block", "peak gradient", "right aortic arch", "aortopulmonary collateral", "interventricular sepal motion"...just to name a few...It's just something I do, cling to the hope in the dictionary term of these nouns, and it always brings me to this "reality" I call it, or be it more an "awareness" of just how complex his case really is...how every appointment, the doctor and team have to decide which of these anomolies vie for the right to create a needed intervention and which are not severe enough to be recognized.  Fear creeps in so easily when we let our worldly, dictionary reality take over...

In my quiet time this morning, God spoke to me about realizing our reality, and how important it is to remember that when we are in Christ, God and His promises ARE to become our reality...Although sometimes hidden from our eyes, just like a heart condition, the heart knows it's weak, imperfect...broken.  Sometimes the things that vie for attention with God need major surgery, while other anomalies co-exist and stem from our major weaknesses.  We sometimes know little about the long list of deficiencies that truly exist in our hearts until we let God, the Master Surgeon, open them up and carefully work to restore, rework and make new.   We trust that God brings these things to healing in His time, and not our own, and we can rest in the peace knowing He sees them.  His dictionary is far greater than ours, and His does not include the word fear.  And like gold, He continues to refine us through these broken places....our constant connection to our Creator.

"So be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.  These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."  1 Peter 1:6-7

The parallels with Liam's heart condition is awe inspiring...how God creates this beautiful interpretation through our ordinary, world reality so we can see His work in His heavenly reality for us...Sweet comfort and inexplicable joy for our true and only reality in Christ.  That's something I hope to rest in forever...let there be no escape from the arms of our Savior.

Mother's Day....last minute!

First, I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who have left me the most encouraging and uplifting messages regarding my last post.  We have hope from your encouragement and all the information shared that hopefully our family will grow in due time!

We do have some other VERY exciting news, we are in contract on a new home!  YAY!  After WEEKS of looking and getting very discouraged because literally things are FLYING off the market, God blessed up with the perfect little home a little farther north from where we are now.  We don't have an exact closing date yet...it's a HUD and the process is very new to us and our agent....apparently they tell us when things get done... =/  But everything thus far has progressed faster than I expected, so it's moving along.  This is the "project" house we have been wanting, and I can't wait to share all the ideas we have!

Liam is doing fantastic as usual.  His last day of "school" is next Wednesday...I can't believe the school year has come and gone!  And now that I know where we will be living, I can start planning some fun things for summer. 

And since I haven't posted many pictures on here lately, here are some I took yesterday at the park - it had just rained and there was a GIANT puddle on the basketball court....it looked too tempting to tell Liam he couldn't play in it, so I threw our cares to the wind and let him have at it!  He had the best time, and I think I got some pretty cute pics out of all the splashing around!

Tomorrow we'll be heading to church and to my parents house for a Mother's Day dinner.  I wish all my momma friends and family a very blessed Mother's Day!!  And, if you need a last minute printable card idea, I have a FREE Mother's Day 4x6 printable {shown below} posted on my Simple Blessings page...click here to view!

Overdue for an update!

Thank you for everyone who has been praying for my nephew, Ryan.  As of today, he is in stable condition, but still has a long road of healing to go at the hospital.  Please keep him, my brother and sister-in-law and their other son Josh in your prayers.  You guys know how exhausting physically and mentally a long hospital stay can be!

On the homefront here, we have been staying busy as usual and trying to find a new place to call home.  House hunting is proving to be a discouraging and exhausting journey for us =(  The market is completely different then the last time we went to buy a house, and properties are going very quickly.  The only good coming from it right now is that our dependence on God as provider is deepening as is our faith and trust that he has a home for us...somewhere! 

Last week we went down to San Antonio (unfortunately it was for a funeral of a very close friend of Dustin's family) and was able to spend some needed time away with family, even if it was a short trip.  It's always great to get to travel down there and we are thankful most of his family is close by.  Liam also had a friend this time, as Dustin's sister and niece Ella (1.5 years) came down also.  They had the best time together and made me really want a little girl in our family, lol!! 

Speaking of family life, I'm just going to be open and honest that we have experienced another loss which prompted my doctor to do some blood tests.  They have discovered I have a blood clotting disorder that they think is preventing me from holding a pregnancy.  The redeeming part about it (I'm trying to see God's purpose in all of this) is that it makes Liam's story even more a miracle, as the chances of me carrying him to full term were slim and we didn't even know it until now.  I'm just going to say God has a plan in the timing of the news, and it is a comfort to finally have an answer and explanation for what's been happening...I know many times with cases such as mine, there are no answers, so I am very grateful.  Although we have some decisions to make going forward, we find hope that someday our family will grow plus 1 =)

Liam is doing great, despite having his first ear infection last week....I almost took pictures to mark that milestone, ha!  He is growing into a big boy at 3.5 years old, and I just sit in wonder and amazement of how far he has come and what a miracle gift he is to us.  He will soon have his first "last day of school" coming up and I am getting anxious to sign him up for some summer camps, but am waiting to see where we will be living first!  He loves school, so I know summer will be an adjustment for him (and me! lol). 

I think my posture right now is of such surrender and dependence on God.  It seems every area of our life right now hinges on what His plans are for us and it's still unknown to us how it will unfold.  Although it's hard, we are choosing to stand on His promises and walk in joy of what we know is to come =)

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:1-5

Calling all prayer warriors....

Our family is asking for some big prayers for my nephew Ryan. He is currently in the PICU and is in critical condition. For privacy I won't share details, but he has been struggling with some health issues for some time, but he is now a very sick little boy. He is a year younger than Liam. I know fellow heart moms as well as our friends and family are prayer warriors and it can be a powerful thing. So Im sounding the alarm for more prayers!! Thank you so much!

First Trip to the Dentist!

Today was Liam's first trip to the dentist and now that I am posting about it, I'm feeling overwhelmingly guilty for not taking one. single. picture.  Ugh...I think my apprehensions about the dentist got the best of me, and I didn't even think about documenting our day.  So, I apologize for my lack of pictures for this huge milestone! {kicking myself!} Although I do have some cute ones from Easter I can insert here for family and friends to see what a big-boy he is turning into...

Resurrection Sunday!

Play-Doh!

Getting a kick out of all his expressions, he has really been discovering different "faces" and it's really funny to watch him, especially when he raises and lowers his eyebrows..too funny

 The dentist visit was probably the best visit to the dentist I have ever encountered.  I have a very real apprehension and anxiety about the dentist, so I am glad to see today that Liam does not share that fear, today at least!  He did great, he sat in the big chair, and it helped that they let him pick out a video to watch on the TV screen ABOVE his chair to watch lying down - he could not get over the fact the had a "TV up there".  And he also got a kick out of the "automatic chair" that moved up and down on it's own. 

The doctor actually did his whole visit, cleaning and all.  She really took her time to get all of his medical history down and asked a lot of good questions and made us feel 100% confident about everything she was seeing and doing.  He has all 20 teeth, yay!  And his teeth are in really good shape!  She did mention his mouth structure is very small, he may have a small crossbite, and he has an unusual palate shape {which she was curious to know if that had anything to do with his swallowing, I said I had not heard anyone say anything about the shape of his palate, so I thought that was interesting}.  We did not push things today with x-rays, so he just had a cleaning.  The dentist modified the cleaning to wipe down his teeth instead of squirting water due to his swallowing issues.  It was a very nice experience and Liam walked away tear-free and with clean teeth!  Everything I was hoping he would today! 

Liam also had a STELLAR swim lesson today, complete with going by himself down the "BIG slide", which is a HUGE accomplishment for him.  I was so proud...he has really been lacking confidence lately, so I am so thankful the teacher was patient with him and that his little friend Avery encouraged him to go =)  He is also swimming better under water and things are starting to look a little brighter on the swimming front, finally.

As for us, some very excited news to share - Dustin passed his Master's Electrician's exam yesterday!  He has been studying like crazy {and I really missed my hubby the past few weeks!} so I am SO very proud of him!  We also put in a bid on a house we really like, so we are praying that the Lord open that door if that's the one for us, or close it quick so we can keep looking, lol =)  It's been a little daunting, as houses are literally flying off the market in record speed right now.  We are excited and anxious to start a new chapter!

Thanks for staying with us and catching up on our happenings!  I know I haven't been posting much lately, but hopefully will start to get more on here now that the busy time of year for me has passed.  Love to you all!