Huge Deal!

I wanted to share a neat, exciting bit of news but first I wanted to give a little history. My mom died when I was 11. My dad was killed in a car accident when I had just turned 20. For those of you at SEBC, it was 1998. After dad died, I dropped out of SEBC and started working at SMIC as a youth intern for the Junior High. My first summer there (1999) we took the junior high on the annual Mexico Missions trip. One of the girls in the group was Esther Terry (she was in 8th grade) and her mom Darcy went along as well. On the trip Darcy picked up on the fact that i was in an apartment I couldn't afford and was looking for another place to stay while I was working on an interns pay (very little I might add.. at least it could pay for the bare necessities). Anyhoo, Darcy went home and talked to her husband, Jim, about my situation and they asked the Lord what they could do to help. They considered me an orphan, so they offered up their basement apartment free of charge for me to live in. They already had four kids of their own, Esther, Paul, Rachel and Ruth, whom Darcy was homeschooling. So I moved in. After the first "trial" six months they told me that I was welcome to stay as long as I needed. Then after the first year, Jim told me that they would love for me to stay until I got married, (i.e.. indefinately). At the time I remember saying.. "uh, that could be a while." Jorge had not yet entered the picture. Needless to say I was 25 when I got married and moved out of the house. They are my second set of parents. They love me as one of their own and I love them as my very own blood. Well, after almost 10 years of knowing them and on the eve of me turning 30.. they were ready to make it official. Last friday night Jim talked to his family and they all agreed so he came to me with...."Rachel, if you are okay with it, because we are, we would love to legally adopt you." Of course I started crying, from excitement of course. Here is this family that has four children of their own, but to this day when asked how many kids they have, without hesitation or explination, always say five. Recently at Pauls high school graduation Jim stood up to give a charge to his only son and he began with, "Since Paul is the only boy among four sisters...." He didn't explain that, "well one is sort of like a sister, etc." So bottom line, I said I would love to be officially adopted into the family. Therefore, as I will turn 30 this year, I am going to be adopted by a loving family. It doesn't change what is already there, the understanding, but it makes it official. I couldn't be more excited and proud of how awesome the Lord is. this is not to replace my one and only mommy and daddy, but rather to gift me with another mom and dad who love me as their own. I have been doubly blessed! What a mighty God we serve. Who woulda thunk it? I'll keep ya posted on the process.

Beautiful Yosemite Trip

O Glorious Day.....

My husband is home. I feel so alive..the hills are alive with the sound of music! Or the house is alive with sounds of happy children and a happy wife. Jorge made it back safely from his journey to Yosemite National Park and San Francisco. I will be able to upload some pictures soon.

Update on Miguel

Today was Miguel's appointment with the ENT. He didn't get the Larygnoscopy because Dr. W thought it was unnecessary. Instead, he would like to put him under anesthisia and do a battery of tests. I was not happy with that option considering that it could all come back normal and they say Miguel will outgrow the croup. That was before the Dr called my house tonight. He said that Miguel getting croup every month is not normal and he feels that we should do the "surgery" as they call it. He has to see the xrays that they took today and if they look normal then he definately wants to proceed. however, if we go through the next two months without croup than the Dr. is comfortable holding off. We can't do it until the end of June anyway becuase they don't want steriods in his system for over four weeks in order to the Anesthisia (sp?). Anyhoo, thats what we are praying for: croup free from here on out. Thanks for all your prayers.

Quiero mi esposo!

Okay.. mi esposo no esta aqui, pues, necisito hablar con mi higo's en espanol y englais. Pero, es deficle alguna vez porque no puedo hablar en tensos futuro y pasado. Entiendo mucho pero es dificile con testar. Entiendas?
What Im trying to say is that since my husband isn't here I am having to speak more spanish to my boys to make up for his part. He normally does most of the spanish and I do most of the English. I do alright except on verbs in the future or past tenses. I kinda have to spanglish it from there. After four years of marriage, I'd say my spanish is pretty good but not fluent by any means. But I can certainly understand anything you would try to say to me. I know I have been speaking crazy spanish to my toddler today, but its a good thing he understands both languages. But then again, because he is a toddler I can pretty much make the conversation easy. Anyhoo, both of my boys are resisting bed time right now. They are each in their rooms crying. Well Jorge is talking and miguel is crushed that I would leave him, alone. it must be a second child thing because Jorge, for the most part, enjoyed going to bed. Oh well. Tomorrow is the big test with the doctor and Im trying not to be nervous. Big Jorge is the one that would normally help me through the expectations, since he is an RN, but right now he is enjoying hiking Yosemite National Park. He called today, for a quick 6 mintues (no reception out there) and said everything was gorgeous and that he was taking lots of pictures. I just hope he doesn't come across any bears. Well I gotta get cleaning up after a long day. But let me leave you with three new things I learned today:
1. Its much easier to suction a toddlers nose if you literally sit on them. Well on their hands and legs and grab ahold of thier head.
2. Toddlers will try to taste everything, including thier own poop.
3. If a toddler sits on a 7 month old the 7 month old does not think its funny.

All in a days work. Buenos noches.

Fun Photos

Just so exciting

I am so excited to have a blog..or better yet to read all the blogs of gals I haven't connected with in a long time. I am currently sitting on the computer missing my husband who arrived at Yosemite National Park (with Paul Wendorf) earlier this evening. He is there as my present to him for the celebration of his 30th birthday this past February. Well how much can it be "from me" when its his job that paid for it? Ha. My boys are sleeping with less coughing, thank you Lord. Jorge had a temp this am at 4:30 that was 103.4 and Im afraid that Miguel is going to get croup for the third time in a week. That sounds terrible just typing it. yet, I exalt in the Lord. I know He is protecting our family, or allowing His perfect will. Well I guess it wouldn't be either/or. He is glorified by my lack of sleep and sheer exhaustion. I am thankful that Big Jorge is getting the opportunity for a fun, relaxing trip with a guy friend. Sorry this is all a blur. If anyone knows how to add pictures to the sidebar, could you please let me know. Adios.

Trip to the Beach

I think my definiton of a vacation has changed slightly.. for it to be a restful vacation:
1. Your kids must be older than 23 months and 7 months old.
2. You must not share a room with your 23 month old and your 7 month old sleep in a laundry room (really this wasn't that bad)
3. You should not have to go to the doctor (mommy) and find out its not strep its Pharangitis. And no, there is nothing they can give you except a Zpack
4. Your 7 month old must not get a steroid shot for croup the day that you leave and then get another shot for croup 5 days later.
5. You should be allowed to go straight home and unpack without being required to drive into town and straight to Childrens South with two sick kids, both of whom have croup. Where you will spend two hours after having spent 5 hours in the car with two sick kids.
6. your camera battery die just two days into your vacation and you realize that you forgot to pack the charger.
7. Your youngest should not fall out of an upside down high chair, while still strapped into his car seat, at a very nice restaurant. (he was okay).


But having kids on your vacations includes, but is not limited to, these benefits:
1. because you are sharing a room with your 23 month old, when he wakes you up at 6:30 you are greeted with, "Hola mommy." And, well, that is precious.
2. You do get to spend some time in the Word while looking out at the beautiful ocean.
3. You find out that your 23 month old hates sand but LOVES the ocean. And your 7 month old loves to be in any kind of water as long as its not cold.
4. Your 7 month old will learn to commando crawl at the beach and you already have your video camera ready, because hey, you're on vacation so you actually capture this wonderful milestone.
5. Your husband loves being at the beach so he happily volunteers to take your oldest child to play on the beach while you get to take a nap with the youngest child. (he does this at home too I should add)
6. Your kids are so excited to be at the beach that they adjust their bedtimes so that you can go out to eat dinner and not have to be done by 5:30.
7. You are on the trip with friends who didn't forget to bring their camera battery charger so they take tons of pictures for you.

All in all, we had a great time. It was a lot of work and I must say, as my first trip with two small children, its not for the faint of heart. We had a great time with Paul and Christina and they were an incredible help with the kids. And it was fun to see how big Christina's belly is getting. Ha! I think things were compounded by all the sickness but the little fellas got shots and hopefully they are on the mend.

Miguel to have a laryngoscopy

Hey guys. I need everyone to please pray for Miguel (and us too) because he is scheduled for a Laryngoscopy this Thursday at 8:45 am. He keeps getting Croup: "(sometimes referred to as croup syndrome or laryngotracheobronchitis) is a respiratory disease which afflicts infants and young children, typically aged between 3 months and 3 years. The respiratory symptoms are caused by inflammation of the larynx and upper airway, with resultant narrowing of the airway." he is 7 months old and has gotten it four times in five months, which is not typical. The croup is not an abnormal thing, but getting it that many times in an infant is. Therefore our pediatrician scheduled an appointment with a specialist (ENT Doc) at Childrens South. The procedure consists of them numbing Miguel and then sticking a tube down his nose to his thoat, which has a camera on the end so that they can look at his vocal cords and see if they see anything that could be abnormal. We are praying that it all comes back with something that is normal or easily fixed. But we ultimately want the Lords will. Thank you for praying for us.

I lost the fight..and started a blog

Pressure, Pressure. I finally did it. I doubt anyone will read it, but I've started a blog. I have no idea what to type.. I guess that's the point of a blog.. just write what comes to mind. I have terrible spelling abilities and Im not so hot with grammer, so please no rebuke. I am excited because we leave for the beach tomorrow (with the Wendorf's). Of course Miguel and Jorge would start a cough last night, so I am praying that it doesn't turn into croup for Miguel (as all his coughs have in the past).

On a differnt note, the Lord is doing amazing things in and through our family. Jorge and I are enjoying Briarwood and are still praying for where the Lord might have us plug into Ministry. I think that Jorge might work with the boy scout troop that is at Briarwood and I may work in the nursery, which works great since both of mine are in there. I am praying that God would bring me to a place where I could disciple another group of girls, but since the kids I haven't been able to do much of that, consistently at least. My husband and kids are my primary ministry (and keeping a semi-organized house) so my season of life isn't full of extra time for outside commitments, but my heartbeat is for discipleship.

Well I think Miguel is waking up from a nap so I better get going.