Tuesday, July 27, 2010

3rd Birthday!

Three years ago the Lord blessed us with a son we named Nathanael Paul. It is a fitting name because Nathanael means gift from God and Paul means small. Boy was he a small gift from God. He came at a perfect time in our marriage and we have become even stronger as a family just for having him enter our life. Never in a million years would I begin to imagine how having children would transform my life. Having children has been one of the best and rewarding experiences the Lord has given our family.



Although I was extremely sick for this weekend we still managed to celebrate a little. Here are some pics to show an update on our family.




The birthday boy hitting his Thomas the train piñata.





The brother and sister hitting the piñata.

















After the piñata we came inside to have some cake. After the cake and gifts all my men got haircuts.







We had a lot of fun Sunday celebrating. On Monday we just loved on our gift even more. These pics are on his actual birthday.







We had a great time! We are blessed!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Struggling

Wow where do I start? When we first moved to Maine we were so excited because we knew that it was very clear that God wanted us to move there and he opened up doors to take us there. While we lived in Maine the first couple of years we struggled because we were so far away from our family and friends. After our hardships we finally got connected with a good church and we thrived within our Christian community. The last year or two we were in Maine we have really learned how to depend on each other and we have grown so much in the Lord. There were several times during that time we debated doing what we wanted but we never felt God gave us the ok to pursue what we wanted. God constantly put it on our heart to remain where we are and He will show us where to go and what to do next. Now we are in Pennyslvania and God has opened up new doors. We are now in a new chapter of our lives. Although we are in new chapters of our lives I must admit that I have been discouraged because we have seen many discouraging events happen over the past year and a half. I have a lot of resentment towards actions that have happened with friends in Maine and elsewhere but I have seen how God can use unfortunate circumstances and bring good out of them.

So now I am trying to leave this hurt in my heart in His hands. As I said the Lord has brought us to PA and has made it very clear that God's mission field for us right now for Alex is the Navy and for me it is my children. This year, Alex finally started his master's degree and after debating with God for months finally agreed to pursue his masters of divinity so now he is in Seminary. This is something that has been placed in our hearts for quite sometime but we weren't sure if that was something we really wanted to pursue. Well God won that war and now we are waiting out the time as he finishes his degree. We really don't know how long it will take for him to complete this degree because he does work full time but as long as it takes we know for right now we are supposed to be right where we are.

We have been through a lot during the past four years of our life and my hope is that the lessons that we have learned will help us overcome the feelings that we are feeling now. Please keep us in prayers because I am trying to live a stress free life right now and it has been very hard especially in this neighborhood we live in. We stay to ourselves here and we are looking forward to making the arrangements to get to our new home in New Jersey. The original plan was for us to not live in New Jersey until next February or March but now we are going to try to make arrangements to be there before the end of this year.

Hope you have a great day!

Blessed,

Aleida

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Exciting news

This weekend Alex's parents made the most generous offer. This offer was one we could not pass up. As most of you know Alex is going on a month long deployment. We considered having me go down to Texas with the kids so they would not have to be focused on the fact that he is not around. There are some days that my N children cry when he walks out the door because he has been working ridiculous hours. Anyways we ended up deciding we could not go home because our money is extremely strapped because we are trying to sell our townhouse in Texas and until we do so we are making two house payments along with making repairs to the townhouse and just making ends meet from paycheck to paycheck. We literally have burned through our savings these past couple of months so we have told both of our parents that we would not be able to make it home until the house sold or we came into some kind of money (and yes this even means Christmas). Anyways I share this information with you so you can understand how blessed we are. Although I really wanted to go home I had come to peace with knowing I would be here by myself for the first time with 3 kids in a place I am still not that comfortable with. Just as I came to this peace, my in-laws shared that they really want for us to come and they decided they wanted to come up here and pick us up and take us back to Texas for the month and when Alex gets back they will be more than happy to bring us back. How exciting is that? Needless to say we were excited and the kids are excited knowing that they will be seeing their grandparents soon.

Maybe we can catch up with some of you guys when we are down there. If you are interested in meeting up send me an email and I can let you know specific dates that we will be in town.

In Christ,

Aleida

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Successful week

We are so blessed to have people that pray for us on a regular basis. This past week we knew it was going to be a rough one because of schedules and what nots but over all we had a great week. We completed our first week of P90X which let me say is an intense workout but we achieved our goal of making it through the first week. Today is our day of rest so hopefully we can continue on our journey of staying healthy.

Friday, I's curriculum came in so we spent the afternoon organizing the dining room and creating schedules of how the school year will go. Today we purchased N his first school box for his Pre-K year and he was so thrilled. It is so encouraging to see how eager the kids are for learning. They are the ones nudging us the majority of the time to continually be in school mode. We tell them they need to learn to have rest time too because when they get older they are going to want these summer breaks. Although we would love to stay in summer mode we must get back to school mode because of the move that will be happening again within this school year. We haven't heard officially when it will happen but rumor is it will be somewhere between October and February so I need a cushion so we can take some weeks off during that time. Moving takes a lot of work but the good thing is once we get to New Jersey we should be put for at least 2-3 years so we can get back to a normal school schedule once we get situated unless we decide to have this year round schedule with a week or two off after each semester. We shall see how the kids adjust to the changes they will be enduring once again.

So the rest of today will consist of naps and rest before we begin our 2010-2011 school year tomorrow.

Monday, June 7, 2010

New Week

We have been sick for almost two weeks with a stomach bug in our house until this weekend. Finally we turned the corner and everyone is feeling great so we got out of the house for the first time in two weeks. Can I just say it was so wonderful? We finally had a great breeze with little humidity so it was great! We went for our daily run that we have not got do for two weeks like I mentioned so I was expecting for a lot of breaks but lo and behold I made it. I jogged at the same speed for two whole miles. I am so excited. Alex ran along pushing the kids in our three seater. My goal is to get to the pushing and running phase but I met my first goal of running the entire time. We celebrated by letting the kids play at the park for a while so I can catch my breath. We then came home to eat lunch and begin our new workout. Yes, we have begun the P90X workouts and boy was it tough. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day too.

I now sit and take a few seconds to myself as everyone is napping and the husband is at work. I just ordered Isaiah's curriculum for this school year and now I need to sit and create my schedule. We need to plan out how this school year will run now that both the boys will be homeschooling this year. (Isaiah will be in 1st grade and Nathanael will be in Pre-K) I also need to incorporate baby sign time with the baby girl while the boys do their school work. We are going to be starting the new school year soon because we are moving again within this school year and I don't want to get behind plus we take a month off for the Christmas holiday and this year the husband will be going on a deployment for a month so we have a lot of adjustments to fix in our little schedule. Please pray for us as we schedule our schedule. We had a rough week last week because the husband is working ridiculous hours (3:30 pm - 5 am) the latest. It ranges from 3-5 am. This week looks like it will be the same so please pray we handle it better than we did last week. I remind myself constantly that the Lord never gives us too much to handle and as long as I am walking with Him I am good!

Have a great week!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Has it really been since Sept since I last posted?

Wow...I decided to take a break and blog a little only to realize that we hadn't posted anything since September. How crazy is that? So much has happened but let me see if I can condense my updates. In September, I started homeschooling Isaiah with a pre-k curriculum and it is so amazing to see how much he has learned in those months. When we first started he was barely learning to hold scissors and a pencil and now you can't seem to stop him when it comes to writing his name and anything else he wishes. In December/January, we had movers come pack us up and move us to the state of PA. We started a new life to a very different place than we were used to. We grew to fall in love with Maine and life in the city is very different. Even our kids notice but they are happy with wherever we end up. Just as we begin getting used to the area and the new budgets we had set in place the Lord reminded us once again that he was in charge. We learned in March that our tenant would be moving out of our townhouse in TX by the end of April. Of course with the move and other unexpected expenses that came up we realized we only had enough savings to cover two more months of mortgage payments. Once again we found ourselves placing all of our circumstances in the Lord's hands. We have since had enough to cover two house payments and make repairs to the townhouse to sell. Don't get me wrong we are not living extravagantly by any means. We have had to pinch pennies even more but we have had more than enough and have never gone without. Isn't our Lord good?

So now we are more recent...last month we celebrated our daughter's first birthday. She is such a joy. She has brought a completely different joy to our house. She is still very small. She only weighs 16 pounds but she is going non-stop. She will more than likely be walking here soon. We got to visit with the Curiel grandparents for 5 days a couple of weeks ago. That was wonderful. The kids were sad when they left and that tugged at our hearts so much. It is crazy how big they are getting and they do notice when their loved ones are gone. We wrapped up the school year last Friday. We enjoyed the curriculum that we used this year for Isaiah that we decided to use the same curriculum for Nathanael this year now that he will be 3 in July. He is very interested in school already. As far as Isaiah the Lord completely answered my prayers. A few years ago I happened to see this PACE that friends of ours used to homeschool their kids and finally asked them about it and they told me who they ordered their curriculum through. I researched them and came to learn that this is exactly what I was looking for. I used to use these PACEs when I was in private school my freshman year. After receiving brochures I realized this is exactly what I wanted but I knew it would be a little pricier than we wanted to go so I prayed about it and left it in the Lord's hands because after all the husband would have to approve it in order for monies to be spent. A week later I showed all of my findings to the husband and he was excited and said this is definitely the route I want to go. So needless to say we have been putting money aside to cover the yearly fee and the curriculum fee. We decided to enroll him in Lighthouse Christian Academy but I will still be homeschooling him at home. They just keep all of his school records on file for us. After all the papers were signed they sent us a Reading Readiness Test to see where he would be placed and he scored perfectly. He has been placed in First grade. This was exciting to us because originally he was going to be placed in kindergarten because of his age but the tests confirm he is ready to begin reading so we will be starting first this school year. We decided we will be starting school again once his curriculum is ordered and has arrived. We were originally going to start in mid August but since we will be moving again very soon then we decided to start a little earlier so we don't get too far behind with the next move. The great thing about the next move is that we are only moving about 45 minutes away from where we are now.

So I guess that about sums up what we have been up to. I look forward to reading my friends blogs to see what life has been like for them.

In Christ,

Aleida