Has half the year really gone by???

In April I gave our last family update but that update seems like a lifetime ago.  Around the time I posted our last update I learned that we were expecting a new bundle of joy.  I didn't say anything for several reasons but the main reason was because of fear of judgment.  It took me a while to deal with this emotion that I was going through but in the end I placed my trust in Him and accepted the fact that only He knows what He is doing.  Honestly my first thoughts were this is not a good time because I just started losing weight again and how in the world will we be able to afford another child and what would I say to all those people that just mumble under their breath that we shouldn't be having another child.  I struggled and struggled because when we got married we (Alex and I) both agreed that we would leave all children issues in the Lord's hands and we would gladly accept as many children He gave us with open arms.  So why would I have these fears?  I realize fear does not come from the Lord but these thoughts were on my mind.  I was honestly very happy with my family.  Who could ask for more?  I have been blessed with two sons and two daughters.  I thought I was content with my family size and the thought of having any more children did not cross my mind so I started to try to take control of this area of our lives.  Obviously the Lord had totally different plans because boy were we shocked to learn in April that we were expecting again.  I went through just about every emotion but in the end we decided to share this news with our immediate family only.  I researched around for local midwives because we have already decided that we did not want to travel back to PA for another birth because it was just too much money to go back and forth.  After researching around I found a hospital nearby that works with midwives and we scheduled an appointment.  At our first appointment we knew we were going to have a dating sonogram so we were expecting to see the baby.  One of the downfalls of living so far away from our family is that we do not have many people in this area that we trust to leave our children with for brief periods of time, so here we all go, all six of us in this little room and we wait to see the doctor and our baby.  When we finally got to see the doctor he was so nice and made us feel at ease even though we had everyone in the room.  He immediately went over all the background and then came the moment that we got to have our sonogram.  All eyes were locked in on the screen to see the baby and my second son says, "Where is the baby?  I don't see him."  The minute he said that my heart sank.  In that instant all the fears that have been invading my brain were washed away and all I could do was look for this baby.  I felt the lump in my throat but held it together because I try to never cry in front of my children.  All the kids wanted pictures so the doctor printed up four copies of the empty sac and the kids left the doctor's office so excited.  Later that night my husband held me as I cried and I shared with him that I never wanted a child as much as I want this one.  Like that every single fear was pushed aside and only love invaded my entire body.  We prayed every night that week like we do most nights anyway but this time the prayers centered around Baby B.  The kids were so sweet and honest with their prayers it warmed my heart even more.  That week seemed like the longest week I have ever gone through but exactly a week later we went back to the doctor's office.  This time my second son says, "Look the baby grew!"  I stared at the doctor's face as his face dropped and he replied, "He is right, the baby did grow."  The doctor was shocked and my kids responded we prayed for this baby all week and now we finally get to see him.  So yes this has been an emotional journey for me but I can honestly say with such excitement that I am so excited to say that I can't wait to meet Baby B during the Christmas/New Year holiday!!!

Later in May we were visited by my parents which rushed us into June and Alex's parents visited us and brought us back to Texas while he was deployed to Japan.  We have been here for about a month now and now we are getting ready to go back home to New Jersey.  Can't believe that our vacation time is almost done.  Honestly I am excited to reunite my family again with their daddy.  We miss him terribly and can't wait to end this summer on a good note.

Now we begin the countdown to the beginning of a new school year.  Yup in 12 days we will begin our new year and I have so many mixed emotions about it but I know that we will be stretched in good ways.  The month of July has been a challenging one for us so far as there are many things that are happening that may affect all seven of us but we are trying to have faith that everything will work out for the best even if we can't see it now.  So in the meantime we focus on the positive and love the family that He has blessed us with!

I know this has been a long post and if you made it to the end I thank you for always being a faithful and loving friend.

In Christ,

Aleida

End of another year

The last post I posted I was positive that I would be able to begin posting again but we became engulfed with everyday life. I last posted in September of last year, so let's see what has happened since then.

The Mr. went on a deployment and I went home from October thru January. In January we went on a family cruise and when I say family cruise, I mean my parents (bc we were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary that was in Dec), my sister, my brother and sister-in-law and niece, and then there was my forever growing family. We enjoyed being with the family during that time and it was great. We then drove back to New Jersey and began our normal routine again. Our normal routine is forever changing so what was normal then is definitely not normal now. In December we celebrated our oldest son's 6th birthday and in February we celebrated our youngest daughter's 1st birthday. Sometime from February to now we learned that my brother and sister in law are expecting their 2nd child so that thrills us beyond belief that we are adding a new member to the family. At the end of March my oldest son ended his 2nd grade year and my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Now my days consist of doing fun school things like computer games that still practice the concepts we learned in the year for my 2nd grader and completing my other son's K4 year. The planning for next year has already begun as we have some huge transitions to factor in. One of those factors is the beginning of Preschool for the newest student of the Benavides Bible Academy. It still amazes me that in the next few months I will have a 3rd grader, a K5 student, and a PK student that will attend our school!

In my other free time I try to schedule in much needed reading of the Word time! My husband bought me a Busy Mom's Bible which I love. It is so important for me to have my quiet times so I am able to deal with the everyday life things in our house. I also try to schedule in workout time. I finally started losing the weight from the last pregnancy and it only happened from watching my diet and doing zumba about 5 times a week. I now use the elliptical as well. The Mr. was working days for a few months but they moved him back to nights last month so I take advantage of the time he is not here to do my own schooling. I am currently taking classes to get certified to be a Medical Transcriptionist, and a Medical Coding and Billing person. I started these classes in February and need to complete them by February of next year in order to have these classes paid for. I was able to qualify for this program due to my husband's rank (one of the few perks of him not making that much money).

Still can't believe April is almost done but I am looking forward to May. May we will wrap up the school year for everyone and take a few months off for a summer vacation. My parents come up for a mini visit and that will take us into June. In June my in laws come up for a mini visit and then we are off to TX for a mini vacation. In July (more than likely) we will begin a new school year just so we can make sure everything is done in a timely fashion. I am expecting that this year we will have some schedules to work around and I would hate for the kids to be neglected by this.

  Other than this being a long post...we are doing wonderful. We truly are blessed and we are so thankful for all the new friends that we have made recently. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure and we still can't believe He has chosen us to be apart of His family!

In Christ,

Aleida

Long Overdue Update

Wow...what can I say??? It has been a year since our last update. So much has happened in that year. We found out we were expecting baby #4...we went home to TX for a few months due to a deployment...we moved to new jersey...our oldest son turned 5...our house went under contract...our house went off the contract...we wrapped up 1st grade and pre-k for our sons...another offer was made on our house and then backed out of again...we purchased a new vehicle to accomodate our growing family and became a minivan family...we had baby #4 which we named Miss Joanna Ruth...our house went under contract again and finally sold...had a summer vacation...our daughter turned 2...our other son turned 4...started a new school year so now we have a 2nd grader and a kindergartner...the Mr. went back to night shift after only a few months on day shift...and now we gear up for another deployment and praying that everything works out so we can have a family vacation this Christmas.

That being said this has been an eventful year and yes I have fallen off the face of this earth when it comes to blogging but I think I am finally ready to begin blogging once again during the spare time that I can manage to take. This year I have learned a lot about myself. I never knew that I can face some of the challenges I have and still come out of the challenges trusting that the Lord will see me through it. I know we say that we trust the Lord to see us through things but I must admit that there were times I wasn't sure how that was going to be possible yet He always did see me through things. I am still learning to rely on Him completely! During this past year I did stray away from the Lord and I felt I became an ugly person but He never let me go too far. I got too busy with my everyday life that I forgot to check in with the One that gave His life for me. He has shown me that I need Him...Oh how I need Him! I still let my everyday life get in the way of spending time with Him from time to time but I am working on this. I have learned that when I don't spend time with my Savior I am irritable and not very pleasant. The Lord has humbled me beyond my beliefs and I am grateful that He loves me enough to forgive me. I am grateful that He gave me the family He has and they forgive me.

So as I blog I pray that those that do read this continues to keep me in prayers. I have been blessed with friends that pray for me on a regular basis and I appreciate them very much. I may not blog as often as I would like but that is ok because I truly do not want to do something else that will take away much needed time with Him!

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!

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

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

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.