After a long hiatus...

MoneySavingMom posted this saying today, and I think it pretty much sums up my life right now. Our family of 4 is headed to Haiti in a month. This is something I never anticipated or planned, but God did. He knew this long before I did. He worked on my heart for months to get me to the point that I can say that I am EXCITED to be going to Haiti with my boys in tow. You see nine months ago I told God that there was no way I could go to Haiti with our boys. I was nervous because of Vance's recent health issues (that turned out not to be anything major- PTL!) I had my reasons, but mainly I wasn't ready to leave it all in God's hands. How we love to live in our comfort zone! Well, come September 15 we are flying out of our comfort zone and making our way to a place that Jeremy has worked and lived off and on for 18 months. Yes, 18 months. How time flies! Can I say how excited I am that for the first time since March 2010 the boys and I will be with Jeremy for 4 months straight (Aug.-Dec.)? I couldn't be happier, nor could the boys! God is so good!

Thankfully God is our guide, our protector, and our fortress. And as Samuel sings (mainly chants), "God, you are all powerful and in control of all things." Yes, Samuel, He is! We need not fear, my sweet boy!

That being said we still need your prayers as we make this journey. Please pray for us as we prepare to leave. Please pray for God to provide for all of our needs- financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual-as we prepare to leave and while we are there. In Haiti my job will be to homeschool our boys and also to help with the mission teams that come to build rubble homes and stay at our "compound". We will live at a safe place, but naturally, we will still be living in a country that has obvious risks. You can pray for our health and safety. Please add to that Vance's lungs in a humid place with no a/c. You can also pray for God to use this time for us to grow even closer as a family and to also love on the Haitian people we meet. Pray we are salt and light to a people in need of Christ. Pray lastly (but not least) for God to protect our boys from any fear that might come from being in a strange place far away from home.

Keeping up with a blog became next to impossible for me with 2 kids, but now that we are headed to Haiti, I am having second thoughts about leaving it behind. After all, a blog would help me keep in touch with family and friends that I won't talk to or see. That being said I am going to attempt to post from Haiti, but I am going to go private before we leave. If you would like to keep up with us, please send me your email address, and I will add you.

We have been so busy that the thought of catching up is daunting, but I would like to share a few recent pictures.


Jeremy's Dad's visit- April 2011

Easter Egg fun


Samuel at the AWANA Awards Night- April 10, 2011

Brotherly love- April 2011

Samuel's 5th birthday balloons (a Holloman tradition)
Marianna's 36th Birthday

Samuel's Pre-K Graduation- May 2011

Marianna's first trip to Haiti- June 1-8, 2011

10 Year Anniversary Trip to Dominican Republic (2 months early)

Vance's 3rd Birthday

Family Vacation to Waynesville, NC and the house of some dear friends- July 30-Aug. 4, 2011


Blessings!
Marianna

Tall Timbers Trip- Labor Day 2009

I am experiencing so many emotions right now as my grandmother is on her death bed. Hospice gives her a few days. It all happened so suddenly. One day they found a lump on her breast and the next thing we knew, she was diagnosed with breast and then lung cancer. It has been a whirlwind... I do thank the Lord for prompting me to make the trip to Tall Timbers for Labor Day. I know it was His prompting since it gave me one last time to spend time with my grandmother and the chance for her to meet Vance for the first time. 3 of her 4 grandkids were together for the first time since my grandfather's funeral back in 2005. I wish I had made this trip every year. I wish I had done several things differently. I am learning the hard way.

This is my Facebook status for tonight:

Hard lessons learned: Pick up the phone and call your loved ones when they come to mind even if you only talk for a few minutes. Plan trips to visit them even if it means long car trips with little children. Life is fragile and things can change so quickly. You never know when your time with them will come to an end. It will most definitely be sooner than you wish.

I am going to end with some pictures from our trip. This trip was from Sept. 4-8. My grandmother had not yet been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she was not feeling well. You wouldn't know it from her smile. She was so happy to have us all together! I will miss her like crazy! I already do!


Grandmommy and the grandkids -Huge smile on all of our faces














Samuel enjoying the hammock




















Samuel fishing with Daddy




















Samuel caught his first fish- reeled it in before Jeremy knew it




















Samuel and his first catch




















Cousins playing together




















Samuel (3) and Caiden (6)




















Vance playing in the rocks




















Jeremy was obsessed with fishing
















Vance smiling




















Vance and Ma enjoying some time together




















Vance and Da
















My brother John, his wife Nani, and baby Ertter due in February 2010

Not such a good day

Today went from bad to worse. This morning I got up at 7:00 AM and packed everything to come home from our vacation with my parents. That was depressing enough since no one is ever happy for vacation to be over. Then, Vance spit out some of his Prevacid. This rarely happens because I have figured out how to give him the liquid and then quickly pop in the paci to keep him from spitting it out. I don't feel comfortable giving him extra medicine since I have no idea what he spits out, so I just let it go. Well, Vance didn't let it go and spent most of the day resisting the bottle, spitting up 1/4 cup of formula at the time, or crying. He did manage to sleep a couple of hours, but he spent a lot of time unhappy or adding to my pile of laundry. I changed my clothes twice, and I changed Vance's clothes 3 times. (I guess it's a good thing I did most of our laundry yesterday.)

We finally made it home after a long journey since we had to stop twice to give Vance a bottle. I forgot to add that the gas tank was on empty pulling into town, but we didn't worry about it and headed home anyway. As we got very close to home, it became obvious that there is a gas shortage here. YIKES! It was a problem before we left town a week ago, but since we didn't notice a problem while we were gone, we figured all was well at home. WRONG! I guess it' a good thing I spend most of my time at home since gas is up to $4.29 a gallon and hard to come by. I guess I should let those that work get the gas before me anyway.

Ok, so it got worse. Jeremy was unpacking the car, and I was unpacking our tiny cooler. I opened the freezer to put the ice packs away and smelled something awful. It turns out the the repair man didn't repair our fridge and freezer last week and ALL of our food is spoiled. Would you believe that in learning to be more frugal I had frozen a week's worth of meals (leftovers) for us to eat this week and all of it is in the garage in garbage bags? I cried (several times). I even caused Samuel to cry. (Not good.) Thankfully, I picked him up and calmed him down quickly. What a way to end the day! I keep wondering what the Lord is going to teach me through this since he knows how much we needed all of that food. For now, I'm going to try to forget about it and go to bed. What a day!









































I will post more beach pictures soon!

First Stroll in Double Jogging Stroller

Last night we took the boys out in the double jogging stroller for the first time. Samuel said, "This is fun." It was fun, but it was a lot of work for the person pushing. Our neighborhood, which is one street that forms a semi-circle, is hilly. We went 1/2 mile, and I was wiped out. It's a good thing it was bedtime. Now I know what I need to do to lose the baby weight...


Before the stroll Vance wasn't so sure about it... Then, he started smiling.

7 years on August 3, 2008

Warning- This is an extremely long and boring post that I'm mainly doing for my benefit since my memory is shot...

Yesterday Jeremy and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. It's funny how anniversaries are quite different once you have children. I remember going away for the weekend when we celebrated our second anniversary. I also remember romantic dinners. Those were the days! This year was quite different, but that didn't make it any less special to me. We had a nice day together- Samuel slept in until 8:00, which was late for him. Then, Vance gave us an anniversary present by taking a wonderful 2 1/2 hour nap, which was a huge blessing (more on that later). We took Vance and Samuel to church at 11:00. It was Vance's second time in church but his first time at our church. Vance slept through everything but the clapping. After church all 4 of us went to lunch at Jason's Deli. It wasn't exactly what I picture as a anniversary spot, but it was nice to have relaxing family time out of the house since I am spending a lot of time at home these days. After lunch, we went home to put Samuel and Vance down for naps, and we watched a movie that Jeremy had rented. I don't even want to mention the name because I wouldn't recommend it to anyone- Jeremy got it because it looked like a chick flick and he was trying to please me... Samuel took a great nap, but Vance decided he wanted some snuggle time on the couch with Mommy and Daddy. Since I desperately wanted Vance to sleep and didn't want to wake Samuel with Vance's noises and tears, I held Vance on my chest while he slept. (Once again I will share more about Vance's issues in another post.) We stayed at home after naps. We can always find ways to entertain Samuel at home, which is good since it's a challenge to venture out with a 7 week old baby and a 2 year old. Later on, we took the boys to return the movie and make an exchange at Target. By this time it was dinnertime, and we had no clue what we were going to eat. It's a good thing we got a call from friends in our Bible study. Bible study had been cancelled, but they invited us to eat dinner with them. We had a nice dinner; Samuel and Vance both did great! After dinner we put the kids to bed and went to bed too.

Oh, and we got two more presents from the kids- Vance slept 5 1/2 hours straight last night and then both boys slept in this morning until 8:15, which was nice since we are SO tired!

Last but not least, Jeremy, you are my media naranja. Thank you for 7 wonderful years. I love you more each day and treasure my time with you! You are a wonderful husband and father. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in the future! The picture below was taken a few weeks before we found out we were expecting Samuel. Can you even remember those days????

Quick update

I wanted to let my friends and family know that I haven't disappeared off of the face of the earth. Much has happened since Vance was born, and I haven't had the time or the energy to blog. Here is our news-

1. Vance is 6 weeks old and thriving! He was 9 lb. 14 oz. at his one month appt. on July 17, which is the 50th percentile. His height is in the 97th percentile. Samuel always had the same percentile (and still does), so it looks like he is following after his brother!

6 week picture of Vance:




















2. We closed on our house yesterday. Praise the Lord! We are so thankful!!!

3. My grandmother Drewry (Mom's mom) went to be with the Lord on Sunday night at the age of 93. (Yes, 93 years old. Can you believe that?) I thank the Lord that He worked it out for all 4 of us to make the trip to Beaufort to see her before she died. It happened to be the same time we needed to go to close on the house. Coincidence- I think not! I know the Lord orchestrated it. We were able to spend about 30 minutes with her before a nurse took her to bed for what turned out to be the last time since she was sedated and medicated and then died 2 days later. Grandma was able to meet Vance, which she seemed to enjoy, as you will see in the picture below. She also got a huge grin when she saw Samuel. She always loved seeing Samuel! I am happy that I was able to tell her that I loved her and give her a kiss one last time. We will miss her so much, but we thank the Lord that she is with Him and no longer in pain.


Our time with Grandma

Samuel and Vance

Here is a picture of the two boys wearing the same outfit at 3 weeks old.

I wonder why...

Today Jeremy and Samuel went to Sunday School. Here they are right before they left:




















Apparently Samuel wasn't too thrilled with going to the nursery because he cried from the time Jeremy got near the door to drop him off, and he was crying when Jeremy went to pick him up. So strange... The ladies said that maybe he's teething. I know he's been teething, but that has never stopped him from playing. He has always enjoyed the nursery. Today he spent the hour crying and being held by one of the workers. Who knows??? I hate the thought of him in there crying while Daddy was oblivious to it all.

Samuel's napping right now, and I'm hoping he takes a long one. Jeremy, Uncle Doug, and Grammy are at the store, and I'm resting on the bed (as usual). Friday and Saturday weren't good days for me, so I'm trying to make today a better day. I can't figure out which is worse- the side effects of the medicine I take or the withdrawal when I don't take it. I think I'm going to be glad a week from tomorrow when this medicine is a thing of the past.

I think I'll take a long nap, Mommy and Daddy.

Most days Samuel naps 2 hours, but some days he will nap up to 3 hours. From the time he was on a regular nap schedule, I set a 3 hour limit on naps to keep it from interfering with his bedtime. Well, yesterday Jeremy woke Samuel up at the 3 hour mark. Samuel was sacked out. Jeremy went in his room making a loud noise since the door isn't shutting properly, went back out into the hall and turned on the light, went back into his room, left the room to get the camera, and then took several pictures of Samuel. All of that and Samuel didn't even wake up. He was sleeping so sweetly on his side. Oh, and he's just started sleeping on his back. (From the time he was about 5 weeks old I put him on his tummy, and that's how he has slept ever since. And, yes, I tested his ability to turn his head and not suffocate himself before I let him sleep on his tummy. I also credit Angelcare and breastfeeding for taking away my fear of SIDS.)

I love to watch Samuel sleep. I used to check on him every night before I went to bed, but I quit doing that awhile ago since we were using the Angelcare monitor, which monitored his breathing. Now that we're not using the monitor anymore, I tend to go in to check on him before I go to bed at night.

Here are 3 pictures- two of Samuel asleep yesterday and then one of him still sleepy in Daddy's arms. Yes, he still wears a sleep sack at 2 years old. I love them!!! Thanks to the sleep sacks Samuel has never even had an opportunity to climb out of the crib.

Our Live-In Help

Since May 7, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Faye have taken turns living with us and taking great care of us. I wanted to post some pictures of Samuel with them. You can see how happy they make him from the big smile on his face! (Most of the time it takes lots of pictures before I get a good smile out of him, but it didn't this time.)