Doing The Simple Well

My girls are growing up. Brasil is coming out more everyday its really amazing. She is even getting taller I put some pants on her today and they were high water, so we quickly changed her. Time goes by fast and I have to try to enjoy this time with them. My friend Christa recently was diagnosed with AVM and needs brain surgery in the next month. This got me to thinking deeply about life and how you really have to love your loved ones and make your time with them count. Now Christa is not going anywhere soon because I really need some babies out of her..lol But life is very precious and we need to live it to the fullest. It starts at home with our husbands and kids. I have big dreams of helping the community and the world esp El. Salvador but I have been challenged with just doing the simple things well and great too. Like making sure I have a great marriage not a just a good one. I want to be a great mom not just a good one. I know great good what do I mean? I am still trying to figure that out, but I know I want to have the fruit of the spirit in my relationship with my husband who I have fallen in love with more and more in this season. I want to be be full of the fruit of the spirit with my kids as well. This can be hard at times because we loose vision for it when we are around our loved ones day in and day out. Family is really important to me but I find its one of the hardest thing to walk out. On daily bases....man! But His vast grace helps me remember to not be hard on myself and depend on Him to do it all.

Drove to Nature

I was not feeling good this last week Bella was up a lot with Asthma stuff and so I packed them in the car and thought we are going to Ikea and just look around. I got all ready and they fell asleep in the car. So I decided to play fair, and just keep driving, got some drive through starcrack! Perfect way to get more energy if you ask me. Then I went and filled my gas tank and the girls continued to sleep. I paid and it came out to twenty six dollars, so I began to ponder where can I drive to and not have to get out of the car. I knew it Crown Point in the Colombia River Gorge. So I took marine drive the scenic drive all they way up to the mountain. I got to pray and worship God it was fabulous. The kids kept sleeping and I kept praising Him as I looked into nature from the safety of my car of course!!!!lol lol....Then I got to the top and God began to speak to me and it was wonderful. Nature really reminds me of the greatness of God and How amazing and creative he is really is. All the colors and mountains and waterfalls simply breathtaking. As I looked Bella got up and it was so fun showing her all the wonderful beauty that God has made for us. I cried tears of pure joy at what Gods Goodness provides for us. I was rejuvenated by his artwork he created for us to breath in and reflect on the creator of it all.I took a lot of deep breaths in and asked God to continue his work in me and to give me the focus to walk with Him. The desire to hear Him and whats he wants to say to me. It was really a very deep spiritual moment being out there in the woods alone with God. So then I came home and oh there is an outlet mall lets hit it!!!!!Got real excited to go to gap and then took my little ones out with fresh energy and zeal and Brasil had blown out her outfit with number two. It was nice I took some deep breaths and pumped myself up you can do this girl its all you!!!!So I got all the wipes I could and began to bathe Brasil with them. I think I used a half a box of them on her rear. Then I got to a bathroom disinfected my hands and got after Gap in a major way!!!Totally fun day!!!!!Kids are amazingly good for me in all ways shapes and forms!!!!!

Bella and sister time

Bella is coming alive in her emotions to Brasil. She said to Brasil all day, "come here little sista I love you" and kissed her on her forehead! This was beautiful to watch and then brasil snuggled with her. I am becoming a sappy woman later on in life, but that was a moment that had to be written about. I love these two they are so sweet and bring a tenderness out of me that I really did not know was there. I love how they are changing me and tenderizing me everyday!These are the moments that make be joyful.

The Journey

I have been thinking lately how hard it is to walk with God when times are hard but when life is a bit boring or mundane. I stay home with the girls and at times can go crazy being home with two toddlers. I find it hard to at times to simply and faithfully walk with the Lord on a daily bases. I also have had a year to transition back to Portland and am getting into my grove again in life. But the last year was very difficult to accept and deal with. So all of last year was a year of transition and its was a time to reflect during nap times and a time to adjust to having two kids. One year later its getting easier and I a finding that a year of reflection and isolation had left me starved for human interaction. But I also learned valuable lessons in isolation. I learned I have been a work horse and that Tory and I needed to become more one in our marriage. I learned that I don't like change and that change is really good for me. I learned that I like things to go my way or the high way and that was hard to see in me but a great reminder that I still need the cross. I learned that I loved the approval of people above Gods. I learned that some of the ways I approached ministry must change and that is wonderful to the soul. I learned that I am a minister from the depth of my soul and that God had too challenge me on all fronts to bring me out a better wife, friend, and minister. I also learned that my daughter having asthma has been very hard to deal with but has kept me on my knees!!!!I don't know about you but I forget about God in Good times and in bad times I get angry with Him. I wish that were different, but hopefully I mature in time. I know He is patient though as I am with my daughters when they make a mess out of themselves. I have learned many lessons out of tremendous pain and pressure, but I feel like I have a better perspective on life and God then I have had since I got saved. He is a very loving and gentle father who sees our pain and longs to be with us an a intimate way. I love God for that. I live in a forest really we have like five huge fur trees in my backyard I have looked out in the morning or afternoon and remembered the greatness of God. My backyard reminds me of nature and how God made it for us and its a healing thing to be in it.I am from a worn torn nation, a dysfunctional family, and am a broken person, and when I think back on my history personally I see that God was there when I was sad, mad, happy, and angry!I love this God who does not falter even when we want to give up on life. I am so glad he does not fail and meets us when we are broken and need him the most. I love the Lord with all my soul and can now see through that darkness and am really excited about it the light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!!!!!God has always some through for me in the last hour and its been great to see his working hand. I cant always see what he is doing but I love the results he brings me. I also pray that I can simply walk with him when I was younger I ran for God and with and from Him at times, now I want to walk, simply and faithfully walk with Him in Good Times and Bad Times. I want to mature in how I view life and trials.

Brasil's first Haloween Party!!!!!A blast!!!!!!!

calling all moms or anyone who has some wisdom

Do guys know of anything thats works when kids have a bad cold. I am looking for somthing natural.

Families Being Torn Apart!

Recently the Latino community has been a target for families being torn apart and mistreated.I have grown up in Oregon most of my life and it is not as diverse as let say California where a lot of El Salvadoreans escaped to during a civil war in the early 80's. People from all of central America were escaping left and right due to civil wars. I can remember as a kid seeing dead people and hearing bombs in the night. When we escaped it was at late at night and its was long and scary journey! I don't talk about it much because it was a dark moment and I would like to forget about. But recently I been reminded by all the injustice the Latino community is experiencing. I know there is an immigration problem we must try to solve. I don't know the answers all the way but ripping families apart and mistreating people, having raids in public libraries, storming work sites is not appropriate. My cousin was stoped recently and is now on his way to being deported back to El Salvador this is an out cry! He has been here since he was 11 years old and again escaped getting taken from his family to either be a guerrilla soldier or a the local army where a 11 year old. So we sent money and he went on the most dangerous journey of his life with my grandmother who was in 6o's at the time. Ludwin story is common he married a native American girl who they have been with each other for ten years. They have two kids together and one child who Ludwin has loved and accepted as his own. He has been in the system now for a month and a half. While he has been there his family has suffered greatly. They don't have an apartment anymore because he was trhe primary breadwinner and are living with family. This is an outrage and its happening all over the country. Latinos need to be respected and treated a lot different then this. We have served this country with our the labor of our hands and our country cant repay us this way. Children are suffering and in many cases both parents are being taken by the migra because they both work at the same place. What happens to the kids they are left with strangers and extended family. This is not right. My cousin is fortunate to a least have a lawyer but is still getting mistreated in the jail system. They are treated like unwanted dogs and criminals which I am sure some are but not everyone!!!!!!! I ask that you would care as a christian for Latinos and anyone that's an immigrant because the Bible tells us to. Right now I feel like this is where the Church and Christians need to stand up against injustice! Its important and at the very least we can pray and treat every Latino with respect and dignity we are real people with real families that are experiencing hardship in this great country! So I AM not mad or angry at anyone but am frustrated with the way our culture is handling this right now. People talk about this like there is a simple answer and there is not. I hope that we just have some mercy honor the work of the latino community better then our legal sysytem and our government is handling this at this time. So friends and family please pray for me becasue I am about to get involved in the my community and through service to them and hope you find a way to care about people who need your help here right at home in the US.