November Rain

Rain is one of those things that can be a blessing and a curse. Living on the gulf coast all of my life, I know that full well! In life we have episodes that rain down on us constantly. This week has been no exception.

My sister's babies, you can read previous posts if you're unfamiliar or curious, are both doing great.

Baby Ibrina, 27 weeker, is almost 4 pounds now, breathing on her own and drinking from a bottle (once a day 30ml's...the rest she gets through a tube in her nose). Everything looks on target for her to come home shortly before Christmas! Blessings raining down!

Baby Lailah, 37 weeker, is also doing wonderfully! She's almost 9 pounds, has a contagious smile and big, beautiful brown eyes! However, after failing several in office hearing tests, she went today to see a specialist. They found that she is profoundly deaf in both ears. She will be fitted for hearing aides at 3 months. Mixed emotions raining down!I know that God's will is being done. He has a plan for these girls and their mommas. Being small is not a curse...it is an opportunity to excede expectations. Being deaf is not a curse...it is an opportunity to communicate God's love in a different way.


God is on His throne through the rain and in the rainbows. It is my prayer that we can take these "imperfections" and become stronger in Him.

"I will praise you Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, my heart knows that full well" ~ Psalms 139:1

2 Little Princesses

I was extremely blessed and excited this morning! As you may have read on my other blog http://ibrinanoellopez.blogspot.com/, my niece Ibrina can now maintain her body temperature on her own. Which means that she can be held. I had hoped that I would get to hold her (soon) and my chance came this morning. I got to hold her for about 30 minutes. She is perfect. And tiny. And complete. Being the proud Aunt that I am I had to share some pictures :)!

This one is of me holding her...pretty sure she loves me ;)

This one is her sucking her thumb for the 1st time!

Of course you all know the wacky story of how the girls had their girls on the same day! This is my other niece Lailah. She has become quite the big girl! Tristan (big brother) says that she thinks he's pretty funny and laughs alot. And apparently LOVES sticking her tongue out!!

This is Lailah Reese...cracking up!

How blessed are we to have 2 beautiful new baby girls in our family! Please continue to pray for Ibrina's journey, as she continues to grow and hit milestones. And also pray for Lailah. She has not been able to pass her hearing screens (she's had 3 so far). Carrie will be taking her to a specialist later this month...I'll keep you posted!

God Bless America

"But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations."(Pslam 33:11)

We must now come together and pray for our leader. May God bless America!!!!

Heed the words of 1 Peter 2:17 when it says, “Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

Amen!

Happy Birthday & Halloween

I love the Fall! Leaves changing, cooler weather, holidays, hot chocolate, going to festivals...the list could go on and on! But 2 of my favorite things fall on Halloween! First, I love dressing the kids up and going Trick-or-Treating. The whole process of deciding on a costume and watching the kids transform into character cracks me up. This year Samantha is Shirley Temple (which she has no clue about, so she just says Baby Doll), Mario is a Clone Trooper or Man of Armor (depending on when you ask him) and MiMi is Snow White (with blond hair). So stinkin' cute!

Mario & I were in charge of the pumpkin carving...yes, it's puking! My husband spent last weekend with Jr. High students, I'm guessing that's where he got his inspiration ;).

But my FAVORITE thing about Halloween is that it's my son Mario's Birthday!!! I gave birth to Mario Anthony Bruning at 7:40pm October 31, 2002. My midwife was dressed as a Kitty Cat and my nurse was a Clown (a cute one, not a creepy one!). Also dressed up that day, (in the delivery room), were my nephews, Marcus and Tristan (both Ninjas)...they were 6 and 4 and not too happy that my birth experience conflicted with their Trick-or-Treating!! I can't believe that Bubba is 6 years old! He has grown so much over the past few months, both physically (like 6 inches taller) and through maturity (he's reading and writing and building friendships). I am a proud Momma! So tomorrow will be a GREAT day at the Bruning house...full of Make Believe, Trick-or-Treating and Celebrating my boy! HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BUBBA!!

Ready, Set, Go.....!

I have been working on painting and decluttering the kids' rooms all week. We replaced pink walls with Water Chestnut walls, (this should help Bubba's masculinity greatly ;)). Replaced captains beds with bunk beds and moved MiMi's toddler bed into the garage (she got one of the captains beds). I've also started painting our room (only the toilet/ tub area of our bathroom is done so far)! What I've learned: I despise painting bathrooms, a 2 year old loves for you to be busy, you CAN forget to eat...and cook dinner (sorry babe), and I LOVE home improvement projects!!

But they will have to be put on hold after today because we are starting marathon weekend at the Bruning's!

Tonight, after the kids get home from school and Good News, we have Skate Night, then Donuts with Dad at 7am, my small group, Bubba's sleepover for his birthday tomorrow night (6 boys, a tent, a campfire and 47degree weather...loving it), a festival and pie competition, church and then the "family" party for Bubs. Did I mention that my husband will be away at XNOW weekend with our Youth during most of this??? Thankfully he got a temporary Leave of Absence for the sleepover (thanks Prater!!) Honestly, I am looking forward to every minute of this weekend! Tons of pictures, memories and tradition will be poured into our family this weekend...what a blessing!

PS: If you could pray for my niece Ibrina, (Sabrina without the S), today. She may have an infection and they are doing a blood transfusion today. Her story and updates are at http://ibrinanoellopez.blogspot.com
THANKS!!!

Update on the Girls!

**Monday-UPDATE**

Yesterday Ibrina got taken off of the billi lights, tolerated her 3rd blood transfusion and her ventilator got reduced (she's breathing more on her own now)! Praise God & Keep the prayers coming please!!

Carrie got to come home from the hospital yesterday, unfortunately Lailah did not. They have discovered that she does have acid reflux, but she also has apnea (she stops breathing for brief periods of time). So, she has to be "episode free" for 5 days in a row in order to come home. Please pray that her lungs would mature and that she would be healthy enough to come home soon!

*****************************

I have twin sisters, Cathy and Carrie who are 28 years old. However, they are about as polar opposite as any two people that I know! Until recently...

They both became pregnant again this year (they both have sons, Marcus 12 & Tristan 10 respectively). Carrie was due October 21st and Cathy was due December 29th. Carrie got diagnosed with Placenta Previa very early on and so after months of bed rest she was scheduled for a C-section on October 1st at 9am. Cathy had a very uneventful pregnancy. Until Tuesday night...

Cathy began bleeding severely. I was called to the hospital a little after 11pm and it was decided that Cathy was suffering from a Placental Abruption (her placenta had separated from her uterus). She had to have an emergency C-section at 12:36am...October 1st. Ibrina Noel Lopez was born weighing 2lbs. and was 13.5 inches long. She has had 2 blood transfusions, is on a ventilator and under the billi lights. She will be in the NICU for several months, but she is doing awesome for a 27 weeker! Prayers are coveted!!

Carrie was at the hospital for Cathy's C-section, but then returned home to sleep for a couple of hours (she had to be back at 7am for her surgery). Lailah Reese Hill was born weighing 6lbs 1oz and was 18 inches long at 9:42am...October 1st. She had an "episode" where she turned blue, (they are pretty confident that it was a fluke due to severe acid reflux), so she is in the NICU and expected to come home on Sunday.

SO...the twins are 3 rooms apart in the same hospital and the babies are in the same NICU. At least they made visitation easy on all of us! With our mom gone I am Mom, Grandma, Aunt, Sister, Voice of Reason (when the pain meds wear off), and friend. It's been a long week...we all agree on that!

I ask for PRAYER for my sisters, the babies, my nephews and the babies fathers. They are believers, but are living a somewhat worldly life. I pray that God will draw them close through this and make them realize that HE is the ONLY way. And give Him the glory and praise! I also pray that Mario & I are prayerful and obedient during this time. THANK YOU!!!!

Seriously...Not again!!!

Life on the gulf coast...Gotta love it?!?!? I often wonder why we live where we live. My husband and I both love the mountains, love "seasons"...and HATE mosquitos and humidity. Oh well, this is where we were plopped! Of course we have the best job and friends and church...so, I'm not gonna complain too much.

But these last couple of months have been a little tiresome. June-November is hurricane season. I've lived here all of my life and have survived several hurricanes and tropical storms. And they used to be fun...hurricane watch parties, foregoing the warnings and heading down to Galveston to watch the waves (and crazy surfers), stocking up on candles, pizza and beer (oh & water too ;)). However, with kids you have to be a little more cautious...now it's hotel reservations and filling up on gas, stocking up on medicine and water (seriously this time) and watching the weather channel 24/7!

First it was Edouard...and now it's IKE. We live a little northeast of where the "Projected Path Line" is (actually where is says 2 PM Sat. is where we live)...they call that the "Dirty side" of the storm. Pray that we will be safe once again and maybe, just maybe that it fizzles out just a bit before it hits.

1st Day of School & Kemah

This has been an exciting couple of days at the Bruning house! Mario and I have come to realize how much Little Mario is like him and how much Samantha is like me. Melissa marches to her own drum...poor geese!!!Example?


Here's Samantha in Kemah: (chillaxin' on the Merry-Go-Round...that's Momma's girl, play it safe!)









And here's Little Mario: (on the Bullet Roller Coaster..which he was technically 4 inches too short to ride!!!)







Then there's Melissa: (she wanted to hold one!!)








Of course the biggest thing was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!
2nd Grade for Samantha & Kindergarten for Mario!!!










I didn't cry...until I got outside...they are still my babies for goodness sakes!

Summertime

I am so excited about this weekend! Me and a girlfriend are going to Reliant Stadium to see KENNY CHESNEY and KEITH URBAN!!! I have only missed one Kenny concert in the last 6 years. I even waddled up the Woodlands hill, sat on the lawn and sang my heart out to Kenny and Uncle Kracker when I was 9 months pregnant with my last child! A die-hard fan?...maybe just a bit!

More than the concert and singing every song word for word, I am looking forward to having some grown up girl time with a good friend! I'm looking forward to lots of laughs, yards of cold beverages :) and recapturing some of the youthful giddyness that concerts bring.

I used to feel guilty spending time and money on myself to do something without the kids...and I still do to some extent. But not this weekend! It's some well deserved, (and well appreciated) Mommy time!

Melissa

I thought that I would post a little about my youngest daughter Melissa. She turned 2 earlier this summer and has been such a blessing... a blue-eyed, puffy blond-haired, blessing!

She was our "little surprise"! We had Samantha and Mario, a boy and a girl, and thought that our family was complete. As usual, God knew better and gave us MiMi. She is a ball of energy and attitude. I remember my earlier parenting days, my friends would ask me "What do you do when your kids talk back, throw tantrums, etc...", I never had an answer because my kids (Samantha and Mario) never did those things. Now I find myself calling my friends asking for the solution!

There isn't a day that passes that Mario and I don't crack up at something that she does or says (she may have a bit of a potty mouth...Mario ;)). From dancing/ singing Hannah Montana concerts in the evenings with her sister, all out barefoot mud wars with her brother and knock-down-drag-out "incidents" with Elmer the bunny, she makes our lives richer

and happier than we could have ever imagined!

Time

Do you ever go in and look at your kids after they've been asleep for a while? It's kind of always been my routine to make sure that everyone's covered and safe before I go to bed at night. Tonight when I checked on them I saw something that I hadn't seen before.

My sweet Samantha, who I still see in my mind's eye as 3 years old, in her pink princess dress and click-clack shoes, has grown into this beautiful Second Grader. She has these really long legs, long shiny hair and this grown up little face. She does her own hair, picks out her own outfits, reads her own bedtime stories. Gone is my short, chubby cheeked girl with fire-cracker ponytails.

Across the room from her is Little Mario. Again, in my mind's eye he's 2, dragging around his sippy cup and hiding behind me when anyone dared to talk to him. But tonight I saw a little man, a Kindergartener. Shaggy hair (because it's cool), 2 missing teeth, and slender, tan big boy legs. I know he's grown half a foot since the summer started!

I'm teary-eyed as I post this. Not because I'm sad that they are growing up, I'm just in awe of how quickly it's happening! Thankfully they haven't outgrown chocolate milk before bedtime and snuggle-buggin' with their Momma...yet. They still need their night lights and they aren't horrified when I'm around their friends...yet. They still think that I know almost everything and I can still fix most of their hurts with a kiss and a Band-Aid.

I pray every day and night that Mario & I are equipping them well enough to "make it" outside of these four walls. We pray for their spouses and protection over their hearts. I'm thankful that they have both accepted Christ into their lives. They will never be alone. But, they will keep growing...and I'll probably keep wondering how the time went by so fast!

We serve an awesome God!!

I have been a believer all of my life and I crossed the line of faith when I was 14. But it hasn't been until the last 7 or 8 years that I truly realized how BIG God is! If you have children then you know; how can anything so wonderous and amazing come from anything other than a perfect, loving, BIG God.

Over the last 2 weeks I have come face-to-face with a few of God's gracious miracles.

First, I was at a Navigator Retreat (for our small group leaders at church) when I heard the news that one of our pastor's sisters had suffered what appeared to be a massive brain aneurism(sp?). She has 2 very young girls and had just given birth to a son 10 days earlier. The doctors gave her husband (also a pastor) the decision to either do surgery (with not very good odds of survival & probable life-long brain damage) or let her pass away. Of course he had to let them operate & put all of his trust and faith in Christ. Blogs were set up, prayer chains were started, they even ran a story about her on the local news station. It has been about 11 days and Katie is not only alive, but beating all odds and logic at every turn (eating, drinking, talking, laughing, remembering, seeing, LIVING). If you want to read her complete story or add to the thousands who are praying for her go to katiebloomprogress.blogspot.com . The family's prayer is that this miracle, brought about through God not medicine, would not be overlooked. But that we would be, along with hundreds of others that hear this story, brought to our knees by how true and great God is!

Then...

On Saturday afternoon we received a call from Mario's sister that a long-time friend of theirs was in the hospital, hooked up to life support and had no brain activity. He had been at a friend's house drinking and partying the night before and when everyone began waking up, he did not. This isn't a story of someone who wanted to die. He is a father, a brother, a son, a friend. Who leaned a little too hard on the World and not hard enough on God during a sad time in his life. (Been there? I have). The hospital staff waited for his family to all get to the hospital and made the decision to try a few more procedures and run a few more tests (they at one point had him in a frozen state and then thawed him out...my ignorant interpretation, I'm sure it's much more involved). Last night, after he had thawed, he was able to open his eyes and he tried to raise his right arm. This is a man who was not breathing & no brain activity for at least 23 minutes! He's also flinching at stimulus (pinching). He is in NO WAY out of the woods. His kidneys are not functioning properly and they are still waiting on the neurologist's full report from the new tests. But I know that God has His hands all over this. It is my prayer that we continue to see God's awesomeness and divine healing in Christopher.

Through these tragedies I have drawn so close to God. Sometimes I forget that just because I can't see Him doesn't mean He isn't there...It just means that I'm not looking. I love the song "Bring the Rain" by MercyMe. It reminds me to be thankful for the trials and troubles because that's where we get the most growth. So bring it...

In the beginning...

Okay, I've decided to join the World of Blogging! I started by reading Kara's blog, then my friend Gloria's blog (she's on a journey through India), and one night I was up until 3am sobbing through the story of a beautiful family and how a little girl named Audrey Caroline changed their lives. I began thinking, what an awesome way to share the moments that God gives us! So begins my blogging journey...