My Crazy, Beautiful Life

I want to get some things out there that are on my heart. This election has been one of the craziest ever! I think everyone can agree that there's never been such heat surrounding a presidential election...even when Obama was elected. Everyone that knows me most likely knows my views, but I would like to expand on the heart of my views. First of all, these two precious girls need to grow up feeling they are valued and can do anything they want! I don't want them to ever question their worth or be punished for the rest of their lives for a bad mistake. I want to say that healthcare is important and should be a guarantee for every American and it should be affordable. It shouldn't cost more than your mortgage payment to insure your family. You shouldn't have to pay hundreds of dollars for any medication...especially when you have health insurance. We have to make preventative medicine affordable for everyone or we'll never get the cost of medicine under control. ...

This precious child you see is Charlotte. If you're my friend, you know her! This picture depicts her personality perfectly! I wanted to share, for any of you that may not know, a little of her story. First, I have to say that this sweet girl definitely has some of her Mimi's traits in her! I've never met anyone, outside of the two of them, that could smile through any situation! Charlotte's story is a powerful story of an unplanned, but very wanted, baby that has overcome so many obstacles and already has her journey changing people's lives! It's been more difficult for me because in the past, I would always have my mom by my side to get me through really hard times and I haven't had that for over 4 years now. When we found out there was something wrong with Charlotte, I was just around 20 weeks pregnant and at our gender reveal ultrasound. They didn't know what exactly was wrong until after she was born. She lived in Orlando for 7 of the first 8 we...

I'm extremely honored and humbled to be able to share Charlotte's story! Her story began in May of 2015 when I found out I was pregnant and got a glimpse of God's sense of humor. I had literally just sold all of my baby stuff in April because my daughter was now 5 and I hadn't convinced my husband to have another baby. In August, I went for what was supposed to be my one and only high risk doctor visit. My husband and I realized something wasn't right when the ultrasound technician kept looking hard at the screen and repositioning the scanner. When she didn't say much and left to get the doctor, we really got nervous. The doctor came in and after looking at her pictures and scanning my belly himself, he asked if this was a wanted pregnancy or if abortion was an option before we went any further. That is not a good thing to ask an emotional, pregnant woman! He couldn't tell us exactly what was wrong, but they were thinking she had some intestinal obstructi...

Being mom is one of the greatest roller coaster rides of your life! You can literally feel the most joy, sadness, excitement, anger, and all kinds of other emotions you never knew about...in the span of 5 minutes! You experience a love like absolutely no other. Suddenly, your heart lives outside of your body...and for someone like me that's not very emotional...this is hard! You never get a "break" because even if you're out with the girls, by yourself, with your spouse on a date, you are almost constantly thinking about your child(ren). When you have a child, you become a different person and you can never have the "old you" back. Even though you are still much more than "just mom", your precious one(s) have forever changed you and you will no longer be able to make decisions without thinking about how it will affect your kid(s). You will sacrifice sleep...HUGE for someone like me that could sleep 10 hours a night lol! You will sacrifice anythin...

Life, unfortunately, isn't usually fair. Nothing could be more true for Charlotte. This little girl has had to fight since she was born and still will probably never have a completely "normal" life. Just in case anyone isn't aware, my girl was born with severe macrocytic lymphatic malformation. Her abdomen literally looked like one of those starving children you see on those commercials begging for money. She spent a week in the NICU here in Jacksonville before being transferred to Orlando for 7 more weeks. We finally got her home with a feeding tube and on 5 or 6 medications the day before her 2 month birthday. We have seen five specialists at least and we still have to follow up with 2 on a regular basis. We're finally down to two meds...one that I'm fully compliant with...if I'm going to be honest...and we finally were able to start her at an at-home daycare last week. Working full time, even from home, and trying to find people to help out with your ki...

I still can't even believe that tomorrow will be one year that we had our surprise gift...the most precious surprise I could have ever gotten! Time has both crawled and flown by. For any of you that may not be aware, Charlotte was born with macrocystic lymphatic malformation. Her abdomen was completely filled with cysts because her lymphatic system in her belly had formed 2-3 sets instead of one. We knew while I was pregnant that something wasn't right, but they weren't able to diagnose her until after she was born. After changing doctors 3 times...my doctor that delivered Anabeth no longer delivered and the second didn't deliver at the hospital we would have to have Charlotte...I finally had a doctor that would deliver my girl. Not knowing what to expect was beyond terrifying. There was a team in the delivery room to check her out as soon as she was born and see how bad the situation was. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I was able to see her and kiss h...

So, I don't know how many I will come up with, but apparently steroids make me philosophical lol. Hopefully this can help someone...or at least make you smile! 1. Love people and spend time with those important to you! This seems obvious to me, but I realize it's not to everyone. If you do this, realizing you're not always the most lovable, you can have so much more happiness and less regret! I don't know how people go through life otherwise! This also leaves you complete and never having those terrible feelings of "what if" or "why didn't I" when you lose someone you love! Don't just say you love someone, show it. Words don't mean a lot anymore! 2. Another that seemed obvious, be your kid (s)' number one fan and biggest cheerleader! I actually had a mom tell me one time that her kids weren't anything special, but they were ok. That broke my heart for her kids! If she'd tell a stranger, I can only imagine her kids know how ...