Who’s ready for 2018?

This girl!

What a year. Really, thinking back, I can’t believe that we started this year with an incredible trip to Rome…had our kids blessed by Pope Francis…I even climbed 463 steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence while 14 weeks pregnant. We really couldn’t have kicked the year off in a better way. Thank God that happened though, I don’t think I would’ve made it through our family illnesses and Owen’s predicament without it!

I didn’t want to blog recently because I didn’t want to complain...so, I will just complain a tiny bit (sorry Pope Francis) and then move on. I spent the better part of November on the phone trying to get Owen scheduled for his next sleep study (this is an instrumental test to see if he is still having apnea spells while he sleeps, but without the oxygen support). I won’t get into the details but it started with me thinking I was losing my mind because of the miscommunications between offices and then ended me breaking down in tears when, AN ENTIRE MONTH LATER, he was finally put on the cancellation list.

The break down really was just culminating from a month of frustration and then finally joy because he was finally on the list. But then it happened. Through my tears, I was telling my sweet boy he was on the list, and he gave me a smile. And then another. I have been waiting so long for my sweetie to smile at me…it was a great message from God through Owen saying, “hang in there mama, it’s all good!” He is still pretty stingy with those smiles (Luke was too) but we get them more and more. And that makes everything ok!

Fast forward another week and he is officially scheduled for his sleep study. So please, prayers, good vibes, whatever you got, we will accept and God willing we can leave the oxygen and equipment in 2017 and start fresh in 2018!

Being a parent certainly has its ups and downs. Even if you are not a parent, life in general has its ups and downs. But if there is anything I’ve learned from the downs this year it is that the ups make up for them. And as low as some of the lows were this year, I wouldn’t trade them for a thing. Suffering is part of life and I will accept what is given to me and make the best of it. I remember singing Adele’s version of “Make You Feel My Love” to both Millie and Luke as babies. I sang it to Owen in the hospital and really, no words ring truer as a mom…

I'd go hungry; I'd go black and blue
And I'd go crawling down the avenue
No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of this Earth for you
To make you feel my love

Merry Christmas everyone. Many blessings for a happy and very HEALTHY new year!!

Things I am grateful for this day:
1) Our health insurance
2) Hearing "I love you" from my kids. It is the BEST!
3) The song "Feliz Navidad." It just inspires so much joy and dancing in our household.