An Update!

At the park just hanging out!

My blog is in dire need of an update! So here goes:

* Yes, to my once thought potential detriment, I did it. I have become a minivan mom! After months of thinking it over, researching it and getting plenty of input from minivan and non-minivan friends, I finally settled on getting the Honda Oddessy. The truth is that I absolutely love it. It is super comfortable in every way and the older I get and the more kids I have, COMFORT prevails! The boys love it as well :0) And Stevie, well, he's happy that I'm happy but you won't catch him driving it that often-oh well-his loss!

* I got a new job. Next school year I will be back in my original element-the high school setting. I took a position as a counselor at Plano Senior High School-let's go Wildcats!

* Stevie got day shift which starts in July! I am BEYOND excited about what this means for our family!

* Judah - I don't know what the boy version of Chatty Cathy is but Judah would qualify! From the instant-and yes I really mean instant-that he wakes up until he goes to be he is talking about anything and everything! We are on our way with potty training-he definitely gets excited about saying bye to it all as he flushes it! Of course sometimes we have to call different family members to tell them all about it afterwards!

* Levi - almost a year old! He has a grand total of 2 teeth. He now officially eats more than Judah and often helps Judah finish his meals :-) He wants to walk but is still scared by it and so holds on to our hands the entire time he walks. He LOVES the water! We went to Hawaiian Falls for the first time two weeks ago and it was a huge hit with both boys. Levi would crawl into the water as deep as he could and the crawl back to the shallow end and laugh about it!

* My sisters turned 8 on June 8 and so the Martinez clan went to their birthday party at my dad's park. Here are the cousins/aunts/nephews from left to right (Judah, Victor and Levi in the wagon, and Tifani, Carmen, Sofia and Estefani behind them).

Our Family

It has been quite some time since I've posted and that has been due to some joys and sadness in our family. It's taken me a while to write this post but both Stevie and I feel that it is something we must do and want to do, without hesitation.

In the past several weeks we found out we were expecting our third child. Our family was filled with such joy and expectation and of course, like with most couples, the planning started immediately.

Sadly, I had a miscarriage and we lost our baby.

These last two weeks have been filled with grief and tears, ups and downs. Our family has been of great support to us as have my best friend Kerri and a few other dear friends.

Before I miscarried, I dreamt about our baby. In this dream, I saw our baby girl at age 3. Unlike my other two pregnancies, Stevie as well had a very strong feeling about the sex of this baby from the beginning and he felt she was going to be a girl.

Once I started miscarrying Stevie and I and our families and closest friends began praying hard. Several rosaries were said and we entrusted this child and her future to the Lord's mother as she too knows what it is like to suffer the loss of a child.

For whatever reasons beyond our understanding we will never be able to hold our baby girl or see her smile and hear her laughs. Judah and Levi will not be able to play with her or be big brothers to her here in this life. But we know without a doubt that she is in heaven with our Lord interceding on our behalf, her family here. We've named her María, after our Lord's blessed mother. There are some other things we intend to do privately as a family to recognize this sacred moment in our lives, but for us, writing about it on our family blog was an important part of the process.

Please pray for us and our healing and that in God's perfect time, he will allow us to participate with him in bringing another precious child to life.