putting it into perspective.

I was sitting and talking with a friend yesterday, well, basically venting to a friend. A week without my husband and a day of running around with a couple of kids all over town was enough to put me into a slump. I don't know if I can say that my eyes were open or that they were just looking through a pessimistic lens but at the end of the day I just wanted my husband with me and to be living somewhere outside of society...on a farm somewhere. Somewhere where time isn't wasted in a car, where the majority aren't having a bad day and wearing it on their sleeve. Somewhere where an accident is seen as just that, a mere mistake and not as evil intent to be repayed in full. A place where work would take my husband only as far as the field in the backyard. I've been craving the simplicity of a by gone era for a while now and am hit everyday by the evil in this imperfect world I'm living in. I want to run away from all of the busyness and all of the distraction and to just slow down. Then in the middle of my sulking I realized, like a fool, what it was exactly, that I was longing for....this 'farm fantasy?'...my eden...my paradise. My reality?...a fallen world filled with an uncountable number of people, all in some way or another, longing for exactly the same thing. This place doesn't feel right because it isn't. As C.S. Lewis wrote: "I was created for another world." And while that didn't make yesterday feel any better, especially when I was living it, and while, as long as life endures, injustice, hate, and the effects of sin will endure, there is a small but steady sense of peace knowing that whatever this life throws, my God is bigger than it. And that, in reality, as I've been trying to soak in from Ann Voskamp, "ALL is Grace."

I ran across this video a month or two ago and it really put things into perspective. What a sweet and powerful testimony of Grace!

This was grace

by Andrew Laparra

http://vimeo.com/11560198

fleeting moments.

I'm sitting here at midnight, my head full of thoughts...emotions, all swimming around in chaos. 'Where does the time go?' The age old question pops up again and again. I'm trying so desperately to hold on to these moments, or at least I think I am, only to wake another morning where I find myself stepping once again into this race called life that most everyone seems to be in. I have a mind I cannot slow, a body I cannot still, a house I cannot maintain, and relationships that I somehow lack the time to invest in. I think I'm not alone.

Today my family celebrated a little girls' 4th birthday. Our sweet n sassy Gianni girl. :) And I wanted to soak in every last detail. I'm always torn when it comes to manning the camera. Do I sit back and observe capturing the moments in my head? Do I actively participate becoming a part of those moments? Or do I pick up my canon and capture each moment on camera? See, I love taking pictures! It makes me think creatively and I love looking for angles and cementing each moment in time. More so, I enjoy looking back on those moments that jog my ever fleeting mommy memory and allow them to stir up such wonderfully vivid emotions. But in doing so, in grabbing that little peice of technology, it almost feels like putting on a mask. You see, once my eye is behind that lense, I'm no longer a part of that moment. I'm outside of it, looking in.

It's been a long time since I last took pictures. But the memories from that last time until this are just a blurr. Time that has literally just flown by. So today I picked up the camera, that little peice of technology, like most other peices of technology that I have a love hate relationship with, and I documented a small part of a story, our story. And you know what?...it felt good...or feels good now. Looking back...slowing down...doing whatever it takes to hold onto these moments. Making memories. Feeling blessed. Thanking God for days like today...everyday.

summer blessings.

new life.

On Friday, May 6th at 5:37am, with the breaking of my water, baby Luci's journey into this world began. I awoke full of energy and anticipation having already passed my due date and quickly began tying up all the loose ends before contractions began. The first came on around 6:30 but had stopped by 9:00 leaving us all to wonder what the rest of this day was going to look like. After talking to my midwife and trying a few techniques to determine if and when I should head to the hospital, the contractions came on suddenly and very strongly around 12:00pm. Glad that everything had been prepared ahead of time and just needed loading into the car, we raced out the door inbetween contractions that were now almost on top of eachother and headed towards the hospital. We were checked in by 12:45 to find out I was 8cm dialated and at 2:19pm, after conquering my fear and the fact that I was quickly realizing that maybe I did not want to do this without an epidural(that and feeling this baby was indeed larger than it's sister's), our son, Lucian Dean Florescu was born. Much emotion followed. Through tears, hugs, and sighs of relief, smiles and laughter filled the room. What a huge transition one moment creates. And what a blessed moment it is when new life begins! Thank you God for new life.

Lucian Dean Florescu

May 6, 2011

2:19pm

8lbs 12oz

21in

better late than never

To see a small clip of our summer vacation video on Vimeo, click here.

3

We've anticipated this date, we've thought about this date even before her newborn screams sent their waves for the first time in the unseen universe around us. What we did not anticipate however, was the speed with which we travelled these last 3 years... these 72 months, these 1069 days, these 25,656 hours, these 1,539,360 minutes...these 92,361,600 seconds that now separate us from that event. It truly feels like yesterday that we joyfully and tearfully welcomed her to our little family. If I were to use only one word to describe Giulianna it would have to be LOVE. Her hugs, her often heard favorite phrase: "I wanna hold you!" will forever fill my eyes with tears as I think of the sparkles in her eyes and the yearning in her voice calling out to Leslie or I. We've trully been blessed with a kind spirit, while definitely not void of a distinct personality, yet full of subtle gentleness and a deep ability to empathize, to share anyone's emotional burden and make it lighter.

We love you Giulianna and wait with wonder to see what the next year will bring in your life, praying that you will never lose the hop of joy in your step or the ever present swing at the slightest musical note floating through the air. You might be little, but those 92 million seconds you've lived so far have been full of delightful lessons and memories that we as your parents will cherish forever!

We love you!

O happy day!

The sister exchange.

Gift inspection...

Excitement...

Many hugs to follow.

waiting ever so patiently

the mod squad

posing proudly on top of straw mountain