Continuing...

Our date was great. It was a much needed time alone to remind us of the very basic things of love and life. It was good. Oh yeah, and the food was also amazing!

Now, as goes with everything else, I had hardly heard of mononucleosis before and this week I have been bombarded with all sorts of information about it. My doctors' instructions have been to eat well, take a multi-vitamin, drink plenty of juice and rest as much as life (a.k.a. two little girls) allow it. I can't tell you how hard it is to draw the line and stop myself when the past few weeks I have been pushing through the exhaustion. I sort of conditioned myself to live with this tiredness and still function 100%.

I am blessed with a wonderful natural and church family who have pitched in to help even more than I thought I needed. However, after having this cold on top of everything and nursing the girls through the cold, sleep has been very elusive and light and the help has been more than welcome.

From a wonderful sister-in-law who, with her own littles in tow came to sow a morning of her already busy life to relieve me from my house duties, to a great friend who delivered the best home made pizza I'd ever had, to even more friends who have made themselves available "on call" to come to the rescue as needed. How good it is to dwell in harmony with our brethren, indeed! The body of Christ is an awesome body to be a part of. And of course, I could never leave out my sweet man who is trying to cover the rest of the meals and needs of the girls.

The funny thing is that besides the cold, I don't really feel all that sick. I am mostly tired... I had never felt this tired before... I can't even describe it. I'm zapped of all energy by mid morning! I can take many naps during the day and still fall asleep at night! I don't even know how I have managed to stir out of my slumber to take care of little girls who have needed soothing through the night. And so goes our little life.

When it rains...

Boy, does it pour! The short version:

**Tuesday, I find out I have "mono" and I have been living with it for the past few weeks. We are relieved to know the reason behind my excessive fatigue and hopeful that enough rest should have me on the bend in no time. Ben needs to go to the doctor for some digestive inconveniences.

**Wednesday, Adriana didn´t sleep very well, therefore I didn´t either. Hopefully I will catch up on sleep through the day... (yeah, right!). By noon, I realize I have a massive cold and with the lack of sleep the night before I feel even more run down. And, of course, the girls have the cold as well.

**Thursday, 2.30 a.m. No, we didn´t get up this early. We just never went down last night in spite of multiple attempts. Now we have both girls in bed with us, they can´t sleep because of all the wonderful sneezing and running of noses. Ben needs to leave by 7.00 (or some insanely similarly early time) for some test scheduled as a result of the earlier doctor´s appointment. I have a pounding headache because of my own maladies. Stop to think/pray: "Ok, Lord, where is the grace for this? I´m for a hefty serving!"

8.30 a.m. Girls and I wake up from the slim rest we got last night. Ben is gone to his test. **sigh of relief** She is coming over for some help and company (both for me and the girls!). Looking forward to that.

12.30 p.m. Ben is not back yet from his appointment. However, the girls and I have had a lunch and are now watching a movie (the girls, I am obviously getting some computer time) in preparation for nap time. I know Ben is due home any minute so I´m giving him some time that we can see him before naps. Thanks to our company I can now see my floor AND it is clean! (Thank you sooo much, Dee) and we also got to visit and chat a little bit.

Now I am looking forward to a special date we were planning on having for some time now. We didn´t expect to take it in the midst of all this sickness and exhaustion but will probably still benefit from the time together (not to mention the food!). Somehow we will find the energy to pull it off... don´t you think?

Ohhh yeah, I almost forgot...

Her first time on a swing!!!

A few firsts around here....

She now faces the front! She still doesn't love the car seat.

but she likes it better!

Her first very own ice cream cone!

a bit messy...

but just perfect for her!!

Home

From the moment we got married we wanted to have a house. We wanted a big enough space that we could open to people, you know the unannounced drop-ins, the planned dinner parties, the guests over a meal, and all that fun stuff. I can't tell you how blessed we are to now have that space and all of the above! It is so good to fellowship with others and share food, laughter, and so much more. It is amazing how these kinds of things make people connect and bond. It is the perfect soil for friendships to be born and lessons to be learned. And so it is that with the busy-ness of the summer time of this first summer in a house, we have had anywhere from 2 to 10 people for some kind of meal this week alone. Tuesday we had a couple for dinner, Wednesday we had a family of three for dinner, Thursday we hosted a small birthday party for a young lady and today we had a young man over for breakfast! Monday was the only day we didn't have someone over! And although we are tired, I can confidently say we are thrilled... this is exactly what we wanted!

The weekend holds a different kind of socializing for us. At least this one. With church meetings both days, I will also attend some kind of ladies' social gathering both days while the girls spend some time with Papi. And somewhere in between we need to squeeze in the regular family and budget meetings we normally need to have!

It´s official!

They are getting married!!!!