I am a nurse AND a mommy...

    Hopefully, this little blog post will sum up some answers to the question that so many people ask me, day in and day out. "How do you do it?"

  I LOVE MY CAREER. I AM A NURSE. Being a nurse is NOT the easiest of career choices. You deal with people, and people are flawed. You deal with lives, and lives  are broken. You deal with families, and families are passionately...well...passionate. It most definitely can be exhausting not only physically, but emotionally. Let's talk about the upside. Nursing is rewarding; people are grateful, lives are saved, and families are reunited. Trust me when I say this, I did not choose to be a nurse, I was CREATED to be a nurse. So, people ask all the time "how do you do it? How do you work and go to school and have three children?" Well, multiple answers to this question.. For starters, my babies have a great Daddy, and wonderful grandparents that help out as much as they can. Secondly, because I spent/am spending way to much money and time on something that I actually take pride in doing. And lastly, BECAUSE I WANT TO! Oh, how blessed I am to be able to labor for my children! To work and help my husband provide for our family. TRUST ME, When I get weary, when I get tired, when I want nothing more than to sit and give up after a long day of being a wife, a mommy, a student, and a nurse, I think of what a JOY it is to work hard for my children. I sometimes get the impression that people think I choose all these things over my children... BUT, trust me when I say this, I choose them FOR my children.

Party of five...

So its been a while since I've posted a blog... To say the least, I've been busy. =) Oh, how I've been busy!!! On April 20th at 1:12pm this family became a family of four. Then, 10 minutes later at 1:22pm this family became a family of five. THE TWINS HAVE ARRIVED! All of a sudden, Elias had two siblings, and Mathew and I became parents of three beautiful children. THREE!!! Still getting used to that even after 3 1/2 months... NEVER IN MY WILDEST DREAMS would I have thought that I would be a wife and a mother of three by the time I was 25 years old. Once a lost child, walking in the darkness with NO TRUTH to guide me, let the GLORY OF THE LORD be shown in this NEW LIFE of mine. =) Seriously, GRACE has lead my path, and oh how grateful this daughter of CHRIST is.

To say the least, I am privileged to be the mother of Elias, Jacob, and Selah. They have renewed my spirits, and show me every single day that GOD LOVES ME... Though, I may doubt that truth at times, HE HAS GIVEN me my babies to show me HIS love, mercy, and grace. BUT- my partner, my love, my other half, MY HUSBAND has been a light in my life these past 5 1/2 years that this blog post could never give enough justice to. Lets just say, I LOVE HIM. I love that he was chosen to BE MINE and to be the FATHER OF MY CHILDREN. A gift from GOD . FOR REAL, I consider him A GIFT.

I am NO FOOL. I know what a gift children are. I know how hard it must be for some to carry the burden of not being able to conceive. I KNOW from experience the heartache of miscarriage and loss (that might become another blog post one day). LET NO ONE BE MISTAKEN, I would NEVER change ANYTHING about my life. Truthfully, I never wanted twins before I had them. But NOW, I could never imagine my life without them. Though, my life may be crazy, and things may get even crazier, I AM GRATEFUL! I AM GRATEFUL! I AM GRATEFUL! If anyone actually reads this, know that I AM GRATEFUL for this PARTY OF FIVE!!!

The latest on the babies...

So, its been a little while since I've posted an update on my two little precious babies... I had a level two ultrasound last week along with a little scare! At least for a few minutes, but trust me, a few minutes too long! I have a level II ultrasound every 4-5 weeks because this pregnancy is considered high risk. So during the ultrasound I noticed that the tech spent a lot of time on Jacob, more than normal, specially his heart. I asked her if everything was OK and she gave me some blah blah blah answer about the doctor going over the results later. Anyway, the doctor came in and said that baby A (Jacob) had a little more fluid around him than was normal and the reason she was looking at his heart because a cause of this could be heart failure, along with anemia, and/or me having gestational diabetes. He himself started the ultrasound again, and one after another he started ruling things out. PRAISE GOD my little boy does not seem to be in heart failure, or the babies don't seem to be anemic. AND I passed my glucose test early in the pregnancy, and take another in a few weeks to make sure. He didn't seem concerned after the ultrasound, and he thinks things are going to be just fine, and I will continue to follow up with ultrasounds until I have the babies. TRUST ME, the last two words you want to hear during an ultrasound of your baby is "heart failure". Mathew and I know that GOD IS GREATER than any concern that we may have, so we ask that you join us in praying for continued health for our two little ones!
Prayer Requests:
*Pray that the fluid around Jacob goes down to normal levels. (this can also cause me to go into preterm labor)
*I am 25 weeks this week, pray that I will hold these babies in as long as they need to come home healthy!
*Pray for finances as we try to plan for my maternity leave from work.
*Pray for me! I definitely am feeling the effects of carrying TWO babies. I am more sore, more tired, and more OUT OF ENERGY than ever before!
Thank you friends!

The top pic is baby "B" (Selah) The bottom pic is baby "A" (Jacob) Notice Selah's foot in the picture above Jacob's nose- its my favorite!!!!

Baby Names....

When we found out that Elias was going to be a boy, we already had his name picked out. We loved it and had a name for a girl ready, and a name for a boy. We absolutely still love the girl name we picked over two years ago and knew that if we ever had a girl, we would pick the name, Selah.
Selah Isabel Leach the name of our little girl. Isabel is my mom's middle name. =)

Picking a name for another boy on the other hand was a little harder... We were stuck on two different names, but the one that won over our hearts was, Jacob.
Jacob Mathew Leach will be the name of our little boy. Mathew is obviously Jacob's daddy's name, and yes, with ONE "t". =)

Meanings (if interested):
Selah (Hebrew: סֶלָה‎, also transliterated as selāh) is a word used frequently in the Hebrew Bible, often in the Psalms, and is a difficult concept to translate. It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen". "Let those with eyes see and with ears hear" is most concise.^{[citation needed]} "Selah" can also be used to indicate that there is to be a musical interlude at that point in the Psalm.^[1] The Amplified Bible states Selah as "pause, and think of that". A peaceful pause, or peace.

Jacob In the Old Testament, Jacob (later called Israel) was the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding his twin brother Esau's heel, and his name is explained as meaning "holder of the heel" or "supplanter". Other theories claim that it is in fact derived from a hypothetical name like יַעֲקֹבְאֵל (Ya'aqov'el) meaning "may God protect".

Here we go again...

OK, so I kinda failed at this blog thing in the past... As everyone can see I haven't posted anything in over a year. I guess, school, work, family, and pregnancy (again) can throw off my consistency a little. =) BUT, I do find that this is the best way to keep people updated (if anyone really cares), without me forgetting to call/write/text someone.... So I guess here we go!

I will just jump right in. We had a little scare with the babies yesterday. By now I think anyone reading this knows we are having twins. =) Anyway, Mathew rushed me to the OB to see a doctor. PRAISE God that the babies are doing fine. I just tried to take on too much and have to start treating my body as if I am actually caring two babies at once, and not just one. All the risks with a normal pregnancy double with twins and that became a reality yesterday. Thankfully, they are fine, and my body is still carrying my two little miracles...OK, now on to the fraternal/identical twins part. Yesterday, when we went to see the doctor he had a student with him, and he asked him why we couldn't tell yet if we were having identical or fraternal twins yet. This came to a surprise because I already thought that we were having fraternal, due to the fact that they are in two different sacs. Well, that's not always true. That used to be the truth in the past, though research has advanced over the years (obviously) and the only way to tell is when the babies are born. OR if the babies are opposite sex, then we for sure know they are not identical, duh. It all depends on the splitting of the egg in the first few days after conception. An egg can split in many ways, one with two placentas, two sacs, etc... One with one placenta one sac, etc.. and a few other ways. ANYWAY, apparently an egg can split early enough where it can split with two placentas, two sacs, and therefore two babies, but they came from ONE egg, therefore they are still identical. OR I could have produced two different eggs meaning they are fraternal and one egg never split, I just had two, hence two different babies. So if they are a boy and a girl, we know they are fraternal, if they are two boys, or two girls, the only true way to find out if they are identical is if we do genetic testing after they are born.... Cool huh? I guess we will find out next week about this mystery when we finally get to see what the sexes of the babies are.... Stay tuned for an update on that! =)

Vacation!!!

VACATION......I love that word! Right now we are on vacation with close friends of ours in Pompano Beach, Florida. It has been very relaxing. I have absolutely loved spending this time with my family and friends. I absolutely LOVE watching Elias discover new things, such as sand! It was so cute, he stuck his hand in the sand and looked at it as if it were some crazy foreign thing stuck to him. He LOVES the water, beach and pool! Mathew and I were talking about how lucky we were to have a baby that likes trying new things, at least so far.. =) Today is our third day, we'll be here another 2 days and loving every moment of it. I was thinking last night how blessed I felt that we are able to get away like this in such a nice place near the beautiful ocean! The Lord gives us so much, so many things that we don't even need! I am grateful... Pictures are soon to follow!!!!

My First Mother's Day...

WOW! I love being a mom!!! Yesterday was my first Mother's Day, and probably one of the best days ever...Elias got dedicated yesterday! I can't express how much this meant for me. Every year so many babies would stand up before the church and be dedicated with their parents, and all I could ever think was, I CAN'T WAIT until I have MY OWN baby to dedicate. It was so fun, and of course, Elias had to be the center of attention and do his "loud talking" while we were on stage....It was cute though. After church we went to the park with the family and had some yummy burgers my hubby made- I am still full!!! I am blessed to have such a beautiful family. The life verse that we chose for Elias that was shared during his dedication is Psalm 9:1-2
"¹I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
²I will be glad and exult in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."

This is our prayer for our son, that he would Praise His name and tell of His wonders ALWAYS!!!