A heart is like a piece of glass........

"A heart is like a piece of glass,dropped once,broken forever,and even if the pieces finally get put back together,it will never ever be the same again."

What things in life left your heart changed? Not who... but "what". What situations left you so broken hearted that you could feel the difference. 

I have to say, when it comes to my life, I've lived a pretty upbeat, happy life. I guess I should have expected a fall sooner or later. Nothing can always be good, right? I was looking through pictures, looking for a specific picture of my 2 year old, when I came across a picture of my 5 yr old when she was 3. It was a picture of her when she was in the midst of her treatment for  kidney disease. That picture stopped me in my tracks. I froze physically, but my mind and my heart were taken back. I couldn't speak and I couldn't look away from the picture - how that time broke my heart to pieces. If I didn't believe in the strength of prayer or giving "it" to God, I don't know where I'd be today. Looking at that picture I can actually feel the change in my heart. It feels scarred. It feels haphazardly pieced back together. It feels forever changed.

Here is a picture of my daughter 10 days before she got sick.

Here is "the picture" of her during her treatment - 1-2 months after the above picture was taken.

My Lord, I cried every night. With the physical change, it was "seeing" the illness everyday. It was in your face reminding you your child has a condition that has a 50% mortality rate. My mind was always trying to close off the thoughts of "is she in the bad 50%". The only thing I could do was to scream into my pillow at night through my tears and beg God to take her sickness away and give it to me. I'd gladly be the one to be sick. Just save her. 

Wow.... the places a picture can take you.

Here is my baby girl today. Healthy, happy and in remission.

Hopefully time will help my heart heal. But if not, at least it'll remind me how precious life is. 

Humbling moments.... what they have taught me.

"Humble : reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission." 


I've heard of other people talk about having humbling moments in  their life and never took a look at my life to look at the times I was humbled and how they have affected me and how I act/react in those same situations today.


About 5 years ago, I stopped working full time and quickly had 3 children that my husband and I had to take care of. 3 kids and one income always proved to be a task for me to learn to deal with.  During one difficult financial time, I needed to get groceries and had low funds. I took a large shopping bag full of pennies and other coins I had in the house and set out with the 3 kids to the store. Let me also add, my children were 10, 1 and newborn. The weather that day was cold and a really bad rain storm was passing through. We get to the store and I have my 10 yr old take my 1 yr old b the hand, I grab the bag of change and cover the baby in her car seat and we all go running through the pouring rain to the store. Then BAM! In the middle of the parking lot the bag of change breaks open and all the coins hit the ground. 


I have my son take his little sisters up onto the side walk and out of the rain. I then walk back out to figure out how I'm going get these hundreds of coins up off the ground. I'm wet, I'm cold, I'm embarrassed, I'm frustrated and I didn't want my kids seeing me in this situation. I was feeling really low and right at that moment, a car drove by with an elderly couple in it and the man stared at me. I yelled, "What are you looking at?!?!" Then I continued on picking up the pennies and putting them into a new bag. 

A moment later I felt the rain stop. I saw that it was still actively raining, but just not on me. I look up and that elderly man I yelled at, was crouched down beside me, holding an umbrella over my head and helping collect all my coins. And there it was..... the humbling experience I've always heard about. Not much was spoken between the two of us, and he even let me keep the umbrella. 


This experience has to be the worst story in my life - in regard of how I acted toward another innocent person. It is so embarrassing to me, that I don't think I've ever shared it with my husband. But I wanted to share it here to show how a humbling experience can change you.  See, I still remember the feelings of that day. When I find myself beginning to have those same feelings of frustration, I remember that day. It helps put things back into perspective and helps me act the way I know I should and how I'd want to be treated.


Have you experienced a humbling moment? Please share it!

Would you like to win?

I'm having a contest and you're invited to join! Here are the rules and reward!


1. "Follow" this blog page and post a link on your social media website (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc..) and invite friends and family to check it out and follow as well.
2. Join my Facebook page - MyLargeFamily@groups.facebook.com and invite others to do so as well.
3. Post below to tell me that you've done both and also tell me why you feel you should win the contest!


Reward: 
There are actually 2 chances to win. 
The first winner will receive a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate to a restaurant that is local to them.
The second winner will receive a $10 Restaurant.com gift certificate to a restaurant that is local to them.

So please spread the word! And let's see who the winner will be!

Big family summer!

What kind of things do big families do during the summer months? We basically do the same things smaller families do, except in a larger version! LOL In the past, we devoted one day a month to take a trip locally. At that time, we were living in Cincinnati, so we made day trips to the zoo, the Newport Aquarium, and the Creation Museum, to name a few.

Now that we're back in the Philadelphia area, not only is there much more to do, but it is also much more expensive. This year though, we are taking the kids on a trip to Disney World in early June. This month, we have our new swing set to keep the kids busy, and July and August hold big birthdays for 3 of the kids. So day trips to their birthday destinations will be scheduled. Lucky for us, we are in a position this year to be able to provide these "extras" for the kids. I'm thinking about adding library story times for the girls on days I have the van and some other free activities to spend time with the kids! Summer is for fun and family. 

How do you spend summer time with your family?