Day 296 | JULY 03, 2022

Good evening, Friends, today is day 296 of our new and amazing life!

Today London woke me up early, at 6am he wanted to finish the movie we started last night, since I was awake, I decided to start my day at that time.

Charlie messaged me around 7:15am today that she was back in her room and the procedure went very well!

I also decided to attend the 8am mass instead of the usual 11 am we normally go to.

I went alone and it was great to be able to focus on the mass and really feel the peace that God can provide.

When I got home, the boys were finishing breakfast, baby Julien was not happy, he was having a very difficult time with his teeth, so he just wanted to be held and whining nonstop.

Charlie called right when I was in the middle of trying to get the boys under control and she could see how overwhelmed I was becoming.

I didn’t lose my patience and eventually I was able to get Julien to calm down and London to finish his breakfast, but I did feel like I was very overwhelmed, and I absolutely hate the fact that I am not able to handle the kids like Charlie and most mothers do without a sweat, I was just mad at myself for my inability to care for my children, I felt weak!

I shared with Charlie my frustration, and she in the most amazing way, made me feel so loved and cared for, she told me that I should never ever feel weak, she went on to tell me that what I have endured and overcome, no weak person could do, so she knew I was not weak, she really builds me up with her kind, and encouraging words.

Truly the feeling of being loved, is the most comforting and precious feeling one could have, and I am so grateful for Charlie’s love.

After her pep talk, I felt better and I took the boys outside and we played, shortly after one of our kid neighbors joined London and it was a fun morning!

Julien was tired and ready for his nap around 11:40am, and I told London that we would go to Sam’s to grab milk, fruits and other things and he and I made our way to Sam’s.

Once there we grabbed lunch, pizza 🙂, and that is when we met some of you today, thank you for saying hi and sharing your incredible testimony in how Charlie’s story is inspiring you, thank you for sharing.

As we moved around Sam’s, London saw the People magazine rack, and he asked me to please buy him the magazine where mommy and him were on it, so that I did and he was so happy to see him at the magazine, he even asks me to take his picture holding the magazine 🙂

After returning home, Julien was still sleeping and after I put our groceries up, he woke up.

That was lunch time for him, he woke hungry, and VoVo had his favorite food ready, rice , beans and pork loin.

I decided that I would visit Charlie today, since I will not be going tomorrow, and we had the best visit! We ate dinner together and I read to her my newest batch of Chapters from our book, I am really close to finish it, we are now at the last few chapters, and I am so proud of the work so far, there is so much incredible stories in there, it is almost surreal to be back at VCU burn unit as I am reading some of the chapters where we had incredible challenges and to read about them as I am back in that space is very surreal, it almost feels like a movie.

Charlie was in great spirits, telling me jokes and just very happy!

Now we wait until her surgeon scheduled her next surgery, it should happen by the end of next week, we think.

Charlie is experiencing a good amount of pain, and her RA is also really acting out, please pray for her joints, she can’t afford any more damage caused by her RA to her joints.

We started to watch the final episode of Stranger Things, but we had to stop before it ended because Charlie was very tired, this was a special visit, because I was able to tell Charlie in person how she made me feel loved, and how grateful I was for her making me feel that way!

Tonight, I thank God for his infinite mercy towards us!

I encourage you to really make someone that you love, to feel loved! It is easy to love, it is harder to feel loved!

May God Bless You!

Happy 4th of July tomorrow, please be very careful with Fireworks! Be safe!

André