Love, Live and Laugh...

What a joy it was to see our son Canaan have so much fun with his sister Zoe and all of his friends at his birthday party in June. The kids had a blast, the weather was perfect and all the hard work that went into it was all worth it.   Canaan The Conqueror - Birthday Boy My husband Todd and I are very intentional when it comes to any events we are doing, especially when it involves our children. Our parties will be the best our kids want to be at, because we desire for them to see home as an exciting place and for their friends to feel welcomed. Yes it will be tons of work, but at the end they are in a safe environment around people that love them the most.  Our daughter Zoe I was able to get away with coming up with themes for our kids birthday parties. But this year my son voiced his opinion. I thought of a cute fire fighter party. Todd thought of a fun pool party (ummm I'm not having 20 2-4 year olds around the pool lol). Canaan said loud and proud, ...

Dear healthy part of me,  how are you? I have been getting to know you and you give me such a great perspective on how to live my life effectively. It's been such a delight to discover peace and joy with you. You are teaching me to slow down in life and pay attention to my surroundings. You help me be present with those I value the most. You give me the confidence to say no when something comes my way that is not meant for me to do. You help me choose to be present over perfect. You help me sit at the feet off Jesus and embrace the process of healing. It's so wonderful to experience what health feels like. I don't regret what I have been through, because it makes it so much sweeter to experience your health. I have a story to tell and with your insight, I can help others through my transformation. God wants us to be emotionally healthy so that we can function properly in life and be His servant. God wants to use us to help others find Him. Through my growing healthy vi...

If you are dealing with anxiety or know of someone that does, I encourage you to read this exercises I did when I discovered about my challenges with anxiety. After seeking professional counseling we discovered that I have dealt with an over-functioning anxiety that was well blended into my every being and daily actions. Most of it stems from my upbringing and what I have been exposed to. When I’m surrounded by chaos my anxiety kicks in and wants to take control and bring order into the situation. I'm so grateful today that i have discovered the root of the issue and have proper tools to address it when it comes up. Be encouraged, there is hope.  My anxious part Dear anxious part of me how are you? We have been blended for way too long. Although you are not bad, I do need proper space between our dealings. You have helped me in a very traumatic situation and many that followed. I’m grateful for that, but now you have over functioned in my life that leads to an unhealthy mi...

Embrace this wonderful journey called life, weather in absolute chaos or in harmony, there are many beautiful lessons to learn and grow from.  Yesterday was challenging. As a parent, don't you love it when one of your children wakes you up in the morning? Clearly I was not ready for the day, but hey what do you do? You just tell your son to go out to the living room and read a book, mommy will be right out 🤓 .  As the day went on I noticed my patience level was below zero. My poor hubby began to walk on egg shells. My hormones were out of whack and I had lots of things to do to reset our home. I'm trying to be all efficient, but when you have kids things can quickly get out of hand. You clean up one area, then you turn around and the other area that you just cleaned up is a mess again. Thankfully I have the best husband in the world, who took the kids out for breakfast so I could focus on the home. Time flew and I tried to accomplish a lot in a short amount of t...

I found myself desiring a sleep retreat. Having kids you realize quickly that sleep becomes luxury. I also kept saying if only I had time to deep clean my home, oh how nice would it be to have it all in order. Then my mind kept wandering and over the holidays I treated myself with way to many desserts and delicious meals that I added some unwanted pounds. On top of it we are in a very conscious financial season and need to cut some cost to maintain a healthy budget. All of these thoughts became my prayers to God and oh did all of them come true, but not in the package I expect it.   We had an intense round of sickness for a month. Between joint pains, back pains, flu and stomach bugs, we just got hit with one thing after another and took turns amongst us four. But in it all God was with us. Thank you Lord. I learned many valuable lessons. While we were sick, we received opportunities to rest and catch up on sleep. When Todd was sick I deep cleaned our home. Through having the sto...

I wrote this blog 6 months ago... I remember when I started going to the church consistently, there were still some things in my life that I haven’t fully surrendered to God. I would go to church on Sundays, sometimes even for 2-3 services and occasionally on a Tuesday Prayer Meeting. The rest of the week would look completely different. I was still very much caught up with a worldly life style. My Friday nights were occupied with the hottest night clubs and I was emotional unhealthy and longing to be in a relationship. During the week I was chasing an empty dream of becoming the next Victoria’s Secrets Model. My mind flooded with a bunch of lies and insecurities, I just cruised through my days.  Until one day I had enough! I remember, as if it was yesterday. On October 31st in 2007 , I was dressed as Pocahontas (looking crazy) and heading downtown Manhattan to go to one of the many Halloween parties. It started out as any usually night club party. Wild dancing, drinking a...

Zoe's birth experience  Who would have thought, that the day I wrote a blog after almost 1 1/2 years, Zoe would make her debut.  What started to be a regular Monday in the Crews' home, soon changed.  Zoe arrived on Monday, Feb. 9th at 3:02pm with 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches tall!!!!!!!  Thankfully Canaan slept until 7:15am that morning. God knew we needed the extra rest. He usually is a super early bird and wakes up around 6am. Every Monday my  amazing husband Todd is off from work and does the 1st 2 1/2 hrs morning shift with our son.  I was relaxing and doing my devotions (reading my bible) until 9:50am.  Then Canaan and I hung out for the following 2 1/2 hrs, to give daddy some deserved "me time".  It was time for Canaan's nap and he usually goes down pretty smoothly. Not this day. He fought his nap for 30 min with loud screaming. 0_o!!!!!!! Thankfully he finally went to sleep after.  When Todd came back, we talked and searched for a car onli...

I can't believe how fast time flew. My last post was in September 2013. Clearly I was super occupied being a mommy and juggling the wifey duties and supporting my hubby in the ministry.  What has been going on?  I remember around that time starting sleep training with Canaan, which I will write a seperate post for that. That was a whole other challenging experience in itself, but so worth it at the end.  The ministry is thriving and lots of exciting things are happening. Some days I have my moments where I want to be more involved, but for now I accept my role and responsibility in raising up my little disciple #Canaantheconqueror and contribute as much as possible to the ministry behind the scenes.  Canaan's 1st birthday was so much fun, despite the crazy stomach flu that knocked about 25+ people out including me. The struggle was mad real :-/. And guess what, right after Canaan's birthday we found out that we were pregnant again!!!! Wow, what a surprise. I had to l...

Surprise ! Canaan is on the way at 34 weeks of pregnancy 0_o.  The last two weeks leading up to birth, were challenging. My body was making drastic changes and I begin to swell up like a marshmallow. Heat and swollen feet do not go well together. Every day I felt like I was getting an inch bigger. Walking became a nagging chore and there wasn't enough ice I could put on my body to manage the swelling.  We decided to go to Maimonides hospital for a tour. I needed the assurance that it's legit. We had a great experience.  That same evening we went for dinner and then home to rest. At about 2am in the morning, I had one of my routine bathroom runs. As I walked back to the bed, to my surprise my water broke. Whaaaaaat! I jumped so quickly out of the bed and ran to the bath room. Would you believe my 1st thought was, no I just washed the sheets 0_o. Immediately I called Todd and he jerked out of his deep sleep. I yelled my water broke and he said: "Are you sure?" Yes, I sa...

It's been a while since I wrote a blog. The last post was by far one of the most emotional experiences we have ever faced. But as most of you know a lot has changed since then.  I must admit after the miscarriage I was told to take it easy and wait for 3 months until my body heals. It seemed as though I bounced right back and I felt good to go right away. Ministry kept me very busy, we went on a vacation, caught up with friends and TTC (tried to conceive).  To our surprised exactly at 3 months we were pregnant again. It was exciting yet frightening at the same time. I chose to trust God and started my new beginning .   There was one specific incidence at about 7 weeks of pregnancy. Leading up to it, I had all the typical symptoms of a preggo. Nausea, soreness, being tired and many bathroom runs. Right around thanksgiving it seemed as though the symptoms were gone. All of my alerts went of and I begin to panic. I thought to myself, no not again, I can't have another miscar...

Early morning on Wednesday, May 16 th I realized I was 5 days late. I rushed into the bathroom and took a pregnancy test. In less then 2 minutes, my heart started beating faster, joy over came my heart and my eyes got big. I WAS PREGNANT. At first I couldn’t believe it. I sat there for about 5 minutes, realizing I need to tell my husband. Then I remembered he is getting ready to go out of town for a couple of days in the next 45 minutes. I prayed “Lord give me wisdom”. In that moment I decided to wait for a better timing to share this wonderful blessing. This was very hard for me, because I’m usually impatient. God’s grace helped me to remain calm. As I dropped of Todd at the airport, I didn’t want him to leave, but comfort came as I was reminded, it is only for 2 days. All kinds of thoughts were racing in my mind and I began the beautiful journey to embrace the pregnancy. I looked up all kinds of articles, watched a documentary, and looked up midwives and so on. I kept mysel...

I honestly believe there is a lack of pursuit of holiness in this generation. The world is definitely far from holy, and it has crept it's way in the church. Unfortunately some are being conformed by the world, rather then allowing the Holy Spirit to transform them. Evaluate your conversations in fellowships. How often does the word holy or holiness come up? It can be easy to get caught up with what's in right now, how far can I go in relationships, what can I wear that still makes me hot as a Christian? Some like to listen to secular music, because they have good beats, even though they don't glorify God.  Some love watching romance flicks, while they blatantly magnify immortality. The list can be endless of distractions. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives (1 Thessalonians 4:7 NLT). I have such a desire to fully understand God's holiness and what His expectation is of me as a Christian. I don't want to find myself caught up in things, that br...

To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction. (Proverbs 12:1 NLT) You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry . (James 1:19) Again humility comes to my mind. You cannot be prideful and correct in love, or receive a loving correction with pride. I personally prefer it, when someone shoots it straight to me. If my attitude is off and my actions are poor, I appreciate to be corrected in love. Now don’t get me wrong, there have been times when my pride got in the way, or it was a tough humbling pill to swallow. But in all situations I have grown and learned something. It is very important to discern the differences between a loving rebuke and a harsh judgment. You cannot rebuke anyone out of frustration or annoyance. The right way to rebuke someone is in love. An open rebuke is better than hidden love!   Proverbs 27:5 It is very important to ask God for wisdom. You have to be filled with the Holy Spirit t...