Let all that I am praise the Lord

"Let all that I am praise the Lord;

may I never forget the good things He does for me" 

Psalm 103:2

Christmas 2014, what a great feast we had! 

After being in the USA for 18 months we were blessed by the visit of my family, 4 of them, my mother and father, my sister and little brother came.

We were packed, 9 people, three bathrooms and two bathrooms to share.

We had to learn to share our time, and rooms.

I loved watching the expressions on my parents' face when we were in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu. 

I think they didn't know how to express it in words, but on their faces there was the amazement that said it all.

On their first drive around they took pictures of anything out of the window; the cars, the trees, the birds...

They were like little kids with a new toy. 

This was the first time they were on a plane and the first time some of them went overseas. 

I loved being able to have my little brother here. 

He was 7 when Josh and I got married and it has been interesting to get to know him as a grown boy. 

We have always lived apart and spent only vacations together. I love to see what the Lord is doing in His life day after day.

While we were all together they wanted to give me a taste of Italy, so we made pettole (fried pizzas), homemade ravioli, spaghetti and orecchiette, pizza etc. 

My kids ate a ton of kinder eggs, and many more chocolates!

We were all spoiled....

...and blessed. 

It has been a blessing to have my parents here, we did many things but mostly we spent time together, we argued and laughed like good italians do. But the most important thing is that we were together. 

I loved being able to bring my dad to see the Christmas concerts that our church put together, he loved every minute of it. 

We went to take a tour of Joni and friends (the ministry of Joni Eareckson Toda), I think her book was the first one I read after I got saved. 

She did an amazing job sharing the Gospel and my dad was there to listen (he is not a believer). 

He enjoyed listening to Joni so much, he decided he wants to read her book. 

So I was blessed by seeing my family, and also by my dad being able to hear the Gospel many times.

 (My sister Anna with my Hannah on a train ride to LA)

My middle sister came too, and as she left here she is going to England to the New Tribes English school to learn English and then who knows what other marvelous plans God has for her life. 

She was the one that brought everybody here, the one who took the charge and came taking the responsibility for three more people. 

A long time ago my mom and I were the only believers in our family, God made many changes, He saved many and then He changed their lives to the point of bringing my sister on a trip to Indonesia last summer to discover how missionaries live and what the need is around the world. 

God has done amazing things, what more amazing things will He do?

 (My dad at downtown LA, amazed looking at all the mexican vendors)

My mom had told me in the past that she would never come to America. She not only came but in her words "everything is beautiful here" and she would like to come back again sometime. She grew up on a farm and didn't see a city until she was in her twenties. 

For her anything that the city had to offer was amazing, so you can imagine how it felt for her to be here. Because of those farm years my life was impacted. 

My food was always homemade and fresh, I wore cloth diapers and most of the time she hand washed our clothes. I learned many good things that were useful later in life. 

So when my mom was here she did all kinds of stuff and blessed us once more with her homemade deliciousness :)

 Los Angeles

 Ruhamah on her first train ride from Newhall to LA

I had a blessed time, as the Psalmist says, let all that I am praise the Lord, may I never forget the good things He does for me.

Amen

Happy Birthday Hannah Grace

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

It was a cold morning of 10 years ago, when at 5 o'clock am I started having strong contractions. 

Our first baby was getting ready to come see us :)

Hannah's pregnancy had been good all the way until the 7th month. Then contractions and worries on the doctors part made the end of the pregnancy a continuous trip to the hospital. Hannah was small in the womb and doctors couldn't figure out why. Her length was at the standard but her body was petite. After many check ups, threats to take her out with an emergency C-section and then bring her by plane to a different hospital with intensive care, shots to help with the development of her lungs. Finally things calmed down and we made it to the 9th month.

There were two doctors that I still remember, one was a female, long time doctor and well known who told me "everything is ok with your baby, you are small, maybe that's why she is small too". 

Those were the words I wanted to hear, I wanted my baby to be fine and didn't want to give birth earlier. 

The other doctor was a young guy that would always look at me like I was going to die and once told me " if you don't feel your baby move, just run to the hospital."

He was right, there were problems. Hannah's umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck, she was suffering in my womb and that's why she was so petite. 

I can't image if the Lord would have taken her in that last trimester, we would have remained with a dream of a daughter and lots of hurt. 

The Lord was so gracious to us because he protected Hannah and taught us a lesson on Sovereignty. 

He had her life under control. 

Her name is Hannah Grace, double grace, because we have been given the grace of her life twice, once He allowed us to get pregnant and second He kept her in our life. 

We have been truly blessed by this little bundle of joy, she weighted less than 5 pounds when she was born, but grew up fast becoming now almost as tall and big as her mommy. 

Looking back in our life helps us see the goodness of God

and helps us remember that God is really involved in our lives. 

Being reminded of His blessings is an encouragement in dark days, because we are never alone. 

The Great and Almighty God always stays on our side!

Hannah is 10 today, she is almost as tall as her mom, loves reading, can speak, read and write in two languages, has traveled around the world and is an amazing girl. We have been blessed by her life this past ten years and can't wait to see what she will become.

God's blessings never end.

Happy birthday Hannah!

Happy 2014

Happy New Year from the Daugereau girls!

In reading the Psalms and in many parts of the Old Testament, we see often how Israel is reminded of the great things that God has done in their lives. 

As we start a new year we can get a chance to look over the year passed and see what God has done in our lives and how he has blessed us even through those moments that at first didn't seem to be the greatest.

This past year for our family was full of blessings. 

As we started the 2013 with a second semester at the seminary we got to meet new people and deepened our friendships. 

In 2013 we struggled financially but, because the Lord has brought us through similar  experiences in our lives, we were able to make it through, to use what we had wisely and make the most of it. Because of this however, Josh looked started looking for part time jobs. He was blessed with an internship and another awesome part time job that he is going to start this semester. 

God does't leave his kids uncared for!

As a parent I try to give my kids the best and God is such a perfect Father and we were able to experiment how he takes care of us in such a perfect way, providing what we needed at the right time. 

What are some of my blessings?

He gave me such an awesome husband who does love me as Christ loves the Church, and three wonderful kids. One of them is turning 10 just in a few days. My kids are just as challenging any kid is but they do bring a  sunshine in my days. 

I got the joy of seeing my family from Italy coming all the way to the States. The got on  a plane for the first time and landed on US soil which they loved, spoiled the kids with Kinder chocolate eggs (now my little one thinks we can just go to the store and buy them and doesn't understand that instead we have to go all the way to Italy to find them!). I got to see their amazed faces in Santa Monica or Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

Benedetta was blessed to get into a special piano program and proved to be an amazingplayer.

Hannah was blessed with wonderful teachers. 

We were able to go up to the mountains and got to see a bunch of animals that we had never seen before.

We got to go to the Ocean and see a dolphin swim by.

We got to spend a weekend alone in Malibù.

Some of my personal highlights of the past year were being an assistant leader for the seminary wife Bible study. I love working with ladies and just when I thought there would never be a chance for me to do any women's ministry here in such a big church God proved me wrong.

I love the chance He gave me.

And the other highlight for me has been taking classes at the college. I love learning more things that I can use in ministry but I also love being around college students and being able to impact their lives as they impact mine. 

In the past year I met so many wonderful people and made new friendships. I still miss the ones I left in Italy and hope to be able to see them this coming summer.

God is good and great!

We had so many difficult times but we learned to be closer to each other and close to God and by looking back I am reminded that God loves me so much and blesses our family greatly. He does bless us even through the difficult times. Infact it is in the hard times that our faith gets refined, we learn how to trust God more and to walk with Him. It is in the hard times that our character changes and our pocky corners get smoothed out.

All this to say that if you are going through a difficult time take courage, look bad at what God has done in your life and remember that He loves you and will take care of you. Sometimes he needs to bring you down so that you can learn to trust Him. But stick to Him, follow Him and don't abandon Him and he will life your head up :)

May this new year bring many blessings to your lives.