Thank you

Originally when I started this blog, it was to update close family and friends on Rob's condition after I found out about his injuries. Then I thought it would be a wonderful tool for Rob to one day read and follow his progress from the initial injury and on to the road to recovery. Unfortunately, when I knew that was not going to happen, I continued to update the blog so that one day, our girls would be able to read about what a fighter their daddy was and all the thousands of people who prayed for him and, then later, for us as we began our new life without him. For the past 2 1/2 years, I have found comfort, strength, encouragement and even friends through my rollercoaster journey of life. When days were rough, I would come back to this blog and read comments and find comfort in their words. I cannot adequately thank you for your past and continued support. As I read past posts that I had written, I have a hard time even remembering those days. I know, without a doubt, there were times I was not just surviving day to day, but literally minute to minute. There is not a doubt in my mind that it was all the love, support, thoughts and prayers from family, friends, and perfect strangers that held me together. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. As we fast forward 2 1/2 years, the girls and I have had our fair share of ups and downs, laughter and tears. At times, this mountain we call life, seemed almost impossible to climb. But, through the continued love and support and our faith in God, we slowly made our way up. Through this journey, my faith in God has become even stronger. A bible verse that would always come to me is Philippians 4:13-"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." What I've come to realize through this whole process is the path I thought I was meant to go down was not the path God had planned for me. Although I miss Rob dearly and crave him being with us, I know that God needed him more than we did here on Earth and that He has a whole new and different life in store for the girls and me. Over the past few months, I have seen God's hands working in our lives, turning sadness into happiness, emptiness into fullness. God has placed a wonderful man in our lives. He has brought back the love and happiness I never thought I'd have again. He loves the girls as if they were his own and they adore him. I am blessed to have found amazing love twice in my life. One of them is our guardian angel who is looking over us, guiding and protecting us and the other is a man who walking beside us, holding our hands, in this new and different journey of life. So, with a new chapter of our lives beginning, I am going to end this blog and focus on our new life. Rob is forever in our hearts and mind and I know, without a doubt, smiling down upon us. I will always see Rob in our girls and we will laugh, and at times, cry, at all the memories we share of him. The girls will know just how loved he was by family, friends, and strangers from reading this blog and all the comments left for him. Again, thank you for your endless love and support. We love you.

Mission complete

The death of Usama Bin Laden was definitely an emotional day for me. I finally felt like I had some closure. This horrible man who was the mastermind of the murders of so many innocent people on 9/11 and the military men and women who lost their lives fighting this war on terrorism has finally had his day of judgement. Before he left for Afghanistan, Rob looked at me and said “We will hunt Bin Laden, we will find him and we WILL bring him to justice”. Through bravery, determination, and endless perserverance, our US soldiers did hunt him, did find him, and DID bring him to justice. I’m sure most parents had a hard time explaining UBL’s death to their children. This was not the case in our house. We had a magnet on our fridge at one time that had a photo of UBL stating “Wanted dead or Alive” with a monetary award listed on it. Eva used to ask who this man was. I told her it was a very bad man. She asked “The bad man who killed daddy?” Well, in all actuality, yes. So, every time she would walk by the fridge she would say “This is the bad man who killed daddy. He’s not nice.” So, I decided to take down that magnet. But the morning after the news broke of UBL’s death, this is the conversation I had with Julia: “Julia, do you remember that magnet we had on the fridge of the bad man?” “Yes.” “Well, the soldiers finally found him and now he is no longer on this Earth or able to hurt anyone ever again.” “I’m sure daddy and God helped with that.” Again, she never ceases to amaze me with her insight and wisdom. ☺ Although UBL is gone, I’m still very nervous about the aftermath effects of this. This is far from over. I continue to pray that every service man and woman fighting this war makes it home to their families safe and sound. I am so proud of each and every one of them. So, Rob, you can stop rolling in your grave now. Justice has been served. Your mission is complete. I love you.

Poor Eva... :(

We’ve had quite the eventful past few days! Last week, poor Eva broke her leg. ☹ We were at the park and I went down the slide with her and halfway down, she started saying “Ow!”. She never cried she just kept saying that her leg hurt. I didn’t think it was broken because it was not bruised or swollen. I watched her over night and by the morning when she still couldn’t put any weight on it, I took her to the doctor. Sure enough she had broken her tibia (shin bone)! I felt so bad. She is one tough cookie, that’s for sure. She got a pretty pink cast on and is quite proud of it. However, she can’t figure out why everyone wants to sign it. ☺ It’s amazing to me how she can figure out how to get around in it. It sure hasn’t slowed her down at all! Thankfully she will only be in her cast 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately, the girls are in the middle of swim lessons. Eva is sad that she can’t continue but I promised her once her cast comes off, we’ll get her signed up again. Julia is doing great. She’s staying busy with school and cannot wait until this summer when we can get out on our boat again. The Yllescas girls are definitely water babies and we could spend the whole summer on the lake!! A reporter from the Lincoln Journal Star did a follow up interview with me last week and it was in the paper today. It was a pretty good article although I have yet to see one that is completely accurate. It says he also lost an arm, which isn’t true, but besides that, it wasn’t bad. Here is the link: http://journalstar.com/special-section/epilogue/article_9d59c5ef-bb1e-53c7-98f9-0c52d1acff25.html
I know I haven’t been writing much on here lately but there really isn’t a whole lot to report. The girls and I are staying busy but it’s usually nothing exciting enough to report. ☺ I still continue to feel so blessed with the continued love and support the girls and I are receiving. Thank you all so much for keeping us in your prayers. There’s not a day go by that we don’t think of and miss Rob but we know he’s always with us and smiling down upon us. Life must go on for us and that is exactly what he would want.

Long time no post!

It's been quite a while since the last time I've written on here. The girls and I have been really busy. The 2nd week in December, Julia and I left for the Snowball Express once again. This year it was in Texas again but we got to leave out of Kansas City. They had a chartered plane for us that only Snowball Families were on. It was so much fun. The pilots and flight attendants all volunteered their time to do these flights. It was pretty much a party on a plane-complete with a silly string fight! While there, we went to the Mesquite Rodeo again and saw Gary Sinese and the Lt Dan Band perform, Southfork Ranch where the TV show Dallas was filmed, a performance of the Nutcracker Ballet, Six Flags amusement park and entertainment from a magician and so much more! We had so much fun. The patriot guard riders were there escorting us on their motorcycles everywhere we went. Dallas once again shut down the interstate for us so we wouldn't have to wait in traffic and the police officers who helped with this were also volunteering their time. This is such an amazing organization. There were so many families there and everyone was smiling. If you get the chance, please go to their website and check it out: www.snowballexpress.org Next year it is in Dallas for the last time and Julia and I can't wait to go again! For Christmas, we spent time at my parents house with my family and then we spent a few days at Rob's mom's house. Then Julia and I left for Maryland for a few days to visit some good friends of ours. I thought it would be nice to have some one on one time with Julia while Eva stayed back with Rob's mom. We were in Maryland over the New Year's and came back to Nebraska on the 3rd. The Nebraska winter hasn't been as bad as it was last year, but everytime it snows and I have to pull out the snowblower and shovel, I can't help but think "Man, I sure wish Rob was the one doing this!" :) The winter is definitely not for me. The girls and I are really looking forward to the summer when we can get the boat out again! However, Eva got to experience her first time with "sliding" as she calls it. After finally getting her to get on the sled and go down the hill, she was not impressed with the snow that landed on her face and that was pretty much the end of "sliding" for her. :) But, Julia still had a lot of fun taking several rounds on the hill. The girls also built a snowman in our backyard and had fun decorating him. I started attending a bible study on Wednesday nights at the church we attend while the girls do Awana. It's always an ordeal to get them there (they like to make me feel guilty by crying or saying they don't want to go) but when I pick them up, they loved it and had lots of fun! :) It's funny how kids do that to you! Julia is still doing gymnastics and Eva finally get the chance to try it out on Tuesday when she turns 3. We'll see if she will listen to the teacher and follow the directions. You never quite know where the wind where blow her! It's so hard to believe that my baby will turn 3 on Tuesday! The time has gone by so fast. I'm thinking the 3's are going to be tougher than the 2's--that child keeps me running!!! She is really in love with the movie Toy Story 3 and we have literally watched it hundreds of times. If we're not watching that, we're watching Beezus and Ramona. I love to hear her ask for that movie. When she says it, it sounds like "Jesus and Pneumonia". :) I have no doubt that Rob has had several chuckles up in heaven watching that little Eva. The other day she said to me: "Did I have a mommy and daddy when I was a baby?" I said yes you did. She says "But now my daddy is in the sky." Then she looks up and blows a kiss and says "I love you daddy....but I love Jesus more." Oh, the things they say. So awesome! :) Julia is doing really well in school and loves to write. They had to do a whale report in school and she whipped that out in no time and did an amazing job on it. Thank goodness the assignment was in writing because if it was in math, we'd both be in trouble! I swear 3rd grade math is a lot harder than when I took it! :) When I get the pictures downloaded from my camera, I will try to remember to post them on here from when they went "sliding" and built a snowman. Here are a few pictures from Christmas. Hopefully it won't take me as long to post next time! :)