Author: Oana

Word for the New Year: HOPE

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I wrote a similar post last year. I don’t remember the word I chose for this year but in retrospect, it should have been sorrow. We had the most difficult year of our lives. Losing homes? Going bankrupt? Moving countries or counties? Falling off with family or friends? Nothing, nothing, nothing compares with the pain of losing a child. It is gut-wretching. It is soul destroying. It is heart numbing. It is not natural. How can it be? A new baby equals new beginnings. Life at its best. How can our minds reconcile the idea of a new baby with cancer? Old people die of cancer. People who abuse substances die of cancer. People who don’t watch their diets and who eat crap die of cancer. Not five month old babies. Not sweet, innocent beings whose sole desire is to be with their mamas. Whose souls radiate joy and peace and everything that is good and perfect about life. Only, it has happened. To us. Normal and the most ordinary of families. The sorrow we …

New Year’s Resolutions as a bereaved parent

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Other mummy bloggers have started putting their New Year resolutions’ lists up already. And that got me thinking. (You know that book, “Little Owls” by Martin Waddell and the recurrent line in it, “all owls think a lot“? Yeah, that is me also, especially in the wee hours of the morning.) So, I thought, what would a New Year’s resolutions list look for me, as a bereaved mummy? Here is what I came up with. If you are a bereaved parent, please do feel free to add to this list whatever I may have left out. 1. Enjoy every moment, the best I can. Some days that may mean acknowledging the fact that I am feeling wrecked emotionally and having pizza for dinner. Some other days, it may mean venturing out for a walk and enjoying the nice weather. Some other days, it may mean cuddling in bed after school and watching movies with Emma and giving my body permission to rest and heal. Emma is a great example to me in this, just like …

#NoFilter:Dublin

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I am so honoured to take part, once again, in the #NoFilter project, launched by London City airport. This month, the entries will be judged by Monica Stott, from The Travel Hack. December’s city is one of our most loved citadels, a place we have visited numerous times, both as a couple and as a young family: Dublin! We actually have a trip planned to Dublin for this school holidays and the two days away will most likely be one of the highlights of our Christmas break, like it always is. My love for Dublin blossomed in parallel with my love for Alex. They both charmed me very early on in our relationship with their mystery and handsomeness. Our courtship, one of a kind and very modern, relying heavily on Internet connections and Messenger chats, started on a sunny spring day in Dublin, with one very confident-looking Alex taking photos of himself in Saint Stephen’s Green: Dublin airport, is where, not even a year later, we waited eagerly for my mum as newlyweds and took …

The day I left church and decided to be church instead

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No details, none necessary. I am just at this point in my life where I can’t take any amount of unnecessary anythings. Being in a building with people with whom I share only a name is not part of my life statement anymore. Being somewhere just for the sake of being, just for the sake of filling in a morning every week does not sit well with me anymore. I am here to help with whatever I can. Alex and I will have our home open on Christmas evening to whoever feels down, lovely or friendless. If you have nowhere to go that evening, let us know and we will provide you with a warm meal and a friendly chat, here, in our home. We have both agreed, after numerous and very open, heart to heart discussions, that we will use the experience of the past number of months to be church to people who need it most. But we cannot play church anymore. Seeing a son die sharpens your awareness to genuineness , sensitivity …

On the sixth day of Christmas…

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“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Six Geese a Laying Five Golden Rings Four Calling Birds Three French Hens Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.” We were privileged to be asked to review not one, not two but actually four companies that create photographic mementos and memories this December! I will try and do them all justice here and mention the unique way they have each blessed us as a family this Christmas. I love Instagram and I use it constantly for my blog’s page so when Square Snaps approaches me and asked us to review their greeting cards, I could have jumped for joy! I take pictures via Instagram several times a day and these pictures are dear to my heart as they are sweet snippets of what our daily routine and life at the moment look like. Pictures that translate memories that could be easily forgotten since Instagram is such a fast moving photographic tool. If you are a passionate Instagram user like …