a year of firsts......

i am truly a blessed woman. i could have never imagined my life would turn out the way it has. i have much more than i ever deserved. i truly serve an AWESOME GOD. he is amazing and he loves me soooo much.

just three small years ago i lived a life that is a far cry from the one i lead now. i was doing drugs regularly, drinking, smoking cigarettes, smoking weed, abusing prescription drugs, and many more things that i'm ashamed to put on here. i was dating this guy and i got pregnant.... so i did the natural thing and told him i was pregnant. well when i told him i was pregnant i pretty much never saw him again unless it was by accident. he denied that joseph was even his son and still does to this day even though we have had a paternity test to confirm that he is joseph's biological father. i found out that he had been cheating on me with somebody i consider pretty gross. they (joseph's sperm donor and his gf) disgusted me but i was also hurt by the betrayal of being cheated on and the rejection of my beautiful son. i thought of the road ahead of him and imagined his hurt to find out that the man who fathered him couldn't even stand the thought of him. that thought broke my heart and brought me to tears many many times.

i gave my life to jesus two days after my baby boy was born. i was in the hospital and i wrote two letters that day. one to god and one to joseph. the one to god asked him to forgive me for the shameful and perverted lifestyle that i had been living, and it was also a promise that from that day on i wanted to live my life for him. i decided that day to hand my hellacious mess to god and let him sort it out. the letter to joseph promised him that i would do my best to raise him up to live for god. from that day on my life was never the same.

when joseph was 17 months old i met a guy online.... lol. www.pentacostalmatch.com. hahaha. anywayssss this really cute guy messaged me and we exchanged email addresses and added each other on myspace. he seemed amazing and sometimes i truly felt it was simply too good to be true. soon we exchanged 's and we were on the phone CONSTANTLY. some nights i barely got any sleep because we talked all night. soon he came to visit me and meet my family. it was then that i was POSITIVE that i wanted to marry him. i went to a mission trip to mexico with him that summer where RENE PICOTA proposed to me at the sea of cortez. that was the best summer of my life. it changed me in ways i could never explain. it went much deeper than simply becoming engaged. we were married on september 15th, 2007.

we found out i was pregnant in early november. we were both surprised and thrilled. i started praying for a girl just to be reassured that god wants to give me the desires of my heart. he gave me alexis paige picota on july 2nd of 08. i love her so much. she is my special angel.

it has been an amazing year full of ups and downs. i learned sooooo much about my husband in our first year of marriage. he is an amazing person that i have grown so deeply in love with. his love for god amazes me, and his passion inspires me. he is a man of great faith and i have witnessed him believe god for many things that have come to pass. he has helped to increase my faith even though he might not even know it. he is so forgiving of my failures. i am soooo happy that i followed my heart and what god was telling me was right. i didn't listen to all the people who said i was crazy for marrying some guy i met on the internet. lol. god was telling me that this was his will for my life and i am so glad i listened. rene armando picota ranks in the top three of the greatest gifts god has ever given me ( in no certain order: jospeh rene and alexis).

i love god and i just wanted to take a moment to look back to the slums that god pulled me out of. those that knew me three years ago know what kind of person i used to be. i want to be a living testimony that god can change your life. he changed mine and i am so thankful.



i love you rene and happy anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!