Andre Xavier's Blog, page 4

Day 363 | SEPTEMBER 08, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is 363 of our new and fantastic life!The morning went by, and as usual, I was up early; I managed to get some sleep but still had difficulty shutting down my mind.London enjoys his ride to school with mommy, and now Julien is asking for rides, too:), just the cutest.It is incredible to notice how Julien is no longer scared of her wheelchair, and he is now reaching out to Charlie, which is a whole new level of interaction.Tonight say a little prayer to Charlie; as we approach the anniversary date, she needs the strength.I continue to be amazed by your pictures of the book, and I can’t express how happy it makes me to see the text in your houses, keep them coming.I am very grateful for your support; thanks to your orders, we have become an Amazon Best Seller; this is an excellent accomplishment for a self-published book; thank you!Also, as of 9/10, our book will be available on Barnes and Noble and Target online.Feel free to ask for it at your local bookstores as well; they will be able to order for you.Have a good night, and May God Bless You!André

Day 362 | SEPTEMBER 07, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 362 of our new and fantastic life!

I had difficulty staying asleep last night; I have a lot on my mind; I am excited and anxious about the book, wondering what you will think about it since there are many things I have never written about here.

I was out of bed by 7 am, and like I’m our regular school days, I got the boys ready and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Charlie continues to work hard, and it is starting to pay off; today, she was able to close London’s Lunch box lid; she couldn’t do that last week; it is a tiny step, but it means so much to her, and to see her face when she was able to close that lid, was pure satisfaction.

She has been taking London every day to school these past few weeks, and I know how much she enjoys it!

After dropping London at school, Charlie met with a good friend to catch up, and I went to work.

Today, I worked half of my time in my regular job, and the other half was in promoting the book, and checking in orders, today I got the book manuscript approved for global distribution, so let’s hope that local book stores, Barnes and Noble will order to sell at their places.

I am so grateful for your support, and if you know anyone with a local book store or a book club that would like to host a book event, send me a message; I would be interested in arranging that for when I return from Brazil.

Talking about the book, I know several of you have started to read the book; I would be curious to know what chapter you are in now. Just be careful not to spoil the book, just the chapters name, please

I started to read the text from the beginning during breakfast, and It was almost like it was my first time reading the book; since I wrote the first chapters so long ago, I am now in the chapter called “Shaved “it brought me back in time to read about what we have lived through, it is kind of surreal.

I want to thank you for your kindness with your words; I appreciate your honesty when sharing that you will miss my daily journal entries; I, too, will miss your encouraging words.

I hope you sign up for our blog; I will post not daily but somewhat often.

I will continue to share with you over the next few days what I will be doing with my writing; indeed, it is therapeutic to me, I have some ideas, and I will share them with you before I stop posting daily.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

I will ask that you share this link with your friends, we are starting to see orders from outside of this group, and that is because some of you are sharing the content; thank you!

Here is a link to where you can order the book https://amzn.to/3Bhde4i

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If you already placed an order, thank you, now please share the link with a friend:)

Tomorrow! The Kindle version will appear on your devices. Thank you so much for your patience! I can’t wait for both versions to be out!

Have a good night, and May God bless you!

André

The sweet moment Bluey let Julien touch him for the first time was so adorable and innocent.

Day 361 | SEPTEMBER 06, 2022

Good evening, friends. Today is day 361 of our new and fantastic life!

The boys had a very early start due to the very early bedtime last night.

Today we had a busy day, Charlie had a PT appointment, and I have been busy with the book; thank you for all of your orders; I also sent a submission to the Virginia Book Festival for next year.

Today we had the second interview with VCU media, they did the first part when Charlie was at the hospital this second time, and today was at our house with the boys; I am looking forward to their story since it is unique since they have interviewed Charlie’s Burn Surgeon and other medical team members, It will be interesting to see what they have to say about her survival.

Today I had a good discussion with Charlie, and we both think that the perfect time to stop with the daily journal entries is coming soon. I will visit Brazil with London on the 15th, to attend my sister's wedding.

The daily journals were so relevant in the early days when charlie was fighting for her life and when the fear of infection was genuine; now, by the grace of God and your prayers, Charlie is in a much better place medically; yes, she has long ways to go until she is fully healed. The medical updates are not as exciting.

Lately, my journals have become almost exclusive about me. While I am so grateful for your kindness and support, this story is not about me but Charlie’s strength and miraculous recovery.

I was hoping you could write down questions you may have in the comments or anything you want to say before our last day.

I will continue to post daily until 9/14, and after that, I will maintain the blog with not as frequent entries, but you will be able to follow what is happening with our family, just not as regular.

Today I just wanted to give you a heads up; I am so respectful of your time; you have spent almost one year, every day, waiting for my journal; I am so grateful for your continued support, it is hard to make this announcement, but the time is coming.

Today a family friend from Georgia sent us a sunshine box full of gifts for the boys and us.

I also received my Proof Copy of the book; holding the book in my hands is surreal, and I am still in disbelief.

Thank you so much! May God Bless You!

André

Day 360 | SEPTEMBER 05, 2022

Good evening, friends. Today is day 360 of our new and fantastic life.Today I had planned a laid-back day with the family, so we had a slow start to our morning; I made scrambled eggs and cheese sandwiches for breakfast.The boys planned a busy day with our nanny, a neighborhood play date, and a water park in the afternoon.I went to finish my incredible talk about cleaning and organizing my office! I had the other half to complete.The morning play date was in our neighborhood, so Charlie was able to participate, but that is when London misbehaving started; he was upset about his bike; he wanted a more extensive and faster bike; of course, he was not getting one while he misbehaves, so the entire play date was not fun, because he did not behave and that set the tone for the rest of the day.At lunchtime, Charlie asked for reinforcement, so I came up and spoke with London; he went to time out and had no TV for the rest of the day!After two hours of rest, it was time for the water park, they had a perfect time, but once again, towards the end, London did not behave, so once he got home, at 5 pm, I made his dinner at 5:30p, he was in the shower by 6 pm and in bed sleeping by 6:30 pm! Julien also started to misbehave at dinner, so he went to bed at 6:30p.I must say, today was a very challenging day for us as parents, we were very disappointed in London, but we also are trying to understand what would cause this sudden change of behavior. We know he has gone through a very traumatic experience, so we are being extra forgiving and patient. I hope that today's talk and consequences will be enough to bring him to normal behavior tomorrow.Besides dealing with the kids, I end up having a busy day at work, and I guess many people are home and have time to start planning their next vacation or transportation for their wedding.Today’s highlight was the picture of our book at someone’s house! Wow! Thank you so much for sharing that!I am freaking out because I have not received my proof or author copy yet, so I have no idea how the print came out. I keep telling myself I can’t control it, and there is nothing I can change by worrying.I am sure you may have noticed that only my name is on the cover as the author, Charlie’s name was originally on the cover, but if you know Charlie well, she will not take more credit than she deserves, so at the last minute, she asked me to have her name removed as an author, I did insist that I would keep her as a contributor because she was a big part of the book, she helped me with the accuracy of our pre-accident life, I am very grateful for her help in getting the book published.Charlie also told me that she would be writing her book. She has some ideas of what she will write about I am beyond humbled by this entire journey, and this book will be our first step in the direction of our new life mission, inspire, help and support anyone in need.I am so grateful for the several of you that have purchased the book during the pre-order time, you have made us a best seller on Amazon, and I kindly ask for the ones that have not purchased your book yet, so please do so, I will leave a link below where you can order your book on Amazon, and yes, the book will be on Barnes and Nobles, smaller Bookstores around the county, hopefully in the next 60 days, it takes time to get in-store distribution, that is why we choose to focus on Amazon first! They move fast In a few days, I will be asking for you to review our book, and that is extremely important; reviews are what support books to become successful, and we need your help once again; the goal is to reach people that are not here in this group, we want to share our story far and wide, I know how many “bad husbands” are out there in need of a wake-up call! (if you are new here, search bad husband on our blog, and you will understand the joke), I also know how many people need the inspiration to say yes! One more day.Thank you for your incredible love and support towards our family; we would not be here without it.You can order your book at this link!https://amzn.to/3Bhde4iMay God Bless You!AndréBelow is Julien at my feet as I prepare dinner; he loves to follow me around.

Day 359 | SEPTEMBER 04, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 359 of our new and fantastic life!

Last night we had planned to go to Mass in person, but when we woke up this morning, we had a change of plans.

I woke up with a sore throat and Julien with a runny nose, so London’s cold has spread to all of us boys.

To ensure that we don’t keep spreading the germs (so far, no positive COVID test), we decided to stay home and watch the mass online.

Since we were now staying in, I finally decided to face my office, which I had been avoiding for almost a year.

I am horrified ever to show a picture of what looked like this morning; think of paper stacks everywhere, desk, floor, window seal about; I have ADD, and being organized is a challenging task for me, but I genuinely love being ADD, for me, it is like a superpower, I am capable of doing many things, almost simultaneously, this is how I was able to write and publish a book while doing several other things at the same time, so for anyone out here with ADD or ADHD, you have a superpower! Don’t let yourself forget that.

I first enlisted the help of London; I gave him the task of tearing old checks and putting the paper in a bag; well, he lasted 7 minutes at the job before telling me his legs were hurting. I told him that I appreciated his help and that he could go on to play with his toys, Julien came in shortly after London left, and Julien loved to work; seriously, he wanted to help and did help me for over 45 minutes! I was amazed:)

After 4 hours, I am proud to say that I am halfway through cleaning my office; tomorrow, I am confident I will finish this daunting task.

Charlie had a good day; she watched Alice in wonderland with London and took him to the playground; Julien was a little too contagious to be out and about.

London loves hanging out with Bluey, and they are becoming best buddies; Julien wants to pet the cat, but Bluey is not a big fan of baby Julien now; I can understand why.

Charlie and I are having an enjoyable evening, watching a game of thrones as I refill her weekly pills.

I am just amazed to see the book orders being fulfilled; thank you so much for your orders!

We had a very blessed Sunday! Thank you, God!

Have a blessed evening, and May God Bless You!

André

Day 358 | SEPTEMBER 03, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 358 of our new and fantastic life!

We had a slow start to the day, London was up early, but Julien slept in a little.

Today I made pancakes for breakfast, and after breakfast, we left for our morning errands, I dropped Charlie, London, and her aid to go shopping for clothes for London. I took Julien with me to the grocery shop; after a couple of hours, we met up and returned home; not a very exciting morning.

But I had an inspiring afternoon, I have started to fulfill your book pre-orders, and I have good news, if you pre-order your paper copy, there is a good chance that you will be receiving your book before 9/10; if you are in Canada or outside of the US will take a little longer, and for the kindle version, it will come out right on 9/10, I can’t wait to hear what you think. I will ask you to please write a review of the book on Amazon as soon as you read it; I hope you like it as much as we did, it is a work of love, and we pray that it will touch many more people.

London tested negative today for covid, sounds like he may have a typical cold.

Charlie is continuing to do well, and she is dealing very well with her opioid reduction; her main symptom is feeling exhausted in the afternoon; I continue to pray that she keeps on being strong.

Thank you for your kindness and support.

May God bless You!

André

Day 357 | SEPTEMBER 02, 2022

Good evening, friends. Today is day 357 of our new and fantastic life!

Today started last night with London waking me up at 2:15a, complaining that he was not feeling too well :); he slept the rest of the night by my side.

Breakfast and the usual mommy ride to school went by fast this morning.

Charlie had planned a visit to Michael’s craft store; before the accident, Charlie loved to work with her hands, and she did beautiful wreaths for every season; today, she went back to one of her favorites stores to grab some lace for a store bough wreath that she bought for our house, I know that she is hopeful to one day be able to make wreaths once again.

I got a call from London school that he was not feeling well, and he wanted to come home, so at 11 am I went to pick London up, sadly for him, we walked back, no supersonic chair ride , he said that his head was hurting, possible allergies.

Once home, he was medicated and ate lunch, and very soon after, he was feeling better and was ready to play.

Bluey is starting to progress; he knows he loves playing with London.

Today Charlie did well; she managed to get things done and, thank God, didn’t feel too much about the effects of withdrawal; fingers crossed, I am cautiously optimistic; please continue to pray for her.

I had a jam-packed but productive early evening, I received my finished, edited manuscripts, and they went to print; well, Amazon, the day has come!

Just as I have prayed for, our book will be published on 9/10, and very soon, it will be available worldwide for purchase, first on Amazon and soon after at bookstores.

I kindly ask you, if you haven’t placed your pre-order on our website, to please purchase your book once published, we will remain to sell it on our website.

I am just amazed that I was indeed able to write a book, in less than a year, during the most challenging time of our lives, and here we are! These daily entries were invaluable to the book; the final manuscript has 254 pages.

I want to thank you for your words of encouragement from day one; they kept me going, I am very humbled by this journey, and I hope that anyone that reads my words can find hope and inspiration to face their hardships and challenges.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

May God Bless you.

André

Day 356 | SEPTEMBER 01, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 356 of our new and fantastic life!

Today Charlie took the day off from her therapies to enjoy a full day of being a mommy.

I will be frank; today was a fantastic day at our house. Today was the first day I witnessed Charlie going above and beyond anything I could imagine from her at this stage of her recovery.

This morning, Charlie ate her breakfast at the kitchen counter as she, with the help of her aid, packed London’s Lunch; I have three pictures below of her in action; I hope you will feel as inspired as I did.

After preparing his lunch, which contained a wrap with lettuce, ham, cheese, a side of carrots, cucumbers with hummus, and strawberries for dessert, she was so proud of her accomplishment, and so was I.

She also styled London’s hair; using her left hand, she applied the pomade, and with the com,b she made him even more handsome.

The ride to school with London is becoming iconic; all the kids in the neighborhood wave and smile at them as she flies down the sidewalk/ road at 7.6 mph. Today she made the round trip in 14 minutes; walking takes 30 minutes for the round trip.

Once back, it was time for Charlie to go with Julien to the Scottsville library; our Nanny drove our van, and out they went; she brought me a delicious cupcake from a charming cupcake shop in Scottsville; if Charlie approved, it must be perfect.

She also painted her nails. Yes! She did use it again, just her partially functioning left hand!

In the afternoon, she played with them outside, making Charlie very tired. A little hot, she decided to take it easy for the rest of the night. She went to bed a little early, and to top all that, she decided to reduce her once again opioids; now we embrace a week of withdrawal, but rest assured, she is willing to do to take one more step toward being free of the opioids, it is not an easy road, and I am beyond proud of Charlie, she is living proof that if there is a will, there is a way!

Today was another blessed day! On the day of Capable, Charlie focuses on what she is capable of and, just for a day, forgets about what she is no longer incapable of doing.

Please pray for Charlie extra hard this next 7 to 10 days; she will feel a lot of pain and discomfort as she reduces her pain meds.

Thank you for your generosity and support.

May God Bless You!

André

Day 355 | AUGUST 31, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 355 of our new and fantastic life!

We now have an established morning routine; after breakfast, Charlie takes London to school; they find a way for London to ride on the chair with Charlie, and they go at the supersonic speed of 7.6mph.

It is fantastic to see Charlie and London zipping downhill from our house towards the school.

Charlie had a busy day; she left at 10:30a and didn’t return until 3:30 pm she had OT and PT appointments; today, she broke a new record at PT; she “walked” 940 feet, including carpet transition.

At OT, she tried her pressure garments, she received her upper body garments, her gloves will have to be redone, they didn’t fit quite right, that is normal for pressure garments, they have to work perfectly, she said that it is very uncomfortable and painful to wear it, so she is starting to wear than for 1 hour a day, and slowly increase how long she wears until she can withstand 23 hours a day! It is not going to be easy, but Charlie is determined.

She was exhausted when she got home, but she felt very accomplished.

I had a busy day as well, I received the final edited manuscript of my book, and now it is in the typesetting phase; we are on track to publish as expected on 9/10. In the next few days, I will announce the book pre-orders and how to redeem your pre-order; it is so exciting and scary to send the book to the printer.

I never imagined a book coming out of my journals; it is very humbling.

I am so grateful for your support, and because of you, we have remained on the new release list on Amazon since the pre-sale started; that is unbelievable! Thank you!

We had a blessed day, and I am so grateful for today.

Have a good night, and May God Bless You!

André

Day 354 | AUGUST 30, 2022

Good evening, Friends. Today is day 354 of our new and fantastic life.

I overslept this morning, so breakfast was rushed; Charlie took London to school. I headed to a busy day at work. Today I received the final edit version of our book manuscript, now to the typesetter and as planned, to be published by 9/10, on the first anniversary of the accident that changed our lives forever.

Charlie had an enjoyable day; after dropping London at school, she and our nanny took Bluey to the vet; he has an inflamed bladder and poor kitty, he is now on antibiotics, and we are hoping that he will feel better soon.

He has access to clean water on the two floors, and his litter is cleaned daily.

After the vet appointment, Charlie went to have lunch with her friends at the Dairy Market; she loved seeing her friends, which gave her a sense of normalcy.

In the afternoon, it was time to bake cupcakes, Charlie was guided by telling the kids, and with the help of our nanny, the recipe for her cupcakes they baked for London’s friends in the neighborhood to wish them an excellent first day of school.

Before the accident, Charlie was always baking multiple times a week, and she would take her baked goods to our friends and neighbors. She loves to bake.

Before dinner, we took the boys outside for a moment, and because of the rain, few frogs were out, Charlie is obsessed with frogs, and now London is just like her, so he picked up a cute little frog. It is incredible to see Charlie teaching our sons about nature and animals, she can’t use her hands, but she can use her words and guide them.

Dinner was delicious made by me, scalloped potatoes and meatballs with Salad.

I am grateful for another blessed day.

Please continue to pray for us. We need to continue to be strong; we are still adjusting to our new life, and some aspects are more challenging than others; we need to focus on the many gifts God has given us.

Have a Good Night, and May God Bless You.

André