Feeling much better

First off, I feel like I should clarify a little: when I said that my neighborhood was one of the worst hit, I meant in our city, not anywhere. But I was tired and worried when I wrote that post, so sorry if it sounded worse than it was.

Anyways, I am happy to say that this morning I received a text from Herme saying that everyone was fine, there were just a lot of problems with phone and internet service, and that we would try to connect in the afternoon, which we did! :) The fact that we had planned to not talk for a couple of days due to busy schedules, and then couldn't talk due to the hurricane issues, I was really happy just to hear his voice, without considering my worries and whatnot.

But, apparently, both he and his family, as well as our houses, are all fine despite some serious flooding all around them. Interesting, since our house has a tendency to flood a little bit in just a regular rain storm. As Herme said, God had His hand on the family.

So, feeling much better today. So good to talk to my husband for a bit. So nice to know that there was no damage to our stuff. So good to talk to my husband for a bit :) (I know, I said that 2x, but it was really good)

Thanks for praying.

Big News!

Yes, I am actually online for the 2nd time in less than 2 months...shocking I know. But I had to share my big news with you all. I am excited to say that after many months of having no idea when I would be up to Rochester again, I can now say that Katya and I will be up sometime around June (give or take a month...plans are still very preliminary). We´ll probably be up for about 3 weeks or so, so hopefully there will be time to see you all :)

Why, you may ask, are we now making plans to visit? Well, because I am pregnant!! Yes, baby number 2 is now on the way, with a due date around October 11th, just 2 weeks after Katya turns 2. I guess my family has a thing about seeing me pregnant :) But anyways, we are very excited (Herme is very excited) and looking forward to meeting the newest member of the family.

I am, of course, in the midst of the fun of 1st trimester - nausea, tiredness, running often to the bathroom already...but doing well. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we make decisions about Drs and such. The budget is even tighter now that it was last prenancy. I would really love to have a home birth with a midwife, but that is virtually unheard of here. Unless someone knows a good midwife that wants a free place to stay for a few weeks in the fall here in Saltillo ;)

The other big prayer request is for grace in weaning Katya. Until a couple of weeks ago, breastmilk was still her food/drink of choice plus her favorite comforting device. WE´ve come a long way in a short time, but I am trying to balance her needs with mine and the new baby´s.

Anyways, thats my big news. Katya is now crying for me, so I think that´s my cue to finish up. As always, miss you all and will keep doing my best to update things here.

A JOB!!

My husband has a job! For the 1st time in almost an entire year, he got a yes!

Now, we still covet your prayers, because it is 100% commissions, no base salary. But a job is still a job, and much, much better than no job at all.

He will be working in a bank, ´selling´ credit cards, insurance plans, etc.

The big upside...he will work normal, 40 hour work weeks, Mon-Fri, and will be at a desk in the office...no crazy driving all over town stuff like the last job. :)

I can´t remember the name of the bank, but its owned by the man who is even richer than Bill Gates and from Mexico...

Today he went in and filled out all the pre-hire paperwork, and tomorrow or Wednesday he´ll start his training or orientation or whatever you want to call it.

THank you so, so much for all of your prayers!!!!

___________________

In other news, because I ran out of time last time, we have switched churches. This has been a major decision for us that we have struggled with since actually before the wedding, about 2 years now. It has been hard, mostly because we really felt like we were with family at our first church. At the new church we knew only a handful of people getting started, although I am happy to say that after 5-6 weeks, I do know a few names and faces now. But we reached a point where we really felt it was where God wanted us, that He has a plan for us and for the family of my husband in that church and under that Pastor´s care. We actually will be meeting with the Pastor in about a half hour. Anyways, for that reason, I can´t write more now, but it has been a major change for us that I wanted to share here, even if it is only a little bit.

Thanks again for all the prayers. I´ll keep doing my best to stay in better touch!

Baby Dedication

We have video too, but its taking too long to load - maybe next time...

(People who sometimes call me - call me! I haven`t heard from you in over 2 months! Inkling - thanks for your comment and link - we`ve been praying for you!)

snapshots of life since returning

writing one handed, so sorry about skipping puntuation...

*the peaceful death of a 96 year old man, and the grief of a large family extending to the 4th generation (about 85% of my church is a part of this family). burials here happen within about 24hrs - the grief is quite raw

*visiting an aquaitence, a 32 yr old man who suffered a severe stroke while we were away and is slowly regaining use of his left side. has a diagnosis of being a walking time bomb. surgery that could help would cost 2-3 yrs gross salary. waiting for a miracle.

*something like 15,000 people in our city have lost their jobs recently. tens of thousands more are at risk of losing theirs and are currently only receiving half pay. (our economy has depended heavily on such factories as GM and Chrysler...)

*job hunting....there just isn´t even anything to try applying for...

*enjoying being together 24/7 after a long distance courtship/engagement and a year with 70-80 hour work weeks

*an almost 5mo old baby girl who delights us with her many smiles and all she is learning

*sun :) 60-70 deg highs :)

*visiting with all the friends and family that missed us while we were away

*finally receiving some clarity, insight and direction on a spiritual issue that has hung over us like a cloud for over a year

*yet another level of freedom in an area of bondage

*attempting to explain Rochester weather to people who think anything under 65 is cold and rarely experience anything under 30

Sorry - it's been waaayyyy too long!!

Ok, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that. It had to do with online access/time, changes in schedule, hands full of baby.... and eventually just being out of the habit of blogging.

So, let's see. Just to quickly get back up to speed...
(BTW, after talking it over with my husband, I'm gonna start using his real name, Herme, here)
Without getting into all the details, we basically are completely broke and provided for at the same time. Herme left his job at the beginning of December and will be looking for a new one when we get back. We had about 10 days together before leaving Saltillo, which was really nice after all the crazy hours he worked over the last year+. Thanks to those of you who have been concerned about the job situation - sorry I have been so bad at replying! Obviously, we appreciate your prayers for a short search and a good find :)
It took some running around, but we were able to get all the passport related paperwork done in time and have finished passports in hand. (We have to travel with 2 passports for Katya, and a passport and a visa (for opposite countries) for Herme and I. Gets a little confusing!)
Katya did great on the flight up - slept and ate at the perfect times, barely made a peep all day, and even arrived awake and smiling to meet her grandpa and the first few aunts and uncles. I could really feel the prayers, between how great she did and how smoothly and quickly the day went despite a delay on our first flight causing us to arrive several hours later than planned. We discovered that I can go through American customs and immigration with Herme on the visitor side, which is nice because then we can go together and help each other juggle carry-ons and baby(s).

Our visit has been really nice, of course! :) I was grateful to see E&J and kids while they were in town visiting, as well and R&J and their new baby. We've seen both of my grandparents and almost all of my aunts and uncles and cousins. For five days in between Christmas and New Years, we had all of my siblings and their spouses and kids in my parents house - all 18 of us! It was really nice to get everyone together, the first time since my wedding. We're working on visiting assorted friends - many wanted to wait till the holidays were over. We stopped in today at my school to say hi to old coworkers. It was funny to see the looks the kids gave me - 1.5-2 years is a long time in the life of a kid to remember a teacher/principal.

Oh, and we have been very blessed by assorted gifts of money and clothes (mostly for the baby), as well as some favorite children's books and a couple of stuffed animals. :)

______________________

On a completely different note, I felt called to do something a while back and have wanted to share it here. I wrote a thank you note to President Bush for all his hard work over the past 8 years. Having been in leadership positions, I know how hard it can be.... although you try to do your best, it isn't always understood or appreciated. Many have written Bush off the last few months, many are pointing fingers and blaming him for a variety of problems. But I felt it important to acknowledge all he has done and invested these past 8 years. If you would like to encourage or thank him as well:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
or
comments@whitehouse.gov
or
Check this link for other contact related info.

-------------------

A few baby updates before I sign off...
She weighs about 15 pounds these days, and is about 3 1/2 months old already. We are beginning to feel like we have a decent routine coming together, although the travel and lots of people keep us from quite nailing it down. The last couple of weeks she has really 'come to life' - everyone always talks about the difference after hitting 3 months. It seemed all of a sudden that toys that barely caught her attention a short time ago, she now tries to grab at and can entertain herself for some time. She started rolling over 2 or 3 days ago (stomach to back), and not only smiles alot these days, but laughs alot too! She is really a very happy and easy to care for little girl, and everyone has been telling us how beautiful she is (so it's not just her proud parents that think so)! Oh, and she got her ears pierced just before we came up.

Well, I'll try not to wait around so long before the next post ;)

I am still here...

...just need to figure out how to hold a baby and type at the same time :) One handed is realllyyy slooooowww!
I finally bought material to use like a Moby Wrap, so maybe that will help.

I wanted to post a few pictures, then realized I am on that ancient computer sans USB port again. But she is 4 weeks old today and already so much bigger! That could possibly be connected to the never ending nursing we seem to be doing, even right this minute :) She loves to hold her head up (she started when she was only a few days old, and now can hold it up pretty steadily for extended periods already), recognizes me on sight, and is tracking us with her eyes. Everyone always comments on how alert she is. I have a tendency to hold her a lot (I don´t always, but a lot)... but I waited a long time for this sweet little girl and figure in 1 or 5 or 10 years I probably won´t look back and wish I did more housework and held her less.

I feel a little like it was forever ago now, but I still would like to share some about the birth and hospital and what not from my perspective.

I had gone to the Drs Tuesday am, and was 0 cm dilated. He was talking induction if I didn´t go into labor within a week. I started soon after having contractions of varying strengths and intervals. With 0 cm on the brain and hoping to go naturally, I made a point of walking little laps the rest of the day. We made sure everything was ready to go to the hospital that afternoon. Wednesday I again had inconsistent contractions. Weather was yucky, so I walked in the house and up and down the stairs. I´d had other days with contractions lasting a few hours and then disappearing, so I wasn´t reading too much into things. They were only rarely of an intensity to make me actually uncomfortable.

We got to bed around midnight Wednesday. At 1am I got up and headed for the bathroom. I mean, thats what I´d been doing every other time I woke up for the last nine months. It took me a minute or 2 to realize I hadn´t woken because I needed to pee, but because of a contraction. They started out every 7-8 minutes. They shortly were coming every 6, and I asked my husband to start timing how long they were...65-75secs. By 2:30, they were every 5min, and we called the Dr. He, thinking 1st labor, told us to hang tight and call back when we saw blood. By 3:30 they were every 3 min and lasting more like 90 secs. I convinced my husband that the Dr wasn´t expecting things to move so fast and to call even though there was no sign of blood. The Dr wisely :) agreed to meet us at the hospital. We arrived around 4am.

I had gotten the distinct impression that epidurals weren´t done here, and didn´t think I wanted one anyways. But when the Dr started talking induction, he mentioned the possibility of an epidural. And I got to tell you that around 3am, I started changing my mind about having one. I know it was great that my labor moved along so fast, but it was intense! I was going from nothing (remember 0cm?) to pushing in a few short hours. When the Dr came in to examine me, I felt better hearing him say something about what strong and fast contractions I was having (so it wasn´t just in my head). They never actually asked me, they just went ahead and worked on getting me that epidural. I think it happened around 5ish or just before, and it was a wonderful feeling :)

I was just thinking maybe I felt the urge to push when they realized I wasn´t feeling much and should cue me in. I started pushing at 5:15, and my baby girl was born at 5:30.

My husband was at my side every step of the way, and was a wonderful support. I don´t totally understand how his presence made such a difference, but it did make things so much better when he was with me for a contraction. I don´t know how I would have made it thru the entry procedures, during the strongest/longest contractions, without him there. And it was obviously absolutely wonderful to share the moment of our daughter´s birth with him. He still talks about it. A million thank yous to the person who made it possible for him to be with me.

Some of the words that describe our hospital experience...
beautiful
quiet
friendly
good service
good food
comfortable

Everyone who came to visit us was impressed. And I got a few comments about how much better this type of experience was than being in a room with 15-20 other woman giving birth (can you imagine??!! and without a husband at your side!?!)

Oops, out of time. Writing one handed takes ages :)

Hope to be back on soon!

Thank you`s, FYI, and Showers

Wanted to make sure I thanked all of you who
a) have been commenting all along :) and
b) recently came out of the woodwork :)

I feel much better about the whole `void` thing, and remotivated to post regularly. Plus, it was so good to hear from a couple of people I hadn`t in a while.

I`m pretty sure there are still more of you out there who check in and never say anything - would love to hear from you too!!

_____________________________

After one of my girlfriends `threatened` to start calling me every 2-3 days to make sure she knew when I give birth, I realized I should clue you all in to my plan to have someone (prolly my sister) post here on the blog for me (an most likely on Facebook, too) when the baby is born with the essential details. I have too many friends spread out all over to come up with any better way of making sure you all hear the happy news.

And we do have a hospital - I can`t remember if I have officially said that here. It is a small, private hospital that opened in 2000. My husband is allowed in with me for the delivery, as well as to spend the night in my private room (he gets a very nice leather couch...). It is clean, close to home, and a reasonable price (as far as private hospitals go...).

The Dr I have been seeing all along for prenatal care will be my attending physician for the birth, so there will be a familiar face, and he will be familiar with my history, etc.

___________________________________________

The first of 3 baby showers is tomorrow (Saturday), and another is on Sunday. Tomorrow`s shower, the first, was actually the last to be planned, and was a bit unexpected. It will be largely attended by people I have never met before - a testament to the culture here understanding the need to help others out, as well as never turning down a chance to socialize. The fun part is there will be 2-3 other American women that I have never met there - it should be interesting and helpful to connect to others like me.

Sunday`s shower is being put on by the women at church and will be help immediately following the service.

I`m looking foward to the chance to hang out with all these ladies, as well as begin to wrap my brain around what I do/don`t have and/or need. Our budget is simply too tight to have spent any money on anything until seeing what we are given.

Another neat note of divine provision...
One day last week I took inventory of what clothing I have been given so far. It isn`t much. I spent the next day or 2 trying NOT to wonder how on earth we will ever affort buying clothes for our little girl. On Saturday, one of my good friends informed me that her mother-in-law, who barely knows me (I remember interacting at my friend`s wedding...?), was probably sending me a box or so of baby clothes - many like new or with the tags still on. Even if the box never shows, it was a great reminder of how God can use very unexpected sources to provide for us.

The day to day stuff, and the extraordinary

So, we made it through the month of July. It was pretty crazy, especially since we were without the car for 2 weeks, but we survived. They gave everyone an entire weekend off (Saturday AND Sunday) at the very beginning of August. That was awesome, and there was a noticable lift in my beloved´s mood the following week. They finally told him at the end of last week the new expectations - they don´t have to keep working every Sunday (although I am guessing they will work the last one of the month like they used to), but they have to work full instead of half days from now on every Saturday. And a full day will continue to be 35 instead of 28 visits. They are still ´considering´ giving a little more gas money (which seems like it should be a given since they are doing the equivalent of almost 2 full extra days, based on the old number, of visits per week); there is no extra pay.

Over the last month or so, my husband has managed to go to a few interviews based on what he found the day we went to the circus. But nothing has come together.

I am almost half way through my 3rd trimester, and am definitely feeling it, although I am doing pretty well overall. I just need to say that 2nd trimester is heavenly and by far the best part of being pregnant. Of course, since I felt so energetic and almost normal, it flew right by me. Third trimester came along, and I started feeling suddenly more awkward, slower, bigger. I tire easier, and retain water more/more often. I am up going to the bathroom a lot again, although some nights are better than others. There are also nights I just can´t get comfortable. I get really excited about the nights I get to sleep 3 hours straight. As my husband said this morning, the good thing is I almost always fall asleep again very quickly. Several weeks back I started noticing Braxton-Hicks contractions. At that point they were completely painless, just sort of odd feeling. The last week or 2 they have a definite crampy feeling to them, a mild kind of pain. It finally occured to me the other day to start praticing now relaxing through a contraction instead of tensing up.

I haven´t done any major nesting kind of things, but I am slightly anxious about the fact that we are getting nowhere on choosing a name. And I would like to see the crib put together soon. I was told on Sunday about 2 different baby showers they are planning for me here - one through church, and one by my in-laws. Culturally here, they think you shouldn´t have the shower until the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy, so one is the first Sunday in September (the 7th), the other the 3rd Saturday(the 20th). I´m due at the very end of September or beginning of October, so here´s hoping the baby doesn´t come too early ;)

Today I finished reading a novel about Esther - completely in Spanish. I am feeling pretty good about that. I read a bit slower in Spanish, but not extremely so. I didn´t understand every single word, but I only used the dictionary maybe a dozen times through the whole book. I wrote a birthday card to my beloved the other day (he turned 30 on Saturday), and he told me he sees a huge improvement in my Spanish (I´ve been writing to him since early on in our relationship, always in Spanish). He said he would think another 2-3 months and I will be quite fluent.

Ok, now for the extraordinary. You may remember that we have been trying to figure out a good option for the birth, and I asked for prayer along those lines. Well, although we tried to pursue things with the midwife we had found, she appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. So we decided to start looking around at private hospitals, knowing we most likely did not have the money, to see what kinds of options there were. I believe it was 2 weeks ago today that we managed to squeeze in our first 2 hospital visits. We were suitably impressed. Clean, bright, private rooms, more modern ideas (one offers water births, the other offers to videotape the birth for you). Both seemed relatively quiet and no where near full, leaving me feeling like I would get much better care than what I have heard is the norm in the overcrowded government run hospitals. Both allow my husband to be in the room with me. And both charge much more than we have.

The VERY NEXT DAY - we received news of the provision of a large sum of money towards helping us pay for a private hospital! From a completely anonymous and unexpected source. And it is EXACTLY the amount we need to make it happen! God is so faithful to provide!

We still haven´t chosen exactly which hospital. We visited a 3rd last week that we liked even more than the other 2. And we have one more that has been recommended to us to check out. But we have good options, and the ability to pay for it.

Even better, any of these hospitals would allow the Dr who has been providing my prenatal care to be the attending physician at the birth, and it doesn´t really change the prices at all as he charges more or less the same as we would pay to have a stranger from the hospital be the attending. So it looks like I will actually have someone I know and who knows me and about my pregnancy attend the birth. That is relatively unheard of here, and something I had long ago given up hoping for.

And I´ll end on that happy note :) I´ll give more info once we make our final decision on the hospital.

The Circus

So, I could go on and on about the frustrations of the last couple of weeks, the job situation, the major (read: expensive and time consuming) car repair.....how my poor husband was exhausted after only a week of this crazy new schedule, managed to complete his 35 visits 4out of 6 days - and yet was reamed out by his boss for not getting them done evryday and told he comes across like he doesn´t want to work hard. How now they want them to also include making visits between the hours of 6-11PM in hopes of finding more people at home.

But I am tired of thinking about it and feel like I´m very complainy of spirit lately.

So I am going to tell you about the circus instead.

The day the car broke down, my beloved chose not to work the rest of the day (it was broiling hot out and the idea of visiting clients by foot....). Instead, he spent a couple of hours job hunting, came home to eat, we got a few errands done....and then we went to the circus.

By the way, although he did find a couple of good leads on jobs that day, nothing has come through so far.

So, the circus. It set up in the next neighborhood over from ours, in an empty lot about the size of a gas station or corner store lot. If you bought your ticket ahead of time from the guy driving around the area with a loudspeaker, it was halfprice at only about $1.50 (American)/ticket. It seemed like a good chance to relax a little and enjoy some cheap entertainment. And it was within walking distance (a key point when carless) :)

We walked thru the entryway, handed over our tickets, and I suddenly felt like I had stepped back in time about 100 years. It was a dirt floor. Seating consisted of bleachers - literally thin planks of wood tied with rope to makeshift stands. If you had paid the premium price (I think like $5), you could sit a little closer in white plastic chairs.

The show opened with 2 girls, dressed in leotards and streamers that hung from their arms and waist, coming out and basically twirling in circles a few times to the music.

The opening act was essentially yo-yo tricks.

I think the whole operation ran with about 15 people. The first half of the show, several little boys were the stage hands for the different acts, and I wondered if they were sons of the men doing the acts and how they felt traveling with the show all the time. Then the 2nd half the show began, and those little boys were the acts, and the men who had been the acts earlier were now the stagehands!
During the break and after the show, anyone one of them could be seen selling the souveniers and snacks.

Every circus had animals, right? This one had miniature horses, and their tricks mostly consisted of walking the perimeter of the ring, and bowing when introduced.

My favorite act of the show was the clown, though. He wanted to throw knives at someone, and so came and picked someone randomly out of the audience. And trust me, the man chosen was not a plant - the looks on his face made that quite clear as we went through this experience! So, the clown and his assistents tied his arms above his head on the corkboard type thing that was the target. The clown put a ballon next to the man´s hip and started to pace off, preparing to throw a knife and break the balloon. We all knew there must be some trick here, including the poor man from the audience - I mean, this was a clown act after all! But at this point the victim, as I will call him, was starting to look pretty nervous. Then, just before the big throw, the clown has the brilliant idea to use a blindfold! He started to put it on himself, then turned and covered his victim´s face instead. And now, the big moment.....He paced off, turned and encouraged us to make a lot of noise, then quickly handed off the knife to the littlest stagehand, who ran up to the ballon and easily stuck the knife into it! Then they unblindfolded the man, so he could see that the ballon pop he heard was indeed caused by a knife arriving within inches of his body. They proceeded through this routine a couple of more times, and it was just hysterical watching the face of the poor victim each time, sure that the clown was going to hit him with one of those knives!

All in all, the show lasted about 2 hours, brought lots of laughs, and actually included a couple of impressive acts with people flying through the air or doing some amazing balancing. Of course, it also included more clowns, and a girl who could hoola-hoop like nobody´s business :)

Not bad for a cheap night´s entertainment - I only wish we would have had our nieces and nephews with us to enjoy it. And that the bleachers had been just a teensy bit more comfortable.

21 days and counting!

(Quick heads up - I double posted today. Thought I´d warn you all, since it is unusual for me and I don´t want you to miss anything...)

21 days from now I will be in Rochester!! For my first visit home since moving here this past December! I am obviously very excited!

I had not anticipated being able to make a visit home for quite some time, considering our tight budget and all. But a couple of weeks ago, my parents informed me that my dad has enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket home. Yes, just one - I will be coming alone this trip. But my parents want to gift us with a trip up once the baby is born, for the 3 of us, so that we can introduce our little one to everyone back home. So I´ll be headed up again sometime next winter. All very exciting :)

I´ve been waiting to post about the trip until we settled on some dates. At first it was anytime between now and early August (when I will be too pregnant to make such a trip - airlines actually don´t allow people in their last month or month and a half to get on the plane.). Then we narrowed it down to either mid June or mid July, to work around family plans here and there. Then it looked like we would have a hard time using the free miles in July, and so mid June it would be.

THEN...My husband and I went to immigration on Friday to work on getting all my papers in order for continuing to live here. I currently just have a tourist visa, good for 180 days. Meaning it expires June 7th. So we started asking what we needed to do and working on all the paperwork back in April. Then we didn´t have a car for 2 weeks, and so couldn´t get any errands, etc, done. We got the car back last Tuesday, got the pictures I needed taken done on Wednesday, my love went in Thursday to ask the immigration folks about a couple things we weren´t sure about, and we headed in Friday thinking we had everything in order and ready to go.

Only to have the very immpatient and somewhat annoyed official suddenly start telling us that there are 2 types of visas from which we need to choose, involving different costs, different restrictions, and different outcomes (like the possibility of one day being a permanent resident or citizen here). She explained all of this very quickly, neither of us could quite keep up, forget making a good decision. And to top it off she informed us that we had forgotten one of the papers we needed, and if we didn´t make it back with it same day, it could stall things for 10 days.

Let me just say that one pregnant woman left that office crying.

Well, between the Dr´s appointment we had that morning, my beloved needing to work, and the short hours of the immigration office (they close at 1pm), we weren´t making it back same day. I where before I was slightly nervous about getting all the paperwork done before my trip home, now I was panicked. I begged my family to get some people praying for favor when we took the ´missing´paper in on Monday, as well as asking my Pastor and his wife here to pray. And I worked hard and trusting the Lord and not completely freaking out. I reminded myself that if the Lord could open the door for a trip, He could open the doors for the paperwork as well.

All thanks to the Lord, it turns out there is a very simple, straightfoward process for getting temporary paperwork that will allow me to make my trip, with only a relatively small fee of about $25. So, God willing, I will be in Rochester from June 10th to 25th!
(Umm, I don´t suppose Otrgirl/Jrex, Val, or Becca, or any other out of town friends were planning on stopping in Rochester for those dates...? Just checking....)

At first I was a little hesitant about leaving my husband for very long - we are newlyweds after all, and this will be our first time apart. Plus, he´s gonna have to move home with his mother or something while I am gone, because the man does not cook. But he really wants me to make the most of the opportunity, and it was he who encouraged me to go for at least a week, if not 2. And now my mind is quickly filling the 2 weeks up with all the people I want to see and things I want to do :)

As for the confusion of immigration - please pray. For reasons we do not understand, the immigration office went ahead and started the process for my visa despite missing that one paper and payment, and despite the fact that we never actually determined which we wanted. Of course, they started the paperwork for the other visa, the one we don´t want. So now we have to decide whether to enter into a complicated process of stopping the one and switching to the other, involving re-doing everything.....or going with the flow and waiting till next time around to get the one that puts me on a path to citizenship.

But, at least the door is open for the trip back to Rochester. You all better start blocking out some free time for me ;)

A little bit about life lately...

We finally have a car again! Woo hoo! 2 weeks after it broke down and almost as long in the shop (basically just waiting to do a simple repair until the part arrived). But it has been an interesting couple of weeks, and more poor husband`s feet are about to fall right off! He still had to make all his client visits, but by bus and foot.

In the meantime, I have become an official bus rider, making my first few solo rides in the last few days. Gives me a new level of independence, as I could go visit my in-laws or the Pastor`s family by bus now even if my husband is busy working. Admitedly, it takes much much longer by bus, but it is better than nothing!

My other big news of late is that I am definelty feeling the baby move these days! All of a sudden, a week ago today, I was sure that it was the baby I was feeling, and ever since, I have been feeling him a lot! Very exciting. And yesterday morning, he was kicking unusually strongly, and my husband could feel it already!

Thanks to the car issues, the lastest Drs appointment, that should have been last Thursday has been postponed 2x, and we will finally go this Friday. So you can expect a baby update soon :)

Ok, all out of time - until soon...

Blessed and a Baby Update

Hi again! I`m back :) And thanks to a special provision from a completely unexpected source made especially for internet time, I`m back to stay (at least for a while)! :)

The provision for internet time and the fact that I am getting tax refunds from both the state (unheard of for me) and the federal governments, along with that economic stimulus rebate, are the small but significant financial improvements in my little world. And somehow, by God`s grace, yesterday`s paycheck should cover the things we still need to cover from the beginning of the month as well as everything left till the end of the month, and there may even be a little bit left over. So, no huge changes, but the Lord is providing enough, and for now, that is enough.

I`d love to see the whole plan of provision at least through the baby being born - you know, how we will aquire everything we need for the baby, continue paying for prenatal check-ups and the birth, etc. But I think I`d better follow the advice of scripture and not worry about tomorrow. For today, there is enough, and I am grateful. And the special blessing of internet time reminded me yet again of God`s faithfulness and love for me. Internet time falls at the bottom of our list of priorities (you know, somehow food and electricity and things trump email and blogging). But God knew how special it would be for me to continue staying connected in this way and put it on a special friend`s heart to provide a means to do so.

Let`s see, a quick recap of the ways I`ve been blessed since my last post, and felt God taking care of me:
-Last Sunday a conversation began with my husband that opened up all kinds of things inside of him to receive healing and forgiveness and restoration from the Lord. We are still walking it all out, but are very blessed at what the Lord is doing, and know that, `He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion`.

-Last Tuesday, I burnt myself pretty badly (I foolishly reached out to catch a falling frying pan while making breakfast, giving myself blisters on 2 fingers of my right hand). You may be wondering how this could possibly be a blessing, but it worked out that one of my closer friends here, when she realized I basically couldn`t do a thing for the day, invited us over to eat. I ended up staying thru till my love finished work, and we hung out even a bit longer when he came for me. It was a really good time of hanging out. And my friend`s mom prayed over my hand, and within about an hour all pain was gone!

-On Thursday (I think) one of my best friends called me for the first time since I moved here. She had fun news to share, plus we were able to share and encourage each other in something similar we are each walking through. Very encouraging!

-On Friday, I received a really fun package from my aunt (Thank you sooo much!! Real thank you letter to be forthcoming!) She sent along a few things that are hard to get here, as well as baby gifts - and every single item was wrapped in pretty paper. Such fun to open :)

-On Saturday, I went to a baby shower for the Pastor`s wife thrown by a cell group (a Bible study type group). Several of the women there I have only interacted with a handful of times, but they were already working on planning a baby shower for me in the not so distant future!

-On Monday, I received a letter from a good friend I miss very much. I`m so glad she`s a letter writer :)

-On Tuesday, I received a letter from Inkling, a blogger friend with whom I have made a very special connection. Thank you soooo much for blessing me!! Real thank you letter to be forthcoming!)

So, as you can see, I have been blessed by a variety of friends and family. I was a little worried about feeling lonely during my `leave of absence` from the internet. But God is faithful and loving!
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Now, for a baby update :)

We headed to the Dr about 10 days ago now. I`d had a blood and urine analysis done earlier in the week, and so the first bit of good news was that all my levels were perfectly normal and healthy and where they should be. He gave me a couple of tips to avoid some random, mild symptoms I`d been having, and prescribed a mild daily medicine to try and curb the many intense headaches I`ve had. (We only just managed to buy the meds this week, but so far so good...) He was extrememly pleased that I only gained about a pound and a half, and all in all I came out with a clean bill of health.

As for the baby, we had another ultrasound. It was amazing, again! The baby had almost tripled in size (length) since the last appointment, and was moving quite a bit - at one point obviously in reaction to the Dr moving whatever you call the thing he uses to do the ultrasound. All the measurements the Dr took of the baby showed healthy and appropriate growth, most of them predicting due dates 2-7 days earlier than the calander due date (I just take that to mean that the baby is growing well). The Dr showed us that there don`t appear to be any signs of birth defects or other signs of worry at this point.

And then the Dr turned to us and asked if we wanted to know whether it is a boy or a girl. He said it is still a little early to be sure, and so he`d say he is abotu 80% certain that it is a..... boy! My beloved is thrilled, as he has been hoping for a boy since the beginning, and walked in the clouds the whole rest of the day :) For me it isn`t so important if we have a boy or girl, but it is fun to start thinking more specifically about who is inside of me, and to be able to use his name, etc. Don`t worry, though - we are both well aware that the Dr wasn`t sure, and are waiting for future ultrasounds to confirm.

So, in summary, we have a healthy, growing baby inside a healthy, growing (but not too much) mom.

Oh, and we did take pictures of my belly right around that same time, as I finished my 1st trimester, and plan on continuing to do so monthly. I also want to take pictures of our house to show you all. I just have to figure out how to post them from a public computer. But they are coming...

Now that I am back on with some regularity, I`ll work on getting some of those promised posts written :)

Vacation Days, Or Not (and an announcement at the end...)

Week before last was Holy Week - and in a predominately Catholic country, that is a big deal. Everyone gets lots of time off. Kids had last week and this week home from school. Something like 90% of the country got off Holy Thursday and Good Friday. And the way it works out this year, with Easter being so early, 90% also got off last Monday in celebration of some famous President here.

We were under the impression, leading up to Holy Week, that my beloved would have off Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (he generally works 1/2 days Saturdays, which means half the number of clients visited - not necessarily half the time). So we made plans for a day trip on Monday, thinking later in the week we´d have a lazy day. Lazy days are few and far between (meaning in large part we can sleep in, and get up when we are in the mood, istead of rushing out) - since FB works Monday thru Saturday and the last Sunday of every month, that only leaves Sunday. But of course we get up and go to church on Sundays. So, lazy days...? I think we´ve had one since we returned from the honeymoon.

Instead, he had to work Thursday, Saturday, and....drumroll please....EASTER SUNDAY!
I am sure you all understand the logic there - since clients really want to open their door to a stranger to talk about being behind in their payments on EASTER SUNDAY, if they are even home and didn´t take off on a vacation somewhere. No, the logic was - you all had off Monday and Friday - better work Sunday. And since the office closed a little early Thursday, FB had to hit up the office before getting started on Saturday to finish up from Thursday. Then when he finished for the day, he had to prepare all his visits for both Sunday and Monday. So Saturday was a long day of work.

Monday and Friday, the days he did get off, were´t bad, just not lazy days like we´d been looking forward to.

Monday we did the day trip to a pretty and quaint little town about 2 hours away. The 2 of us had been there once before. This time we took along another young married couple and their little boy. I had just recently been thinking we should hang out once in a while (when there´s time - which is the whole issue) with other young marrieds, so I was fine with Herme´s spur of the moment idea to invite them Saturday night. The weather was weird that day, lots and lots of wind, carrying lots and lots of dust. And spring hadn´t quite arrived there like we´d hoped. But we ate at a nice restaurant and then spent several hours at a park where they have created a pond (they call it a lake, cuz there isn´t much water here. but it is only a pond). The temperature was nice, even if it was windy, and we had an enjoyable time, a mix of keeping to ourselves and hanging out all together. Just before heading home, we hit up a vineyard museum, which was interesting, but would have been more so if the guide talked just a little bit slower.

One highlight for me was a stop at the street market on the way out of town. FB and I had stopped there when we were there a little over a year ago, and he bought me a pink shawl. I wore it when announcing our engagement here and in Rochester, and subsequently on any chilly day when I wanted to feel like my fiance was a little closer to me. It was very pretty, and an important memory item for me. But I lost it a couple of months ago. I think what happened was that it was on my lap in the car, and I forgot when I got up to get out and it fell. By the time we realized it, it was long gone. I was devastated. (And for those of you who know, this happened like the same week as another major possession loss.) But anyways, we found the same vendor and bought another shawl. She didn´t have the same color, but otherwise it is the same, and it comforts me to have it.

Friday, we got up about the same time as a workday and headed to a Good Firday service. It`s a gathering of many churches that all form an alliance, and different people from different churches take turns reading the last 7 things Jesus said during the crucifixion. Afterwards, there was a picnic style lunch and everyone fellowshipped for a bit. And in the culture here, that means everyone packed a whole lot of one thing and shared it with everyone else. Everyone always shares here. It was good, and lasted til about mid afternoon. I got sunburned - didn`t know it was outside, and apparently the tarps providing my shade were not all that protective. AFterwards, we spent some time with my in-laws, then headed home to get that budget done.

Easter Sunday our church did a sunrise service (although the sun never rose, it was one of those rare cloudy and chilly days here), so we were able to go to service before FB had to work, which was nice.

The other part of that week that kept life interesting was that when we returned to town Monday evening from our day trip, we headed straight over to my in-laws to pick up 3 very excited children. Our 2 nieces (10 and 7) and great-nephew (6) had been dying to spend the night at our house for weeks. And since they were on vacation for 2 weeks, they came and stayed with us until Thursday morning. Great vacation for them - a bit exhausting for me!

Remember the weird windy weather we had Monday? Well, Tuesday morning, the temperature dropped to the 40s, and there was so much dirt being carried in the wind that visibility was bad. And dirt was coming in thru every crevice of the house - door jams, windows, you name it. So, I had 3 very excited children stuck inside for the better part of the day. I have no toys other than a game of Dominos, a few childrens books, but mostly in English, and no TV - and a pretty small house. The saving grace was when I remembered late in the day the Play-Doh recipe I had - all dead time from that moment on was spent pretending to be a bakery or restaurant. (By the way, the recipe was from a cook-book the church ladies put together back in Rochester a year or 2 ago. Any one from there reading this - I love that little book and reading what you all wrote, and have used several recipes already!)

The next day we had much nicer weather, walked the 20ish minutes to visit someone from church and later hit up a nearby playground. Still tiring, but in a less anxious, pent up kind of way. I taught the kids Mother, May I? and Red Light, Green Light. Since hardly anyone here has any yard to speak of (homes are usually all built right up against each other), any time spend at a playground or even in an open patch of grass is much enjoyed.

Ok, this post is a book. I promise the others I am planning to write shouldn`t be quite this long. But as computer time in the next few days will be devoted to getting my taxes done, I`m not sure when the next post will be. I do hope to write fairly soon, though, because my second prenatal appointment is Friday. Can you believe that today officially marks the beginning of my 2nd trimester already?! And yes, I am trying to figure out how to post the occassional picture of my growing belly.

Oh, and I forgot to post last week in the midst of all my catching up, that I am an aunt again!! My brother and his wife welcomed their first into the world Saturday, March 22. From what I am told, she`s beautiful, with lots of hair. It`s crazy hard not knowing when I will meet her. But then, as they live just that far away from the rest of the family, only my parents have been able to meet her so far, and the others aren`t sure when they will. This is the first baby that we all (or almost all) didn`t meet in the first 48 hours - times are changing in our family I guess.

Sshhh! It`s a secret!

You see, I was paid a very high compliment this week, in an area in which I have already shared my insecurities with you all. And it came from the person most able to affect me with such a compliment. But it is the type that can`t get back to certain people. However, since those people live here in Mexico and speak Spanish, and my readers generally live in the US and speak English, I thought maybe I could share here.

My dear, sweet husband told me this week that I am a better cook than his mother. (And his mother is generally known to be a very good cook.)

Now, I am keeping in mind that this came at a time when he happened to be very hungry - everything tastes better when you are hungry. But it was said very sincerely, and pretty much blew me away.

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In other news, I don`t think I have mentioned yet here how excited FB`s family is about my pregnancy. They have already started buying us baby clothes! And you should have seen and heard them the other night when we showed them the ultrasound picture. And they keep making me model for them to see if I am showing yet (enough for FB and I to tell, not too noticeable to most other folks). All in all, it`s fun.

I am happy to say that I am one of those people that really enjoy my in-laws. A couple of Herme`s brothers are really quiet, and we are only just starting to be comfortable initiating conversations with each other. But the brother closest to me in age is really outgoing and loves to pick my brain about one thing or another. He`s managed to pick up enough English words to help me along when I`m not sure what he is saying, too. And his sisters and I hit it off since the beginning, as well as the neices and nephews. We get along even better now that I have improved enough in my Spanish that I don`t feel like they are talking at the speed of light ;)

Well, we are giving ourselves a rare treat and heading to the movies in a little bit, so I am going to get going. FB has had a great workweek, getting out much earlier than usual (by several hours) a couple of days and an hour or 2 early the other days. If only his weeks could be more like this on a regular basis!

My Baby! :)

We had our first prenantal check up this morning, and it was so exciting!

Our Pastor and his wife had recommended this particular doctor to us (they are currently under his care for their pregnancy). At their suggestion, they accompanied us in order to present us to the doctor as friends that they recommended him to, which was really nice of them to take the time to do. It also helped us with the practicalities of figuring out where we were going the 1st time, etc.

It was a pretty straight forward appointment overall, with him asking some basic questions and laying down the law as far as my diet and activity levels are concerned. He is really friendly and likeable, and you really get the sense he knows what he is doing. The only downside is that he talks kind of fast, so I couldn´t always keep up with him (as in, my Spanish isn´t quite good enough...). I think I will be able to in another month or 2, but in the meantime, thankfully have this great husband who will be accompanying me, and who pretty much knows all my answers anyways :) And he even explains to me afterwards anything I missed.

But the exciting part was the ultrasound! What a gift of technology, allowing us a glimpse at God´s miraculous creation of a new little person inside of me! It was very clear, and both FB and I could easily identify the head, hands, feet, etc, even before the Dr explained. The Dr also showed us the beating heart and developing brain, and said taking size and everything into account, all appears to be coming along normally and healthy. The size of the baby was right on track, giving a predicted due date within 3 days of what the Dr had said based on the calendar.

Speaking of the baby´s size, he or she is 3.12 cm long from head to rump, which happens to be the length of the upper 2/3 of my pinky finger. I keep looking down at my finger and picturing the little baby I saw moving around this morning. So amazing.

We both walked out of there several feet above the ground, I think. And we have stayed in a slightly dazed state all day.

I think seing the baby like that was especially good for my husband, as he was just expressing the other day that he kind of wishes the baby were born already, because he feels so unconnected or far removed from the baby right now. I don´t think he feels quite that way anymore :)

So, all is well and developing right on track. Next month we´ll have some basic lab work done so the Dr can check my levels of whatever is doctors check. In the meantime, he made some suggestions to help with the congestion and nauseaness. And I am supposed to cut way back on carbs, salt, and junk food and up my intake of fruits, veggies, water, etc. Sounds basic, I know, but was reassuring to me as such dietary onversation are much more rare here.

Odor Update and A Doctor

Well, I am so glad I blogged about the bathroom smell. I should have gotten to it sooner! Although the smell is not yet gone, I do believe we now understand the problem and are on our way to fixing it (well, having someone fix it). As a couple of people commented, we believe it is a sewage smell creeping back up into the house. As a dear and very knowledgable man from my church back in Rochester emailed me, it is probably that we have a problem with the trap in that drain, whose very job it is to prevent the sewage smell from entering the house. I am thrilled that the end is in sight!

In other news, we made my first prenatal appointment today! I am very excited! We will be going on Tuesday morning at 10, to the same Dr our Pastor and his wife use. The best part is, this Dr is apparently very good, and provides care much more like what Americans would expect (not that anyone said it quite that way to me, but I´ve been told many times here prenatal checks consist of feeling the woman´s belly and sending her on her way. Whereas this Dr cares about things like vitamins and iron levels and weight gain). And the fun part is that he does an ultrasound every single month, and sends you home with the picture! So in just a few days I might get to see my baby for the 1st time!

Other than that, the most interesting thing I can share is that overall, weather here has been hitting highs of least upper 60s, if not mid 80s. Apparently, this weather is unusual and early, and things that normally don´t bloom or bud till almost May are already out. Part of me can hardly believe this is February, the other part has almost forgotten what a Rochester winter looks like!

Oh, and in answer to a question from Inkling in the comments a few days back, I have had no problems whatsoever receiving packages so far. I have had delivered to my door one smallish and one fairly large package with not a word said to me about customs or duty or any such thing. (Both senders had marked ´gift´on the customs declaration) I was both very excited and very grateful, not having been sure ahead of time how that would work out.

Tidbits

This post is a random collection of thoughts and observations I have been wanting to share...

They are building a new section to our relatively new neighborhood behind our house. I think it much have something to do with being made in the image of our Creator that makes it so very interesting to watch the process of something being built. I often watch from my upstairs window for a few minutes, and usually check daily on how much progress has been made.

I am not thrilled about having houses put in behind us, as it will feel much more closed in, but I am grateful that my bedroom window will look out at the little bit of space between houses instead right into someone else´s bedroom window. And I am grateful that there are no houses right across from us. I think they will someday turn the open patch of dirt into a park.

I´m looking forward to reaching the benchmark of 2nd trimester in about another month... the nauseasness and tiredness are getting old, and I am hopeful that some of that will ease as the 1st trimester ends.

Any worries I had about filling my day as a homemaker disappeared with the onset of pregnancy. I am lucky to keep up with the basics these days.

I´m realizing that I have a lot of fear attached to doing anything outside of my comfort zone - which includes kind of a lot of things, sometimes. I´d appreciate prayer to be released from this. I know it is natural to be nervous, etc, about new things, but in a situation where I am often confronted by new things are something outside my comfort zone (I´ve moved to another country, for goodness sake!), this whole fear issue can be a bit debilatating.

Although still being asked to work harder and do more, my beloved husband received some rare praise last night for a job well done in recent weeks. For this, I am grateful. And for the fact that he might actually get home by 8 tonight, instead of 9 or later.

Of course, last night was also when we thought we´d be getting news about the level of insurance coverage his company will provide for my prenatal/birth care, but instead found out his boss forgot to take the marriage certificate to HR in Monterrey last week. Supposedly he took it today; we now have to wait up to another week.

It is interesting the little things you learn about a person when you live with them. For example, my husband religiously checks expiration dates when making a purchase and/or consuming something we have had for a while. On the other hand, though, I´ve seen him eat fruit or homemade items well past the date I would have considered them edible.

I know there was more, but I am afraid pregnancy brain strikes again! It´s all mush now, and I can´t for the life of me think what else there was. I´ll be so annoyed later when the things I have been wanted to share with someone suddenly pop back into my head. Oh well.

Can´t say I didn´t warn you!

I mean, I don´t know what I was thinking. It like runs in the family after all. For some reason, I was thinking of generic statistics and timelines more than what I know to be true for our family. Silly of me. That is, what I am trying to say is....





I´M PREGNANT!!





When we realized that our chosen form of birth control was not going to work for us, we did consider (and even try) a few other options. But none of them felt right. Although we had planned on waiting maybe 6 months or a little more, we ended up feeling like we needed to just give the reins over to the Lord right off the bat.

And although my beloved husband was pretty sure from the moment we stopped using birth control that I would end up pregnant, I really didn´t think I would. Not right off the bat anyways. Don´t get me wrong - I loved the idea of getting pregnant, and any nervousness I had pre-wedding about getting pregnant right away disappeared on the wedding day. I just figured it could take a few months.

But then my normally very timely period didn´t arrive. That day was when it finally sunk in for me that it was a very real possibility. Because I was sick (congestion, very sore throat) and got to the Dr. about 20 minutes too late, I took an over the counter pregnancy test when I was only a day late. Neither of us had slept well due to my sickness (my sore throat kept waking me up, and my congestion kept waking him up), but I didn´t want to take anything I shouldn´t if I was actually pregnant. The test gave us a very, very faint positive result. We were thrilled!

The next day we did make it to the Dr. He gave me a pregnancy test, although just another over the counter type, and it came up negative. He took his test result very seriously, and had little to nothing to say about the positive result fro the night before. I figured there was a good chance it was just because it was so early still, but it did throw us off a little.

Several days later, still no period, and having felt naseous everyday, we were sure enough that we started telling parents what we were thinking.

Finally, this past Thursday, a friend from church (also our landlady), a blood lab analyzer by profession, came over with all the equipment to do the bloodwork in my living room. Is that crazy or what? Sitting on my living room couch, she took my blood, spun it to separate it, and did the pregnancy test. In her words, now there was no doubts.

We´ll get to the Dr to begin prenatal care as soon as we finish up my paperwork to be married/live here. (The other Dr we went to is just for walk-in consults. Not necessarily long-term prenatal care.) Hopefully we´ll wrap all that up in the next couple of days.

According to the handy-dandy computer calculators, I am due September 30th.

Well, for some of you, this is how we communicate, so I figured this was the best way to tell you. Others of you will hear from family, etc, but I thought you might like to hear the story from me :)

A bit more...

I only have like 10 minutes, but I thought I{d add a bit more about life here...
(sorry to those who are punctuation conscious...I can{t for the life of me figure out how to type an apostrophe on this keyboard!)

Some good news...stove is hooked up and working great! and washer should be by days end. And we are off to buy the dryer my family gifted us with the money for :)

Some fun news...I received my first real piece of mail last week. I think it was Friday. I was walking home from visiting a friend and found myself wondering where they would put are mail were we to ever receive some, since no one here really has mailboxes. And what did I find when I walk in my door but a letter for me that had been slipped under the door, from a good friend with the same first name as me :)
What an awesome treat that was! Please, please...write to me! Emails are great too, for those mail challenged. Ive loved the few emails I{ve gotten from friends and family so far! But gosh, what good it did me to have a touchable taste of home!

And before I run out of time, I got to thinking how I went into narration mode last time and failed to mention the really amzing man I now have for a husband. So far, his worst quirk is the large amounts of soap he feels a need to use, either when washing his hands or in the shower. Mot bad huh? And Ive only been more impressed by all of his good qualities. I know there are many of you who think you have the best husbands out there, but I know I really do! ;) Ok, maybe hes just the best husband for me, but one way or another, hes the best!

K, Im gonna go cuz if I dont post this before my account runs out of time, I lose everything Ive written.

Until soon!