Pics.

Sunday morning...

We went to church this morning. It seemed to me as the most natural thing to do until I was getting off the car and received this comment from a gentleman: "Are you kidding me? You just had a baby!" then he said, "when we had babies my wife would be completely off her feet for over a week or so!" Since I wasn´t planning on engaging in a physical activity per se, I hadn´t seen the need to stay home. Going to church, in my book, engages you in a spiritual activity more than anything. Of course, there are physical expressions that, more likely than not, will accompany your worship and your participation in service, but those aren´t mandatory and you may do without them if you must. I had the choice between sitting in my living room couch by myself this morning lamenting how little I slept last night and having my own pity party or sitting in the sanctuary surrounding myself with worship and the Word. My options made it easy.

Now, I understand that there are times when you absolutely need to stay home and I don´t intend to bring about any condemnation upon those who feel they must stay home at times when I would chose the opposite. We are all "wired" differently, even in the spiritual. In my own personal experience, church is always the last thing I "drop". It is not because I am the Assoc. Pastor´s wife, it is because I benefit from church. Throughout my life, even when I was "just one more face" in a crowd of thousands I have always been ministered to in the corporate setting. God has always spoken to me personally and directly through the Word preached from the altar. I have always found release, healing, and victory through corporate worship. I have witnessed the power of corporate prayer. I have been nurtured spiritually through the Word. During the most difficult and challenging times in my life, I have found God in church. I can still find Him at home, but there is something powerful about the congregation... about meeting with the faithful and pressing into the presence of God together.

So, on a day like today when I finally managed to go to sleep at 6.00 a.m., nursed all night long, and ended up with two little ones on the bed with us in order to be able to sleep a little after 6 the last thing my body wants to do is get up, get ready and get going. But on a day like today when I am so much more vulnerable than ever to find reasons to feel sorry for myself, church will be the very last thing I´ll drop! In the altar I was refreshed, worship reminded me that I am so very blessed and the Word encouraged me to find the rest of the Lord!

Another quick one...

Let's see... it has been exactly one week and I could write very long about my week but I'll summarize it for you in a few highlights and pics.

• Came home on Monday

• Have enjoyed the most wonderful variety of fabulous meals. What a blessing to have a church family!

• Tuesday, while enjoying a great dinner we were all sitting at the table. Most of us eating and one tiny one nursing =0) Ben was opening the bottle of hot sauce to add to his meal and when he opened the bottle it shot a squirt of hot sauce straight in Elena's face. Now, luckily it was on the side of her head, part of her cheek and her ear, but knowing how hot that sauce was chaos broke loose! I had a nursing baby on my lap and couldn't really move fast enough; my mom was trapped between the table and the wall so her reaction was hindered as well. Ben rushed to get her and tried to start cleaning it off in the kitchen sink. The whole thing got Elena startled and, sure enough, she rubbed her eye! Next thing you know, nursing baby was quickly released into "Pita's" (Elena's name for my mom) arms and Papi and Elena were under the shower as we tried to flush the stuff off her eye. It was quite an ordeal but we calmed her (and ourselves) down and the meal was too good to not go back to it (thanks Maureen!).

• I feel like I've been nursing 23 hours a day and only managed 10 minutes of sleep!

• Elena is so sweet to her little sister! We are so blessed to see such a loving attitude towards her as so many changes have been happening. It is so wonderful to see them together and realize how much Elena has grown and now fills the hat of "big sister".

• Today, our downstairs apartment has been vacated and we are ready to move in! Tomorrow I'll walk the place writing a list of all the cleaning that needs to be done and hopefully recruit the help of some friends who have kindly offered their time for a cleaning day this week. Ben has begun to evaluate the opening of the wall/doorway to connect both apartments and we are looking forward to moving our living areas down there ASAP... it is so much cooler down there and just having the added space will also give us a sense of freshness and feel most definitely cooler!

Off to try to get some rest! Once again, I´m having problems with the posting of pics. I don´t know why, but my time here now is too limited to try to figure it out... sorry, I´ll try again later!

A new family...

We are home! After the longest imaginable "first stage" of labor, the rest of it went pretty quickly. We arrived at the hospital with contractions every 3 to 5 minutes at 4 p.m. By 6 p.m. I didn´t want to leave the tub as contractions were almost a minute apart. Now considering my first experience (8 hours of "transition"), that didn´t necessarily stroke me as good news. However, our nurse came in with the news that my doctor was there and was offering to examine me and, if everything was ok, go ahead and break my water. Everything was good and perfect, water was broken at around 7 p.m. and Adriana saw the light at 7.30 p.m.! I´ll post more later but thought you might enjoy a few more pics.

First pictures as a Family...

I meant to post more pics. but, as it is, it has already taken me a day to manage to upload these two... Sorry... will try later!

She has arrived!

Adriana Hope Levendusky
7/22/2006
7 pounds, 4 ounces
18.5 inches

All is well with mom and baby!

- Ben

Not here yet...

Our baby, that is... as you all know, my due date was on Monday and we're still counting days. I'm at peace, though, at least as much as I can be considering how hard it is to live normal life with such an impending event! But I am learning and eager to "walk the line". I'm not trying to undermine the challenges of being "in-labor-but-not-really". I can't deny the challenges of having contractions on and off and wondering if this "bout" of contractions will finally kick things into high gear and going to bed just to wake up later and realize that "we're still here". However, I don't want to walk through this aimless and hopelessly feeling sorry for myself and the overall discomfort I face. I know that He has a reason for everything and I so much want to grasp everything there is in this process to draw me closer to Him. I have learned so much of His love through the love of those around me from my husband and my mom to everyone at church. Everyone has been so gracious and supportive. We haven't had to cook a meal for the past couple days as people are already bringing us food. As eager as I am to meet this little person I don't want to rush the process God is using to make me grow. I will continue to update you as I am able to do and soon enough you'll hear the news!

News reports

This will most surely be my last posting until after the baby is born. I will be 40 weeks tomorrow and I can definitely tell that things will "kick in" sooner than later though, as you may know, there is no telling exactly when. So our bags are packed and we´re ready to go but we are making the most of the last moments/days of this pregnancy as well.

Friday night, my mom and I were settling for a night of P&P and Ben was leaving for youth group. About five minutes after he had gone, I heard him coming back up the stairs carrying something... Much to our delight, this is what had just been delivered:

We were thrilled! Thank you, you, and you! What a wonderful and precious gift to bless this baby with! I love you!

It turns out that all the time I had been going on and on about not having yet a bassinet, my husband was in on the surprise and this moses basket was being expected! Now we are indeed ready for this baby to come!

To add to our news, our downstairs neighbors have found an apartment to move into and will be moved out by Aug. 01. Now, I was hoping to have this happened before the baby came, but once we knew it was going to take them a bit longer I had resigned myself to the idea of not having the apartament available until after mid August.

Now, as I said earlier, I won´t be posting anymore until our new baby comes. Please keep us in your prayers as it could be anything from a few hours to a few days for the arrival! I will try to post as soon as we have news!

One more week

We've made it one more week. My mom arrives tonight and I'm happy and excited. It will be hard to be all crammed up in this little apartment but we will make it work. Our downstairs neighbors haven't found a place to move yet so in a week or two it will be five of us in this little space. My gracious husband has been so understanding of my culture, our need of proximity and the loss of privacy that comes with the territory! I know for a fact not everyone would understand, let alone appreciate having their mother-in-law move in for such extended periods of time. Guatemalan people don't know about doulas, it is usually customary for one of the mothers to move in with the new family to help with the new baby and all the household tasks. When this doesn't happen, it is usually because they live close enough to each other that mom shows up on a daily basis. Blending in the privacy of my husband's culture with the lack thereof of mine has been interesting. But as many other things we have faced in creating our own "home" culture we work at it one day at a time and understand that God is in the midst of the making of our home.

At any rate, we will continue to keep you posted about our new little Levendusky timely!

Quick Update

For those of you whose only means of information about our family is this space in the web and who are wondering about us, let me update you: we don't have a baby yet, I am still very pregnant and we expect to stay like this for at least one more week. My due date is not until the 17th and the doctor has warned me not to be surprised if we go a couple days later because all along this baby seems to be smaller than their "age". We are happily enjoying these last few days. VBS is obviously over, the Mexico team is half way through their trip and my mom is expected to arrive on Monday night. Some pics. for your enjoyment (hopefully)

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Para aquéllos cuyo único medio de información de nuestra familia es este espacio en la red y que se están preguntando cómo estamos, déjenme actualizarlos: todavía no tenemos bebé, todavía estoy esperando y "esperamos" permanecer asi por lo menos una semana más. Mi fecha estimada para dar a luz es el 17 y el doctor me ha advertido no sorprenderme si nos pasamos un par de días porque este/a bebé parece estar un poco más pequeño que su "edad". Estamos felizmente disfrutando de estos últimos días. Obviamente la Escuela Bíblica de Vacaciones ya termino, el equipo que viajó a México está a medio viaje y mi mamá viene el lunes en la noche. Le pongo unas fotos para que disfruten (ojalá)

Our little girl...

Nuestra niñita...

This is our doctor...

Este es nuestro doctor...

My husband as he was dressed up as a firefighter during VBS...

Mi esposo vestido de bombero para la escuela de vacaciones...

In the process of being dressed up...

En el proceso de disfrazarlo...

38 weeks pregnant...

38 semanas de embarazo...

En la recta final... (Please scroll down for English)

Estamos en plena Escuela Bíblica de Vacaciones y ha sido todo un éxito pero demanda mucho de nosotros. No estoy involucrada de manera que requiera que esté allí todo el tiempo, pero Ben si tiene que estar allí todo el tiempo y si nosotras no nos le pegamos y tratamos de estar donde él esté casi no lo vemos. Asi que tratamos de mantener el ritmo con él tanto como podemos dado que estoy en la semana 37 de este embarazo. Aunque no hay razón alguna para pensar que voy a tener al bebé antes de tiempo, puedo sentir que mi cuerpo se está preparando para el trabajo de parto. Asi que hoy, Elena y yo nos perdimos de la Escuelita y nos quedamos en casa a "descansar". Mientras hice todo intento posible de ignorar todo lo que había que hacer para poder descansar estuve pensando en el inminente acontecimiento. No puedo decir que estoy ansiosa de llegar a la hora del parto (es decir del trabajo de parto en sí mismo)... Estoy MUY ansiosa de conocer a esta personita, de averiguar si es niño o niña, ver su carita, tenerlo/a en mis brazos y recibirlo/a en nuestras vidas. Sin embargo el trabajo de parto es esa "zona nebulosa" que debo atravesar para poder llegar a tan deseado evento y mientras mi cuerpo se empieza a preparar para enfrentarlo me doy cuenta de que mi espíritu y mi corazón también necesitan estar listos. Mi cuerpo sabe por instinto qué hacer y lo hará con o sin mi ayuda, pero ese no es el caso con mi corazón y mi espíritu. A esos los tengo que preparar yo misma.

No tengo manera de controlar las circunstancias del trabajo de parto, es decir cuánto tiempo dure, cuándo empiece, etc. He aprendido que esas cosas están más allá de mi control y que mi Padre no permitirá en mi vida algo que no vaya a obrar para bien. Lo que sí puedo controlar es mi actitud... mi corazón y mi espíritu están sujetos a mí y a lo que yo escoja que los influya. La intensidad del dolor, la duración de las etapas, la hora a la que vaya al hospital y todos esos factores no tienen que determinar si tengo un trabajo de parto "bueno" o "malo". Ni siquiera deberían intimidarme o ponerme nerviosa o ansiosa. Viendo las cosas desde una perspectiva más grande hay tanto más que los días u horas que tendré que atravesar para permitir que esta pequeña vida vea la luz. De hecho, la Escuelita de Vacaciones me ha estado ayudando, aunque no lo crean... estos son los versículos de cada día:

• Lunes: "Asi que, como tenemos tal esperanza, actuamos con plena confianza." (2 Cor. 3:12) Pablo está hablando sobre nuestra esperanza de la gloria del Nuevo Pacto en comparación con la gloria del anterior. Permítanme, por favor, algo de libertad para aplicarlo en mi beneficio: Traer a un nuevo ser al mundo es un evento glorioso, sin embargo palidece ante la gloria del sacrificio perfecto que me ha dado vida eterna. Mi esperanza es en Él, en la vida gloriosa que Él me da y no puedo siquiera empezar a imaginarme lo que Él tuvo que sufrir para que yo tuviera esa vida. A la luz de eso, ¿cómo puede ser mi trabajo de parto intolerable? ¿Cómo puede mi "sacrificio" para dar a luz y luego nutrir a este bebé durante noches y días interminables siquiera compararse con Su máximo sacrificio por mí? ¡Debo tener plena confianza porque tengo tal esperanza!
• Martes: "Dios hacía milagros extraordinarios por medio de Pablo" (Hechos 19:11) Mi Dios es el mismo Dios que Pablo tenía y Él ha escogido hacer un milargo extraordinario a través de estas vasijas. ¡Dios permitió que Su poder creador se ejerciera a través nuestro para traer una nueva vida! Él es el creador de la vida y solamente Él sabe por qué el proceso puede ser tan insoportable pero, ¡yo sé que Él sabe mucho más que yo y está haciendo un milagro extraordinario a través mío!
• Miércoles: "El Dios al que servimos puede librarnos." (Daniel 3:17) Una vez más, Él se asegurará de que logre hacerlo, independientemente de cuán largo sea el proceso.

La semana todavía no se termina y a mí todavía me quedan unas cuantas semanas más de embarazo, pero si Él me ama (yo sé que sí me ama) y si creo que Él nos da la gracia que necesitamos para cada día (cosa que creo con todo mi corazón) entonces, ¡sólo me queda no perder mi enfoque!

The Last Stretch

We´re in the middle of VBS and it has been very successful, but it is very demanding. I am not involved in a way that requires me to be there all the time, but it does demand a lot of time from Ben and if we don´t tag along and try to be where he is we barely see him. So we try to keep up as much as we can given that I am on the 37th week of this pregnancy. Though there is no indication that I may go early, I can tell my body is gearing up for labor. So today, Elena and I missed VBS and stayed home to "rest". As I purposedly ignored all that needed to be done so I could actually get some rest I kept thinking about the imminent event. I can´t say I am looking forward to it ("it" being labor in and of itself)... I AM very much looking forward to meeting this little person, finding out whether it´s a boy or a girl, seeing their little face, holding them and welcoming them into our lives. Yet labor is that "twilight zone" I must go through to get to the desired event and as my body starts warming up for it I realize my spirit and my heart need to be ready as well. Now, my body instinctively knows what to do and will do it with or without my prompting but that is not the case with my heart and spirit. Those I do need to prompt and prepare myself.

I have no way of controlling the circumstances of labor, that is, how long it will be, when it will start, etc. I have learned that those things are beyond my control and that my Father will not allow in my life something that will not work for good. What I can control though is my attitude towards it... my heart and my spirit are subject to me and whatever I choose to let them be influenced by. The intensity of the pain, the length of the stages, the time I go to the hospital and all those factors do not have to determine if I have a "good" or "bad" labor. They shouldn´t even intimidate me or make me nervous or anxious about it. In the greater scheme of things there is so much more than the days or hours I will have to endure to allow this little life to see the light. Actually, VBS has been helping me, believe it or not... these have been the daily verses for VBS:

• Monday: "Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold." (2 Cor. 3:12) Paul is talking about our hope for the glory of the new covenant in comparison to the glory of the previous one. Please, allow me some freedom in applying it to my own benefit: Bringing a new being into this world is a glorious event yet it fades away in the glory of the perfect sacrifice that brought me everlasting life. My hope is in Him, in the glorious life He gives me and I can´t even begin to imagine what He endured for me to have such life. In that light, can my labor be too unbearable? Can my "sacrifice" in giving birth and then mothering this baby through endless days and nights remotely begin to compare to His ultimate sacrifice for me? I must be bold for I have such a hope!
• Tuesday: "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul" (Acts 19:11) My God is the same God that Paul had and He has chosen to perform an extraordinary miracle through these vessels. He allowed for His creative power to be executed through us to bring about a life! He is the creator of life and He only knows why the process can be so excrutiating but I know that He does know so much more than I do and He is doing an extraordinary micracle through me!
• Wednesday: "The God we serve is able to save us, and He will rescue us" (Daniel 3:17) Once again, He WILL see me through, regardless of how long the process!

The week is not over and I still have a few more weeks to go, but if He loves me (which I know He does) and if I believe that He gives us grace for each day (which I do believe) then I just need to stay focused!

pictures

Check out our flickr for new pics.

Revisen nuestro sitio en flickr para ver fotos recientes.

Feet

Ben took Elena for a walk yesterday as he has been doing lately. We put her on the back pack carrier we got him for father's day and they walk up to Mom and Dad L's. Once they get there they call me and I go pick them up. We visit with them for a little while and then we come back home. Don't ask me why, I didn't put any shoes on her yesterday. I guess because I wasn't expecting her to walk herself but just to ride along her Papi's back. Long story short, once at Mom and Dad's she wanted to go outside and play. It may not be a big deal to the normal, regular, northern New Yorker but as it turns out it is a dilemma for me. Since I want to bless my daughter and there was no justified reason to keep her from enjoying the outdoors I allowed her to go out on her bare little feet and she had a blast, but as we were wiping her feet to strap her back in the van and get going I began to think about my peeve. Dirty feet bother me. It's that simple.

As a little girl I would long to get muddy and dirty but would never handle to stay like that for too long. Soon after the fun was over I'd head into the house and either shower or wash my feet. You will hardly ever find me walking barefeet even in my own apartament. I can't stand dust or dirt, wet or dry and I most definitely can't walk on grass. Consequently, my family's feet need to follow my own personal standards.

Be it because I am a "city girl" or because I am a Guatemalan or simply because I am particular about certain things (say OCD), for as long as I remember feet speak about their "bearer" as do hands and overall appearance. For some reason dirty feet have always spoken to me about negligence, carelessness and even a lack of self respect. Relax, though, before you start thinking that every time I see you I'm trying to judge your feet... I've come a long way. First of all I know that now I live in the country and everything is more laid back, and then, even if it weren't it is none of my business to decide what kind of person you are because you happen to have enjoyed feeling the grass between your toes! It would be as unfair as you expecting me to do it just because you do. At any rate, all that to say I would never stop my children from enjoying their environment just because of a foolish peeve, but I will make sure those little feet are clean as immediately as possible!

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Ben llevó a Elena en su caminata como ha estado haciéndolo últimamente. La ponemos en el cargador-mochila que le regalamos para el día del Padre y se van caminando hasta la casa de mis suegros. Una vez allí, me llaman y yo voy a recogerlos. Visitamos a mis suegros unos minutos y luego volvemos a casa. No me pregunten por qué, pero ayer no le puse zapatos a Elena. Supongo que porque ella no iba a caminar sino sólo a dar el paseo en la espalda de Papi. Para no hacer muy larga la historia, una vez donde mis suegros ella quería salir a jugar afuera. Para el neoyorquino del norte común y corriente esto no es fuera de lo común pero sí resulta ser un dilema para mí. Dado que quería bendecir a mi hija y que no tenía una razón justificada para no permitirle salir a jugar, le permití salir a jugar con sus piecitos descalzos y ella se lo disfrutó al máximo pero mientras le limpiábamos los pies para meterla al carro me puse a pensar en la razón de mi molestia. Los pies sucios me molestan. Es así de simple.

De pequeña anhelaba meterme en el lodo y en charcos pero nunca aguanté estar así mucho tiempo. Tan pronto como se terminaba la diversión me iba a bañar o al menos a lavar los pies. Difícilmente me encontrarán caminando descalza aún en mi propio apartamento. No aguanto tener polvo o tierra, seco o mojado en los pies y definitivamente no puedo caminar sobre la grama. En consecuencia, los pies de mi familia deben seguir los mismos estándares.

Será porque soy citadina, porque soy guatemalteca o sencillamente porque soy peculiar sobre ciertas cosas (o quizás Obsesivo-compulsiva) pero desde que tengo memoria los pies hablan de sus "portadores" tanto como las manos o la apariencia en general. Por alguna razón cuando alguien tiene los pies sucios me sugiere dejadez, descuido y hasta falta de respeto hacia sí mismos. Pero no se me achicopalen, antes de que empiecen a pensar que cada vez que los veo les juzgo los pies... he madurado mucho! Primero que nada, sé que ahora vivo en un ambiente más campestre y que todo es más relajado, y de todas formas, si no fuera asi, ¡no es asunto mío decidir qué tipo de persona es cada quien porque disfruten de sentir la grama entre los dedos de los pies! Sería tan injusto de mi parte como sería que ustedes esperaran que yo disfrutara caminar descalza en la tierra sólo porque uds. lo disfrutan. De cualquier modo, luego de todo esto, no pienso detener a mis hijos de disfrutar de lo que los rodea por una tonta molestia mía, ¡pero sí me voy a asegurar de que esos piecitos se limpien inmediatamente!

Days like today...

I find that days like today are a little hard to handle for me. I get up with the idea of all the things I want to accomplish in this little space we call "home" and end up quite disappointed when I realize my plans were more ambitious than my body would perform. I find it encouraging though, to realize that I am not the only one who deals with these kinds of days as there are friends who struggle with similar situations. Yes, I am particular about the way I´d like things to look around here and it has been a while since I managed to get them that way. I like my sinks, tub and toilett to --literally--shine... no, they´re not. I like to go into a room and have it smell clean... no, they´re not. I dislike, very much to have dirty dishes in the sink, especially since that is the first thing anyone who comes in sees, more often than not there are dirty dishes in the sink, on the ctove top and on the counter. And though I find it hard to be a happy person when I haven´t accomplished to have my house looking the way I want, I am making myself learn to live with it. My list for today? It was:

• clean the living room floor
• bring the twin bed in
• run a few loads of laundry
• clean the tub
• clean the bathroom and kitchen floors
• re-organize clothes in the bedroom to bring out newborn clothes
• plus the usual daily running of the apartament
• etc.

What did I accomplish? Well, the bed is in and that would be pretty much it. My back was hurting to much to manage doing much more... oh well.

"Yapping"

There are so many things going through my mind lately and I don't seem to be able to put my thoughts in order, so bear with me while I just "yap" my way through this entry...

• It is funny how sometimes I seem to forget how good a "real" shower can be, especially at this stage of pregnancy! Twice this week Ben has been home and I have gone in the shower without having a little one toddling in the bathroom, wanting to get in with me or without having to come out quickly before she gets into trouble. Needless to say, I took a very, very, very long shower!!!
• We bought a dresser (hooray!) no bassinet yet, but as soon as we bring this dresser home I'll at least be able to start figuring out how to organize our clothes in the room and open space for the newborn clothes.
• Mom L. has offered to give us a twin bed that we will be bringing in soon to accomodate my mom who is scheduled to come on July 10th.
• I am now a "Permanent Resident" of the U.S. (I was a resident before, but under a "conditional" status). This comes as a relief because we filed the paperwork in January, as required, 90 days before my conditional status expired. However this seemed to be a longer process and not knowing exactly what it would entail, we wanted to have it out of the way before the baby came. We were notified yesterday that our paperwork has been approved and already did everything else we needed to do so I am good to go.
• We found out I would be elegible to start the naturalization process in January 2007 if we want to. The naturalization process is what one needs to do in order to become a citizen. This is a surprise because we thought all along I wouldn't be elegible until after 5 years of residency but it turns out that it is only after 3 years in my case. Still don't know if we'll do it right away, especially since it feels as though we just paid a lot of money to have to come up with another big check right away, but it is good to know we have done everything right.

I guess that about sums up some of my mind's latest ramblings...

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Tengo tantas cosas en la mente últimamente y no parece que logre ordenar mis pensamientos, asi que tendrán que tenerme paciencia mientras hablo de todo un poco en este blog...

• Es gracioso que a veces se me olvida lo bueno que puede ser un buen baño, es decir, uno de verdad, especialmente a estas alturas del embarazo. Dos veces esta semana Ben estaba en casa y me he podido bañar sin tener que controlar a una niñita que está traveseando lo que encuentra en el baño, tratando de meterse en la regadera conmigo o sin tener que salirme rápido para que no se meta en problemas. ¡No hace falta decir que me tome todo el tiempo del mundo!
• Compramos un gabetero (¡yey!!!), todavía no tenemos cunita de recién nacido pero tan pronto tengamos el gabetero en casa, podré empezar a organizar la ropa de manera que pueda abrirle espacio a la ropa de recién nacido.
• Mi suegra nos ofreció una cama imperial que tiene en su casa y que estaremos ubicando para recibir a mi mamá que está por venir el 10 de julio.
• Ahora soy "Residente Permanente" de los E.U. todo este tiempo había sido "Residente Condicional". Esto viene a ser un alivio pues metimos toda la papelería como correspondía en enero, 90 días antes de que se venciera mi estatus condicional. Sin embargo este fue un proceso más largo y puesto que no sabíamos exactamente qué se requeriría, queríamos tenerlo finalizado antes de que nazca el bebé. Ayer recibimos la notificación de la aprobación de la papelería asi que de una vez hicimos lo que necesitábamos hacer para terminarlo todo de una vez.
• Nos enteramos ayer que en enero de 2007 seré elegible para echar a andar el proceso de naturalización. El proceso de naturalización es lo que uno necesita hacer si quiere hacerse ciudadano de este país. Nos sorprendió porque todo este tiempo pensamos que necesitaba ser residente 5 años antes de ser elegible, pero resulta que en mi caso sólo son tres años. No sabemos todavía si lo haremos inmediatamente pues sentimos que recién acabamos de pagar un montón de dinero por este trámite como para ahora tener que sacarnos otro cheque de la manga para este otro, pero es bueno saber que hemos hecho todo bien.

Al momento estas son todas las cosas que ocupan mi mente...

94 years!!!

With tiny little eyes that can´t see very well but have seen decades of history go by and silver threads that could tell countless stories of a lifetime she reached her 94th birthday this week. Happy Birthday Mamita!
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Con pequeños ojos que ya no ven bien pero que han visto pasar décadas de historia y con hilos de plata que contarían historias sin fin de toda una vida, alcanzó su cumpleaños no. 94 esta semana. ¡Feliz cumpleaños Mamita!

What do you do?

For those who don´t know, we have been looking into buying the apartment house we have been living in for the past year. It has four apartments of which we´ve been renting one of the upstairs apartments. Now, of course, one of the reasons we began looking into acquiring some property was so that we could expand and have at least one more bedroom for Elena and the new baby. We realized it was a great idea to join together two of the apartments and it just so happens that it can very conveniently be done by opening a doorway downstairs thus communicating our current upstairs apartment with one downstairs. In doing this we´ll be able to take out this kitchen, turn it into a family room and opening up the "living room" to turn into a big kids´ bedroom. Downstairs we´ll have an eat-in kitchen, a living room, bathroom and though we will be giving up a bedroom with the opening of the doorway, we still can use the space for office or sitting space and we still have a small room that we will leave for a guest room. Now all of this has looked awesome as we´ve planned and dreamed about it but as we have "gotten the ball rolling" our neighbors have been notified of the upcoming change and we have had to do the unthinkable... we needed to evict one of the downstairs apartments. And so, today my dear husband stumbled upon the neighbor in question who has been given the "heads up". Of course, we haven´t "officially" evicted them and as of now we aren´t expecting them to leave until August 01 but as excited as we are for the prospect and possibilities of expanding into the new space we feel awful for having had to ask them to leave. Please help us pray that they will soon find the most awesome and perfect abode!

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Para quienes no lo saben, hemos estado viendo las posibilidades de comprar esta casa en donde hemos estado alquilando un apartamento por poco más de un año. Una de las razones por las que empezamos a considerar adquirir una propiedad es la necesidad que tenemos de espacio para poder tener por lo menos un cuarto más para Elena y el bebé. Nos dimos cuenta de que era una muy buena idea juntar dos apartamentos y resulta que sale muy conveniente abrir una entrada abajo para unir nuestro apartamento y uno de los del primer piso. Al hace esto, vamos a sacar la cocina de aquí y convertir el espacio en sala familiar, y podremos convertir la "sala" de aqui en un cuarto para los niños. Abajo tendremos una cocina-comedor, sala, baño y, aunque vamos a perder un dormitorio con la apertura de esa entrada, todavía podremos usar ese espacio para una oficina o salita y nos queda un dormitorio pequeño que usaremos para visitas. Todo esto se ve fabuloso mientras lo hemos ido planeando pero al echar a andar los planes nuestros vecinos ya fueron informados de los próximos cambios y eso nos lleva a nosotros a hacer lo impensable... necesitamos desalojar uno de los apartamentos de abajo. Y es así como hoy, mi dulce esposo, se encontró con el vecino en cuestión y le tuvo que "anticipar" los planes. Por supuesto, no los hemos desalojado "oficialmente" y no esperamos que se vayan antes del 01 de agosto pero mientras nos entusiasma mucho ver las posibilidades que tendremos delante nos sentimos horriblemente de tener que sacarlos. ¡Por favor ayúdennos a orar para que ellos encuentren pronto el más fabuloso y sorprendente lugar para ellos!

Nesting?

I´m 6 weeks away from my due date and God-only-knows how far away from getting to meet this new little person. We still don´t have a few things that I´d really like to have right now, nor have we taken care of other things that I´d very much like to see taken care of sooner than later, but I am resting assured in God´s perfect timing. Yesterday we went out to shop for a few needed things and we finally found a bassinet that we liked... we didn´t buy it. Don´t ask me why, we just didn´t seem to be able to decide to buy it so we don´t have it. I´ve cleared the space for it in the room quite a few times and it inevitably gets cluttered again. I haven´t even thought of unburying from out of our closet all the newborn clothes because we don´t really have any room for them and I haven´t figured out what we will do to make it work. I know I still have a little over a month but I guess that nesting instinct is kicking in because I seem to have this urgency to get things done... even things that we hadn´t considered doing are suddenly becoming so important and urgent to me. Oh well, there will be time for all those things at some point, I´m sure!

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Estoy más o menos a 6 semanas de mi fecha estimada de parto y sólo Dios sabe a cuánto tiempo exactamente de conocer a esta nueva personita. Todavía no tenemos unas cuantas cosas que realmente quisiera tener, tampoco hemos terminado otras tantas que quiero terminar lo más pronto posible pero estoy descansando confiada en el tiempo perfecto de Dios. Ayer fuimos a comprar unas cosas que necesitábamos y finalmente encontramos una cunita de recién nacido que nos gustó... no la compramos. No me pregunten por qué, pero por alguna razón no pudimos tomar la decisión de comprarla asi que no la tenemos. He ordenado el cuarto y desocupado el espacio donde deberá ir tantas veces e inevitablemente termina otra vez lleno de chunches. Ni siquiera he pensado en desenterrar la ropita de recién nacido de nuestro closet porque realmente no tenemos espacio para ponerla y todavía no se me ha ocurrido qué hacer para solucionarlo. Sé que todavía tengo poco más de un mes pero creo que el instinto de "anidar" me está pegando fuerte porque súbitamente tengo esta urgencia de terminar cosas... tengo urgencia hasta de hacer cosas que ni siquiera habíamos considerado pero que de repente me urge hacer. En fin... ¡No dudo que tendremos tiempo para todo eso en algún momento!

A mix?

If you combine this little boy (center, of course!)















With this little girl...






















This is the result!

What do you think?

Memorial Day

Well, our Memorial Day was interesting... We decided to have breakfast at the Coffee Cabin and then set up our chairs on the curb to watch the "parade". It took us about 40 minutes to get ready to leave. Then it was about 20 to get there. We took our time with breakfast, so that was maybe about 35 mins. We sat to watch the parade and it didn´t last more than 10 or 15 minutes!!! It was the shortest parade ever!!! Oh well, we still had fun. Enjoy some pics.!

Our pensive little girl waiting for her breakfast.

Una nena pensativa esperando su desayuno.

Elena and Abby enjoyed the short lived event.

Elena y Abby disfrutaron del pequeño desfile.


We watched the parade with the Moores.

Vimos el desfile con los Moore.

The front of the Coffee Cabin, Jeremy & Dee´s new endeavor.

El frente de la cafetería de Jeremy & Dee.