And Two Weeks Later

So I made it to 37 weeks and I think I learned a lot just putzing around my house. I certainly relinquished control over many things in my daily life and put my trust in Carl. I was even ready for him to buy the playpen and pick my diaper bag. Well, as it turned out, we were able to do that together.

I read some good books (Everything Must Change and Blue Parakeet....I'll blog about those insights later) and thoroughly enjoyed the Advent Readings put out by FPU.

I can't remember the last time I cooked or washed dishes and instead of feeling this woman-guilt, I embraced my new role as the 1950's husband and let Carl, in his new role as '50's wife, do everything!

And I realized that there are so many things out of control in life and worrying about them doesn't add one moment of peace to your life. I'm still trying to let go of work issues, but for the most part, Estoy Tranquila. That's my motto. Because only God knows when this lil' chica will show up and in fact I'm quite fascinated with the whole biology of it all. She'll know when she's ready, hormones are released, and that sets in motion labour for me. I don't even get to decide. My body doesn't get to decide.

I have a thing for numbers so a birthdate of 01/01/11 would be kind of cool or 01/11/11 would be neat. Or even at the 11th hour. There again, do I actually have control over that? Sheesh. But I'm just stating my preference if anyone out there could take note.

So I'm enjoying the days and kind of anticipating the nights with mixed emotions (that's when I've always gone into labour before so.....). I just have two more things on my list that I would like to do, but Carl said if they don't get done, it's not the end of the world. I got the maternity shots taken on Christmas Eve (once we get them, I'll post pictures), my bag is packed, and we have more than paper towel to wrap this kid in.

I'm going to sit and enjoy these last days. For why wish away this awesome miracle, carrying around another human being inside you? Fully formed, heart beating, encased within me. Gosh, what an amazing privilege.....

Glimpse of Summer Christmas

This year, Christmas was made possible by my lovely and hardworking husband, since I had to take it easy. Well, he did ALL the shopping, made ALL the desserts for the dinners we went to, took care of taking the kids to their programs.....this guy is amazing.

On the 23rd, our church had their Christmas program. Since our sanctuary is on the 2nd floor and it was advised I not hike up stairs, Carl told me that I should stay home. "Don't worry, I'll video tape and take pictures". The kids gave me a pre-concert concert and did really well singing their song for the program.

On the 24th, I saved up all my energy so that I could accompany my family to the candlelight service at the English Church (there's no stairs!). I really enjoyed singing carols and hearing all the familiar special music. At 9:00 we came home, rested for an hour, and then headed out again.

We had been invited to our good friends, Ramiro and Yuneth's house for Christmas dinner at midnight. It's the tradition here and we were so excited to be able to join them and their extended family and friends. We arrived at 10:30 to a huge feast of food and then around 11:30, we started lighting off the fireworks and firecrackers. It's unbelievable if you stop and listen to a city of 1.6 million, all lighting off some type of firecracker. The sound is SO loud, and the sky looks like Kabul Afghanistan. Their poor dog just about went ballistic with the rockets being set off only feet from him, that he broke his chain, and attacked the rocket as it was just about to shoot off. Oops, uh, maybe we should have tied the dog somewhere else!

At midnight, everyone paused to give hugs, kisses, and blessings on Christmas Day. It was special to greet in the day right at 12:00.

We stayed until 1 a.m., until the toasts had been given at the table, to take our weary but very happy selves home.

Everyone slept in until 10:00 on Christmas morn, when we had a simple breakfast and got ready for our family Christmas. Joel read the Christmas story this year, we prayed, and then we opened up all the gifts (well, I guess I did one thing this year, I did wrap some of the presents at least). The kids were very happy with their simple gifts and played with them until 1 p.m.

Then we joined many other MCCers at Liz and Ramont's place for lunch. It was a potluck feast, featuring Carl's famous cream pies. We ate and visited and laughed together and by late afternoon, I was completely spent. We all went to bed early that night and did almost nothing on Boxing Day. There aren't any sales on Boxing Day here!

p.s. be patient for the pictures to load; there are about 15 of them!

Decorating for the Season

We decorated shortly after Kezia's birthday, but I just thought I would share these pictures with you now.

May you and your family have joy and peace as you relish in the beautiful gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

First Piano Recital

Joel has been taking piano lessons since May and has really enjoyed them. As soon as he mentioned that he would like to take music lessons, I enrolled him the next day! His teacher says that he has really good rhythm and is learning theory quicker than expected. Well, the musical gift does run in the family! I'm glad that he has discovered the joy of music.

He had his year end concert last week and we were super proud of him.

35 Weeks and Stuck at Home

Last week, I went to the Dra. for a routine visit on my 35th week. My other Dra. and friend (who is studying to be a midwife) was also there. We 4 were all in a pretty jovial mood, even though two of us had had a pretty rough day.

So Dra. Jenny takes my blood pressure. Everything's fine.
And then checks my heart. Good.
Then weighs me. Good, a little gain.
Then lays me down to check the heartbeat of the baby. Steady and strong.

As she is checking the position of the baby, it becomes obvious that she is head down. Yup, good sign. But her head is waaayyy down and she's in perfect position to be born. The other two check and all agree it's pretty low for 35 weeks. Totally engaged, way ahead of schedule.

!!

Wasn't I just saying that Heppner babies come late? But then I did mention to Dra. Jenny that I was having dreams about giving birth early and running to the hospital. Then when she was born and the nurses asked us for the outfit (you provide the clothes), we had nothing. And in my dream, Carl ran to the bathroom and got some paper towel to wrap her in.

I thought the dream was slightly amusing. My Dra. didn't; she sees these things as signs. She told me that I should go home, make sure I have something put together in a bag and not walk around or do stairs. "Let's see if we can make it beyond 37 weeks. Things get complicated if she comes before that".

Can't really wrap my mind around that though. On one hand, I feel slightly jolted from my plans for the next 5 weeks. But more, I'm concerned that she's not going to be healthy or okay. If I go into labour too soon, I have to go the other hospital and who knows what will happen there; crazy unknown.

It's not like I'm on complete bed rest, but I probably won't be traipsing around the market Christmas shopping. I'll be at home, catching up on Friends episodes and all the books that I've been hoping to read. I'll send Carl out for fabric so I can sew, lists of Christmas gifts to buy, all while being home with three kids. Thankfully, they are super helpful children. God has blessed us with helping hands, that's for sure.

Sigh.....

I think I need to keep myself busy so that I'm not constantly thinking if my uterus is contracting. I'm praying a lot, and I talk to my baby and ask her not to come too soon. It's safer and better to stay inside.

Colony Visit

Right after our marvelous trip to Sucre, we re-packed and headed 4 hours north of Santa Cruz, waaayyyy up into the campo. We were going to visit an old friend that I happened to re-connect with.

See, as a teenager, I lived in a small remote lil' town in northern Alberta, where most of the people in the town were ethnic Mennonites. Most were quite conservative, but nonetheless amazing people. I loved living there. When I was in grade 11, a friend of mine, Helen and her family, moved away to live on a colony in Bolivia. And that was the last I saw of her.

I had heard a number of years later that she married a fellow, but who, no one seemed to remember the name.

So when we moved here in 2008, I decided I would try and locate her. Hmmm.....there are 50,000 colony Mennonites on 63 colonies and all I had was her maiden name and maybe her husband's name? I put the word out last year to the Centro Menno staff that if a Helen ______ came in that they should call me at the other office and I'd come over and see if it was the Helen I knew. Months passed and I sort of thought it was a needle in a haystack. Her name was pretty common and really, it's like trying to find John Smith in New York.

But one day I got a call and lo! and behold, it was Helen. We were so happy to see each other and couldn't believe that we re-connected. After a bit of a conversation, she told me that I just had to come to her home and visit her and her family.

And that's just what we did. Oh, we had a great time with them. Jake and Helen are such hospitable folks and their 5 children were just great. Our kids had a blast going to help with chores at 6 a.m. for milking and collecting eggs. They got to ride the quad and have horseback rides. Joel was happy as a lark helping with the construction of their new house, and the highlight for Kezia was helping make donuts and werenicki.

We enjoyed our 4 relaxing days with them out in the country, visiting other folk and going for rides among the rice fields. Definitely it'll be a visit that we'll do again soon.

34 Weeks/Baby Shower

This month, my pose is a little different!

Friends that I met at school, were so thoughtful and threw us a baby shower. I told them that normally in our culture, we only have a baby shower for the first baby. They thought that was so sad that the next ones wouldn't get anything special and I told them, "Oh yes, they get gifts", but they interrupted me and said, "But they don't get a party!"



Here's Rebeca, Luz, Cris, Susi, Julie, Charis and Me.



A little generous on the size, don't you think Carl?



Julie and I

Luz hosted the party at her house and we enjoyed good food and funny games. One of the games was if I couldn't guess the gift before I opened it, the giver got to draw on my belly. Well, everyone knows that you can't tell the difference between a onesie and a sleeper in a box, so everyone had their make up pens poised even before I guessed.







It was a special evening to be blessed with such generous and kind friends. Our lil' gal is going to be sporting some pretty cool onesies!

Sucre

At the end of November, we took a family holiday to Sucre. It is the historical capital of Bolivia, and dubbed the white city. We enjoyed 6 amazing and relaxing days there and Joel mentioned a number of times that we should live there.

It was great to have time together as a family and enjoy the cooler temperatures of Sucre. Some of the things we did were:

*Go to the museum of etho/folklore art. Here is where we saw some pretty amazing masks for carnival dances and where Asha was slightly traumatized
*We enjoyed the dinosaur park, where the largest amount of dinosaur prints were found by the local cement company and where Asha was even more traumatized by the lifesize figures with sounds coming from them.
*We went to the Casa de Libertad where we saw the Declaration of Independence, an amazing parliament room, and where Joel suggested we pose with Simon Bolivar's large head
*We went to the Recoleta, which boasts the most beautiful view of Sucre, has the largest/oldest Cedar in the monastery garden and where Kezia got to stand on the spot where one of Bolivia's presidents was assasinated.
*Off we went to the Parque Simon Bolivia, with the replica of the Eiffel Tower. This park had the coolest play structures for Joel to climb!
*The kids thought the textile museum was pretty interesting, especially being able to see the women weave.
*We enjoyed an amazing concert featuring dances from all over Bolivia. Kezia was enraptured for the 3 hours as we sat in the most beautiful concert hall
*Unfortunately, we could only see the outside of Glorieta Castle since we arrived 5 minutes after the last tour started....but there was a hail storm, which Asha had never experienced
*We traveled one hour to the small town of Tarabuco and enjoyed the market, but not so much the aggressive salespeople.

It was definitely a great family trip. We learned a great deal about the history of Bolivia, ate great chocolate, and just had a wonderful time together.

6 on the 6th

December 6th was Kezia's magic birthday. Why? Well, she turned 6 on the 6th, so it was a pretty special day.

I find it hard to think that she's 6 already. It's been a great year for our not-so-lil' gal and we're constantly amazed at who she is becoming.

This year she learned to read in both languages and now loves to read books to anyone who needs a good story.




She's grown about 4 inches!

Her gymnastics skill are something else; this year she's moved from artistic to rhythmic because she is very flexible and gifted in that area of gymnastics.

Kezia is a talented little artist. Her favourite subject in school is of course art, and she can spend hours drawing, making puppets or any other type of craft. She'll use whatever medium she can get her hands on; paper, cardboard, sticks, string, staples, even cloth.

She's decided this year that she's going to be a dentist by morning and an artist in the afternoon.



Kezia can swim under water.

She is a huge helper at home and sorts laundry, does dishes, and takes out the compost. Her favourite thing to help with is food preparation and baking. It's touching to see her help Asha around the house from lifting her up so she can see, to helping her get dressed. Even when the help isn't appreciated, she still does it.

We have discovered that she is the introvert of her siblings, but has definitely found her voice this year and can express her feelings more deeply. We have had some very interesting conversations about ethics of right and wrong, death, nutrition, and generosity.

I sometimes wish that she would grow just a little slower. I try and remember every day that the time goes by so fast and we need to take the time to find out what is mulling in this precious gals' heart and mind before she's grown and gone.

But she always reminds me that no matter how big she is, I'll always be her mom and she'll always be my little girl. We can't imagine life without her. She completes us.

Happy Birthday sweet Kezia. We love you so much!

Wedding Best

At the end of November, Kezia had the pleasure of being one of two flower girls for a wedding. We didn't really know the bride and groom even though they go to our church, but they had asked if Kezia would pair up with her friend Johanika (who is a flowergirl pro) to be in their wedding. Kezia was speechless with excitement. This has been her dream!

Johanika's mom, Lucy, is our pastor's wife and she too is pregnant with her fourth child. It must have been quite the sight as we both waddled down the market aisle two weeks before the wedding looking for fabric for the dresses and shoes to boot.

At the rehearsal the week before the wedding, it was evident the little girl that was supposed to carry the rings was not going to do the job. Try #1 = sulking and crying with her mom. Try #2 = her screaming and yelling being carried by her mom. Maria, the bride, looked frazzled and upset as she looked around the church trying to figure out what to do. Her eyes fell on Asha playing around in the back and she immediately came up to me and asked if Asha would be able to carry the rings; she's about the same size as the other girl and to alter the dress would be easy. Well, I told her I thought she would probably do it. When Maria asked Asha, she beamed, marched to the back of the church, and asked where the rings and pillow were.

The day of the wedding, all three girls had their hair done at a salon, their nails done at home and sported their new shoes. Oh, to be that age and feel like a princess!

I was playing the piano for the wedding, so Carl was left with the responsibility of getting the kids to the church and dressed. The wedding went quite well, all three girls were wonderful. Joel thought they all looked very pretty, but was glad he got to wear shorts and flip flops on such a hot day. He already had his turn, he said, at Uncle Wendell's wedding.

What a neat experience for the girls. I always wanted to be a flower girl when I was little, but never had the chance. Now, not only did Kezia have the opportunity, but Asha did too. Pretty special, I think.