Being served by a General Authority...literally!

General authorities of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are serving people all over the world.  But tonight Elder Jorge Dominguez (area 70 of the Caribbean) wanted me to write in my diary that I got served food by a general authority!  So I said, OK I will write it in my blog!  

Elder Dominguez grew up with Jesus's sister and of course knew Jesus as well.  He lives here in Santiago, Dominican Republic and invited us over for family home evening.  It was such a sweet night.   As most family home evenings begin, we sang and Jesus said the opening prayer.  In that moment my eyes became full of tears because I had a strong feeling that this is where I needed to be!  I keep feeling that feeling although I can suppress it pretty quickly every time someone says they got robbed or I think of missing people in the US.  However I need to remember that I have felt good things about this decision even when I don't know why.  The other day we were in one of the shadiest neighborhoods around and I looked at Jesus and said "honey, why are we doing this again?!"  He reminded me that he wanted to help the people here and I am all aboard for that although it will will be difficult but that did help to put me at ease.

Elder Dominguez gave the family home evening lesson about gratitude.  It was sweet because as he gave the lesson Jesus translated in my ear.  It reminded me of the people who wear headphones during general conference for the translation. I have to say it is tricky to listen to the translation when the speaker is continuing to speak at the same time.  Imagine being the translator!  However when I just said that to Jesus (the translator) as he's sitting next to me, he said it wasn't hard so go figure.  Elder Dominguez asked each of us say one thing we are thankful for.  The tears that had welled in my eyes initially never completely went away so I embarrassed myself as I was so emotional explaining what I was grateful for.  I said I was grateful to be here in Santiago.  I said I was grateful to know that there is a reason I am moving here even when I don't know what it is.  I truly believe that one day I will know why we came here and I'll know we had a purpose here even when I don't know what that is at this moment!

After family home evening, we had a traditional Dominican Sandwich called rikitati for dinner.  It was yummy and seemed like something I could make for us as a novice cook.  As Elder Dominguez made my sandwich and served it to me; this is when he told me I should write in my diary that a General Authority served me dinner! I feel silly writing it because he's still a person like the rest of us but since he made the joke, I'm writing it down. 

I'm so grateful to have met this family because they said that we can call on them any time in our new transition.  I really liked his wife and she said I am welcome to come over and practice my Spanish and she can practice her English. (By the way, my speaking is coming along quite nicely if I'd say so myself but understanding others is still pretty hard.  It's funny because before I came here I thought I could understand more than I could speak but it is clearly the other way around!) The Dominguez son was also a polite teenage guy who swims for the Dominican national team and is planning to swim in the olympics in Brazil! Their other two children are out serving missions.  They taught us lots of things about the church here like there being 3 stakes in Santiago and how long it takes to get to the temple and things like that.  It was truly a beautiful evening and just as I learned in family home evening, I am grateful!

  

Transitioning from tourist to resident

I've only been in the Dominican Republic one day and there is already so much to blog about! Because I'm only here a few days to reunite with my hubby while he's been training, I'm still in tourist mode.  However at the same time, I am apartment hunting and asking the locals about things to know so I'm trying to prepare myself for residency.  Here are just a few updates on what I've experienced so far.

Culture shock:

• The driving is crazy, I mean my husband told me it would be but I have never seen so many red lights and stop signs run as well as so much cutting people off and honking!
• Poverty: again I knew this would be here but there are people selling things and asking for money everywhere!  I guess the poverty is just manifested in a way I did not prepare for. One neat part of the selling is all of the people who carry large baskets of good on their heads!
• Chicken and stray dogs...that's self explanatory, there are chickens and stray dogs roaming town.
• Language, I can get by in Spanish one on one with people especially if they talk slow for me.  I practiced with hotel concierge, Jesus' family and a lady on the plane.  However when I listen to others have conversations around me, it is way too hard to even pick up the gist of it sometimes!
• Public transportation: Similar to buses there are cars that will stop and pick you up anywhere and it's a flat rate to go anywhere on their route.  The culture shock is how many people they cram into these cars.  I watched two woman get out of the front seat and that was nothin'!  
• Car seats are not standard or typical.  It has been quite the challenge fitting the car seat or stroller wherever we go but when we get out own car we will be able to squash this dilemma.

Highlights:

• The food!  I've already had some good Dominican food in the states cooked by Jesus's family so I didn't expect anything less and I assure you I have not been let down.  Also the fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juices and shakes are delicious!

• Hospitality: Nothing like crossing the street with your little family and baby in stroller when a woman walks out to the middle of the road amidst the crazy drivers to stop traffic for ya!
• Apartment hunting: It was great to go with the locals to hear about the different neighborhoods and we already found an apartment we love in one of Santiago's safer and prime areas!  Cross your fingers we get it! (The apartment is across the street from our hotel which is across the street from church.  I know that church is where I'll find an instant community so to be walking distance would be a nice bonus.)

(Also a Friday's next to the hotel)

• The weather and climate; sunny skies and mid 70's can't be beat, not to mention there are mountains!

 

• Swimming!  We are hoping to get an apartment with a pool so we can take Joaquin swimming like we did today at the hotel, he loved it!

How I'm feeling:

• Scared:
• Honestly it feels like a whole different world and I'm afraid I won't make friends because of my language barrier. 
• I'm afraid to drive and wonder what Joaquin and I will do all day while Jesus is at work. 
• I'm afraid I will look like a tourist forever and get ripped off when I go shopping and am still getting used to the money conversion. 
• I'm afraid to learn my way around a whole new place and afraid I'll wander to the unsafe areas.  
• I'm afraid I'll get too homesick!
• I'm afraid I won't find good medical care as I'm having issues I wrote about in a previous post and also intend to have another child while we are possibly here two or three years.

• Excited: 
• I'm excited to go out of my comfort zone and conquer this adventure...kind of! 
• I'm excited to find a nice apartment where we can all swim.  
• I'm excited to go to the beach on the weekends which I may do tomorrow!  
• I'm excited to get better at my Spanish.  I already survived talking to two people at the hotel without even speaking English or telling them I didn't know enough Spanish at first.  I just pretended like I knew and apparently I knew enough! 
• I'm excited for Joaquin to learn some Spanish as he learns to talk.  
• I'm excited to grow closer as a family because I don't know what can pull us together more than moving to a third world country together.  
• I'm excited for Jesus to love his job. 
• I'm excited to get some new tropical fashion.
• I'm excited to make friends as scared as I am! I talked with a girl from here at the airport who was my age and she's exactly the kind of person I plan to meet! She had a two year old son, was traveling alone like myself, helped me carry my car seat and told me all the things I'd love about Santiago; she gave me extra hope!

                                  

                  Joaquin and his aunt Lala!  Having family here helps with the meeting people part.

I'm going to London, I'm not going to London, I'm going to London?!

Someone call a Producer!  I'm ready to film my romantic movie!  You know all those movies where a couple is separated across the world and then one day one of them surprises the other and they see each other at the baggage claim and run towards each other only to be spun around in the air with a passionate kiss?  Well that is going to be me!  Jesus is training all over the world this month (literally in three different countries) and me and Joaquin have got to see him!  Those of you that know Jesus and I will know that our romance film will turn out to be more of a romantic comedy.  The minute Jesus sees me at the baggage claim with even the slightest cheesy grin, he will know what's coming and I'm sure turn the other way pretending not to know me as I begin heading towards him.  The other part of my "romantic movie" is this won't be a surprise to meet Jesus while he's training in London since we're planning this extravaganza together.

Now is it really going to happen?  Will Joaquin and I get to meet our husband and father in London who will at that point likely have been gone over three weeks?  Let me fill you in on the last few week's events.  After our whirlwind of accepting a job in the Dominican Republic, Jesus was going to train in London for two weeks and then return home to Minnesota for two weeks to help me pack and then our family would depart to the DR together.  Well Jesus made it to his layover in Washington DC when they sent him back to MN to apply for a visa to enter London.  This is because he has a Dominican passport and not a US passport.  While Jesus had to wait for a visa, his work could not wait to start his training.  So instead they sent him to Texas for all of last week, the DR this week and London the following two weeks.  This means Joaquin and I are fending for ourselves missing him and packing/selling everything on our own.  I sure do appreciate those that have helped me out so far!  

With all of this commotion, we all decided Joaquin and I should take a vacation to meet Jesus in London! Then of course we found out that I too need a residence visa for the DR and will need to send in my passport for that meaning I can't get to London. (Initially we thought I could do this once I got there).  I have spent the last four days gathering health records, police records, getting things notarized and apostilled.  Have you heard of apostilled?  I sure haven't and I had to go all the way to the stinking secretary of state's office to do it.  Just as I was ready to send everything in and let the consulate translate it into Spanish, I found out it was $70 per document to translate and that is a huge rip off!  So luckily today a friend came by and began translating for me because she can do it as long as I notarize and apostille it all over again!  Then this afternoon I got a call from Jesus.  He begins by saying "You are going to hate me..."

Turns out a lawyer in the DR said I can enter the country on a tourist visa and take care of residency when I get there even though both the Chicago and DC consulates told me I had to begin the process here.  So at this point we have decided to trust the lawyer in the DR and put a halt on the paperwork so I can keep my passport and go to London!  Now this has been an ever changing scenario so I guess you'll find out if I made it to London in a future post...

Here's a photo showing that Joaquin was ready for London's Paparazzi before he was born, just like Pippa Middleton!

We're moving to the Dominican Republic!

I’ve had (and will likely continue to have) a flood of emotions the past couple weeks and am not sure how to dictate any of it but I will try!  A few weeks ago, Jesus casually told me that he found a competitor company to his with an office in the Dominican Republic that just so happened to be in the town he was born.  He told me he emailed HR about the company and initially I was a little shocked because that’s the first step to applying and we never talked about moving internationally.  They quickly replied that they needed someone to manage the office in the DR and they wanted his resume.  He sent his resume and was asked to interview the next day!  Well the first interview went well and then they asked him to interview with the Vice President of the company the following day!  Then the VP was too busy and had to cancel.  She rescheduled and then had to cancel again.  At this point Jesus was ready to call it quits since he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to move there anyway.  I was still living in oblivion and believed this whole thing wasn’t real.   However for some reason, I told Jesus that he should just continue to interview.  An interview doesn’t mean we’d accept the job but for some reason I wanted him to try.  I knew that this might be something he really wanted and I didn’t want to see him not follow through and be left wondering “what if?”  That was my first red flag!  I could have easily said, yes, let’s not interview because I wasn’t excited about leaving family and friends, not to mention we own a brand new home!  But I didn’t, I said he should interview.  Am I a supportive wife or what?! 

Although for the first couple weeks I didn’t think we would actually move, I still knew that Jesus was going to get the offer.  Two or three interviews later, sure enough the offer came.  So Jesus replied with his demands of salary and moving expenses, etc. and then we went forward with prayer and fasting.  Should we actually go if they meet our “demands?”  Obviously this is a major adventure and you might be thinking, who would pass this up?  Well I sure would simply out of fear...and this is why I married Jesus.  I knew that I was going to have trouble hearing an answer to prayer because in my mind I didn’t want to go.  For as long as I’ve known Jesus, one thing he has been amazing at has been listening to the Spirit.  He has always known that things would work out when I’ve been afraid whether the decision was about marriage, health, or our careers.  He’s also the kind of person that won’t do something if it doesn’t feel right.  So I knew at this time that I would need to trust Jesus because I couldn’t trust myself since fear would over run logic.  Luckily the Lord knew about my internal struggles too and that’s when things started falling into place.  I have to give a shout out to one of my friends, Katy, who reminded me that the spirit doesn’t work through fear so feelings of fear probably weren’t coming from the Lord.  The Lord has other ways of telling me something isn’t right if that were the case.  To my surprise the list of things making this move feel “meant to be” commenced.  

I told a friend, Yvette, from church that we could potentially move and I was telling her all of my fears, one of them being we would need to rent our sell our house in a matter of weeks.  Later that night, I received a text message from her letting me know her family was interested in renting out home as they had been wanting more space!  Then when Jesus quit his job, they could have walked him to the door, but they said he was welcome back anytime.  My Principal too told me the most wonderful thing when she said they will miss me but family comes first.  I don’t think just any boss would say that especially since I quit a week before I was supposed to come back from maternity leave.  In addition to all of this, Joaquin and I were waiting for our passports for an upcoming vacation to the DR before we knew we were moving and then they came in the mail early at the same time of this big decision!  With everything beginning to work out, enough of my fear subsided to know that we couldn’t pass up this opportunity!  It will benefit Jesus’ career path and teach Joaquin and I more about Jesus’s language and culture.  Have I mentioned I won’t be working and can be a stay at home mom with Joaquin while we’re here too?  Things can’t get much more exciting than that!  The other thing that puts me at ease is the fact that Jesus told me we can go to the DR to give back to the community and I like the thought of us taking a mini “mission.”

It’s funny how a flood of emotions can make me even more cheesy than I already am.  We are driving to Chicago now to show Joaquin to the great grandmas on my side and I was finding all this strength for my adventure listening to Moriah Carey sing “Hero” on the radio.  Really?!  I know I have exciting things to look forward to like warm weather, beans and rice and plantains, being less than an hour from the beach, living in a beautiful apartment or maybe a traditional home, hopefully having a pool and two of my friends Melinda and Christina have already started planning their trips to visit me! 

When we return from Chicago, it's back to packing and trying to sell the bigger pieces of furniture and our cars so we have less to store at my mom’s and it would all be much too expensive to ship.  We will be going to the DR with clothes and that’s about it!  Oh and Jesus’s 3-D TV of course!  I am sad to leave my family but we will Skype often.  I will so miss my friends and am hoping to not miss the birth of a few upcoming babies as I don’t know my departure date yet.  Jesus leaves for London in about a week for training and then should be able to come back to help me move.  So if you’re free and want to watch Joaquin while I pack, give me a ring! 

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far and know that I’ll miss you!  But I have to embrace this the best I can and there’s no doubt you’ll be getting facebook and blog updates and photos!

I will just imagine my life is going to be like this...at least it might be on the weekends!

Turns out I have a miracle baby!

So I think I have a miracle baby!

A few weeks ago I went to the doctor for my 6 week postpartum visit.  That's when the doctor said "Something doesn't look right to tell you the truth."  In 29 years and through a pregnancy and c-section, I had never heard that!  She continued to tell me that she saw some kind of septum (piece of tissue) blocking my cervix.  Upon further examination she found that I have two cervixes and a septum in between the two.  The next step was to see if this septum went all the way up my uterus and this could only be determined by an MRI.  Now not only was this getting scary but it was getting pricey!  I received my MRI results today and I indeed have a uterine septum completely up my uterus and two cervixes!  I swear I'm not a freak!  

So what does this all mean?  First of all it explains why Joaquin was breech,  He didn't have enough room to turn around with a septum blocking much of the area he was growing inside.  How grateful I am that I didn't listen to everyone telling me to let the doctors try and turn the baby to avoid the c-section!  Also Joaquin was basically created within one cervix which is why he grew all over that one side of my body.  I'm sure many of you remember seeing my crooked belly with a baby clearly on the right.  The next question is what does this discovery mean for my future?  Most women with a uterine septum have miscarriages and/or pre-term labor.  I didn't have either thus why I believe I have a miracle baby!  As of today my doctor is still referring to specialists about the next step.  She is speaking to a doctor who specializes in uterine surgery as well as a high risk pregnancy doctor.  Turns out my pregnancy was high risk and I didn't even know it.  I confessed to the doctor that I climbed a rock wall and went on water slides which are things I shouldn't have done in a normal pregnancy let alone high risk!  So if I had had complications the doctor would have strongly suggested I remove this septum from my uterus.  However since I miraculously had no complications other than Joaquin being breech, she is unsure of what to do.  She would hate to have my uterus get worked on if it were unnecessary and caused more complications. So for now I play the waiting game and I'm sure I'll post again when I have more information.

On the up side I couldn't be more grateful for Joaquin in my life.  He makes me smile every day and I truly feel blessed that he is here.  I always envisioned having my first child before the age of 29 and I guess the Lord knew I couldn't wait any longer so he brought us Joaquin and bypassed the complications. Some call it coincidence, I call it a miracle!

There would not be an appropriate picture to correspond with this post so here is Joaquin wearing one of daddy's baby shirts!

Digital Documenting

I sure do love the idea of having a baby book but I am so not a scrapbooker.  I am however enjoying blogging and I also have been organizing Joaquin's pictures in monthly folders on my computer.  I thought of making a digital baby book but I think the blog will suffice. Here are some of the things I'd like to digitally document:

The pretend birth certificate from the hospital 

with the footprints!

    Passing the newborn hearing screening

 The card the hospital placed on Joaquin's bassinet

   
 A lovely piece of cord blood. disgusting.

Our hospital bracelets

Joaquin's first bath in the kitchen sink (just like when I was a baby using the kitchen sink!)

Joaquin in the same bassinet used for me as a baby,

he graduated to his crib at just 2 months old!

 

Certificate of his baby Blessing

Milestone moment: At 10 weeks and 5 days old, Joaquin learned to roll from his front to his back.  I've read that babies will learn to do this as early as  4 months but I'm guessing since Joaquin is the size of a 4 month old he can do it now!  

Newborn session!

Just a few photos from Joaquin's newborn session even if he's two months by the time I'm posting these...