24 weeks

Baby Girl is the size of an ear of corn! 

Hey baby girl, 

The greatest thing happened this week - I got to see your Auntie Kristina!  Since it's Independence Day weekend here in the Dominican Republic, it made it the perfect time for a trip to the capital to go meet up with her while she was visiting from New Zealand.  Kristina and I volunteered at the orphanage in San Pedro de Macoris together for a year and she is still one of my favorite people in the whole world.  She was here visiting this week for an international conference at NPH and she did something amazing.  She talked all the NPH people into letting her start her own NPH sponsorship office in New Zealand, which is so exciting because she has already raised over $30,000 for NPH in this past year and I can't imagine all she will do for them in the years to come.  She is also going to be in her own magazine spread soon, AND if that isn't cool enough, she is an actress and was cast back in the day to be on the TV show Lost that your daddy and I were obsessed with (til we got to the end and hated the finale).  And besides that she is one of the sweetest people in the world and she already loves you!  Someday we will take a trip to New Zealand together so you can meet her (maybe we can get your Grandpa John to take us cause he has always wanted to go to New Zealand too ;)

While in the capital, we stayed at this great hotel called Hotel Discovery in the colonial zone, ordered take-out, watched cable TV, and mostly sat on the roof where we had a beautiful view of the city and chatted for hours and hours and hours next to their pool.  It was fabulous.  We also acted like teenage girls (Dominican teenage girls) and took lots of pictures all over the beautiful historic colonial zone.  If we would have known we were going to have a photo shoot, I may have like washed my hair or brought a cute dress, but oh well...  they are still fun and we found lots of pretty places to take pictures.

Here's your Auntie Kristina with all the gifts she brought for you - my favorite is the bilingual Very Hungry Caterpillar book with a special note from her.  She love you so much already!

I took this one for your dad because he loves VW bugs.  He had one in college and always planned to fix it all up but never had the dinero.  He sold it before we moved down here, but maybe someday this will be our family car. :)  Maybe even one with a big map of the DR like this... 

Don't worry baby girl, I really only came in this place to get a bottle of water... but we thought this would make for a fun picture. :)

I made your Auntie Kristina pose with the guy who worked there.

Posing outside of a colmado

Kristina outside one of the old churches

Outside of one of the old cathedrals

Pretty Kristina

Outside of another rundown colmado

Another historic building

Model Kristina

Tranquil little garden

Loving my day with your Auntie Kristina!

Lots of big pretty churches, someday you'll have to come and see them!

We didn't eat there, just stopped for a picture. :)

Hope you liked my first pregnant photo shoot! (there will be more... and LOTS more photos when you come out to meet us!)

It has been a long weekend because of Independence Day, with lots of Carnival festivities going on and two birthday parties (for two of the teachers that I work with).  Last night at Elissa's birthday party, she made us chocolate fondue to eat with fruit which was spectacular because I crave fruit and chocolate more than anything else (and milk!), and we watched the movie Amazing Grace about the abolition of the slave trade in the 1800's.  I used to roll my eyes when your grandpa used to teach me about it as a kid (he is a passionate history buff), but now I love this kind of stuff (maybe I always did, but just liked to give him a hard time :).  It got me to thinking about all the people, and especially children, who are still in slavery now - it's unbelievable.  There are so many slaves right on this island where we live, and live slave auctions happening on this country's border every week.  And there are actually more slaves now there were way back then before the abolition and the Civil War and all that.  In fact, right NOW there are more slaves in the world than anytime ever in history.  I know the most about children in sex slavery, but of course this takes on all kinds of terrible illustrations.  The reason I tell you this?  I really hope that ALL slavery will be abolished again.  That child slavery and sex slavery and any kind of slavery DOES NOT exist by the time you are my age.  I hope that by the time you are able to read this baby girl it will all be ancient history, and you say "What?!  Child slavery in 2012?  I can't believe that ever happened".  I hope that when you're older and come to visit this island as an adult (or maybe you'll be living here?) all children will be in school, laughing and playing with full bellies, adequate healthcare, and decent housing - that child brothels will be wiped out and when you want to buy fruit or get your shoes cleaned, that a six year old won't be the one running up to help you because they will be playing or in school studying instead.  These are some of my dreams.  Making these dreams a reality is TOUGH and COMPLICATED, but I hope that some way, somehow, that I can make a teeny tiny difference in changing this, even if it's just an itty bitty fraction of a milliliter drop in the ocean, I want to make my drop.  And I pray that someday the world will be different for it.  Oh, and be sure to watch the movie Amazing Grace someday okay?  It had me feeling really inspired last night after watching.

  I have more to share and my pictures to show you, but I'll save them for next week (I still have to show you all the cute clothes you have gotten!).  Your dad and I have both gotten sick this weekend now with some kind of stomach flu or virus and are taking turns taking care of each other - I don't know what I'd do without him.  So that's all I've got for you this week. 

You're kicking away in there right now as I write, all your kicking and moving all the time makes me wonder what you'll be like - I think you are ready to come out and take on the world.  I can't wait to see you do it.  


Oh one more thing that made me think of you (cause I always see things on pinterest that make me think of you)...




Of course my mind always wanders off to think about YOU - what you will be like and what it will be like in a few months to finally get to meet you.  I think about you all the time and love you so much.  Hope you're having a good week in there. :)

Love you,
Your momma

Hey moms....

Okay so I know I said that being in the DR and not being like other expecting moms was okay with me.... and it is... but I have to admit... I am kinda starting to freak out.... just a little bit.  Reading about all the stuff other ladies are doing to get ready for their babies makes me feel so not ready!  I know we are going to learn to live without a lot, but I am wondering if you can share with me, what are things that I really need?  New baby ESSENTIALS?  The things that absolutely got you through your first year with baby?  My mom is coming down to visit in a month, so I want to get my list together of stateside wants and needs before she comes down.

My mother-in-law had 3 of her 4 babies in the mission field in third world countries, bless her soul, so she has been helping to fill me in on what to get from the states... she said nursing shirts, nursing bras, disposable diapers for the first month, then cloth diapers for after that... what else can you add?  Keep in mind we will not have a vehicle or car seat and I'm not planning on doing the Dominican thing riding with our newborn sandwiched between us on the motorcycle, so most of my travel around town will be on foot... what are the best kinds of baby sling things?  What about any kind of baby seat/jumper/bouncer kinda thing that would fit into a suitcase? (forgive me for not knowing the baby lingo)

Help a new momma out por favor!  Can't wait to hear your comments and suggestions!

Love,
Kristin and Baby Girl

P.S. If you are interested in sending something down with my mom, get in touch with her at bkaybradshaw@yahoo.com - thanks!  

23 weeks

In my classroom on Valentine's Day! :)

Baby Girl is the size of a large mango!

Hola mi chiquita linda,

How are you doing in there today?  Right now your daddy is out hiking Flat Top Mountain.  I have to admit that I'm a little bit jealous, and feel kinda like a wuss being stuck at home on this gorgeous day, but instead I get to write this letter to YOU! 

So the theme of this week has been love, love, love, love, loooooooooooove, and more love - that's what it's all about this week.  I planned lots of Valentine's activities at school, we ate LOTS sugar, I got about a million and one cards and candies for both me and you, and had two Valentine's Day parties - one at school, one at home.  We even named you Valentina at school for the day of our Valentine's party. (I hope you're okay with having a couple hundred different names before you're even born cause the kiddos are loving it! :) 

The kids wishing you a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (so they were a little excited... and very SUGARED up)

 Samelis in her conversation heart crown - I'll make one of these with you one day! :)

Your dad spoiled me for Valentine's Day too...

Your dad made me this homemade card with magazine pieces and had this rose and chocolates delivered to my class by the high schoolers, and dropped off this fancy chocolate mousse dessert for me during my lunch!



Then I came home to a clean house, these flowers (daisies are my favorite), a new vase, American cereal (it's so expensive here that we never buy it but I've been eyeballing it for like... I was going to say my whole pregnancy, but really like 3 years?), and all this milk for you (I crave a LOT of milk lately... oh and don't worry, milk here doesn't have to be refrigerated in case you might be wondering :)

Don't worry, you got spoiled this week too!  My friend Karen brought you a TON of clothes from her baby Guliana and our friend Rachel who came to visit this week from Delaware brought you clothes and treats for us too (like Reese's Cereal, mmmmm)!  I have already filled a whole second drawer for you now (I'll show you more photos soon!)  You even got a Baby Calvin Klein shirt - we were worried about you looking like a poor missionary kid, but you are going to be stylin' girl! 

In Bible class this week, we memorized the verse John 15:17, we decorated crafty hearts with 1 Corinthians 13 at our house V-day party, and studied Romans 12 at my women's Bible study (go look all these up when you can :).  So yeah lots of LOVE, and it got me thinking of the things I want to share with you about LOVE. 

My favorite quote on love is a simple one, and comes from the great Dawnette Gooding (who I'm sure you will know by the time you can read this, is no one famous, but one of your mom's first teaching friends and biggest life mentors).  We used to spend late nights together in Owosso, lesson planning, eating dinner, and having heart-to-hearts on anything and everything about school and life.  I will always remember her saying one night while we were deep in talk about love and relationships and marriage, "Kristin, love isn't a feeling, LOVE IS AN ACTION.  It doesn't really have anything to do with how you feel, it's what you choose to get up and do every single day".  Most of us think of love in illustrations of a dozen roses, big diamond rings, romantic engagement photos, and fairytale weddings.  But these are not the things that keep a marraige going for 60 years like your great grandparents did, and what holds it together when everything else in the world is falling apart.  More than half of those pretty pictures end in big fat ugly divorces.  Like Dawnette said, it's about the ACTIONS that you take after all the glam and glittter fades and you're just left with each other. Which reminds me a story... (you probably know by now that your momma is a story teller :)

Once upon a time when your dad and I were newlyweds, we found super cheap tickets online to go to Puerto Rico and decided to take a second honeymoon, just cause.  We booked our tickets and packed up backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, and bought a guidebook all in about 48 hours before jumping on the plane (we were young and fun and spontaneous like that).  We took the crazy transportation system as far as we could, then hiked until we didn't think our feet could carry us further, then hitchhiked the rest of the way out to this campground in the middle of NOWHERE at a beach in Fajardo.  We got there during a holiday so the campground was deserted and we had the whole place to ourselves.  There was no sign of people or civilization for miles, and not even flush toilets - just us and the palm trees and Caribbean waters and our little tent.  We found the primitiveness of it all utterly romantic.  Until... I got sick.  Like really REALLY felt like I would die and wanted to die, so weak I couldn't move, puking all down the front of myself, definitely worst ever of my life kinda sick.  We think it was dengue fever, but never found out for sure.  But all of a sudden being in the middle of nowhere with no real bathrooms, stores, clinics, or even transportation was not very fun or romantic at all.  But your daddy showed me real love through all of it - I'm not even going to tell you all of the yucky details - but he cleaned up my puke, washed my clothes, and hiked who knows how far to the closest gas station to find me water, gatorade, toilet paper... stuff like that for 3 days until we could catch a ride out of there.... and he never made me feel any less than beautiful through any of it (even though I know I was lookin pretty darn scary).  And I knew before then that your dad was a keeper, but I think I felt more loved during that time than the day he proposed, our wedding day, or through any other romantic thing he ever did.  So you see, real love isn't always pretty... it's about action, sacrifice, and sometimes it's cleaning up someone's puke and still telling them they're beautiful. ;)

Which brings me to another story.... I love stories... but I think this is probably my favorite real life love story of all time.  And it's tragic and heartbreaking and powerful and incredibly beautiful all at the same time.  Last summer I was working with your Grandma Debbie for the summer (she's your "bonus" grandparent who I'll tell you all about soon :)  who is an occupational therapist, and I got to meet and work with (and mostly have fun with) her clients.  Most of them are accident victims and have incredible stories, but this one is my favorite.  I'll tell you their names someday, because I'll never forget them, but since this is the internet I'm going to call them J and R.  They were high school sweethearts, the sweetest kind, married young with two sweet young daughters, living a beautiful life til one day mom hit a patch of ice driving and everything in their worlds changed.  Dad never left her side in the hospital for months, then proceeded to care for her every need as she had a traumatic brain injury, and he raised the two daughters.  It makes me tear up now just thinking about them.  I know this sounds like a good Nicholas Sparks movie, but this is real life stuff, and the gritty everyday details weren't always pretty or easy either - this man did the bathrooming, showering, feeding, I'm talking EVERYTHING for his wife... and this wasn't for a few weeks til she got better and everything went on happily ever after... we're talking years of it, lifelong sacrifices, all day everyday.  All while immersing himself in research to find the best ways to care for and treat his wife.  Talk about real love, commitment, and dedication like you've EVER never seen before.  I always wondered  - would I, could I, be strong enough to do this?  I think this is what Dawnette meant when she said "Love is an action".  I know it will be easy to get caught up in photos of love on facebook or pinterest or magazines or whatever it is for you by the time you're older, but I hope you look for these illustrations of love like J and R... parents caring for their children who are born with severe disabilities and medical conditions, elderly couples who care for each other through thick and thin, teachers, doctors, social workers, therapists, missionaries who go to endless boundaries to show love to those who need it most.  This is where I want to you to look to learn about how to love others because this is where you will learn the most about how to really act in LOVE, and not just feel it.

And you know, sometimes you're going to fail at love.  Sometimes it is really HARD.  Sometimes you will fall flat on your face.  Trust me that I do it all. the. time.  I can't tell you how many times I've come home from work crying while your dad holds me and listens to me say "I just want to show _______ (student) unconditional love but instead I snapped at him and sent him to the office... what's wrong with me?  I'm the worst teacher in the whole world".  It happens, baby girl - to all of us.  To the best of us.  And we just have to pick ourselves up and keep trying.   

Last thing, don't underestimate the power of loving JUST ONE person.  If you're like your momma, you'll want to think BIG, but sometimes that one person is the only one God had in mind.  This week your dad made heart shaped invitations to take to the women from the local brothels to invite them over for a Valentine's Day party at our house.  At our Christmas party, we had 15 women come.  But this time, only 2 women showed up (granted it was raining and Dominicans think they will melt in the rain, but my heart kinda sank when I only saw two walk up to our door)... I thought, what are we doing wrong?  But after shaking it off and sharing my testimony with these women (and don't worry little girl, it was nothing about me being a prostitute in the past or anything like that, just about how God's love really has changed my life), one of these two women broke into tears and opened up about how she really wants to leave prostitution and shared all the broken paths that led her to it.  And we connected.  And it gave me hope for her.  She said I've tried this and tried that and it didn't work, and I'm not educated and I can't read or write, so what other choice do I have?  I can't imagine to be so desperate as she was.  But I hope that we can help her.  And I think all the planning and baking and crafting and invitations was all worth it for just that one woman.

I have more stories I could tell you (my head is full of them :), but I'll stop here and conclude with a few of my "love" themed favorites, just in case you'd like to know.  Some of my favorite love songs:

High Tide or Low Tide by Bob Marley... your dad did a spin-off on the lyrics for our wedding vows... I found them in his sketchbook last year, ripped them out, and they're still sitting on our dresser :)

 

 Your Auntie Katie sang this song for us at our wedding

Your dad and I choreographed an entire dance one night to the song "The Way You Do the Thing You Do" by UB40, just cause we're goofy like that

"All You Need Is Love" - just cause the Beatles are awesome and this is one my favorite songs EVER.

My favorite book about LOVE (there are a few but this is number one):

Promise me you'll read it someday.

And though I love all the 80's romance movies just cause they're fun, this is my favorite one of all.  It isn't really a romance movie but I think the father in the story shows true love more than any other other love movie I've seen, which makes it my absolute favorite movie of all time:

Someday when you're older we will watch it together.

Okay baby girl, I could tell you lots more, but I'll have to save it for next week.  I know I write a lot, there's just always so much that I want to tell you!  I love you a lot, and one more thing that made me think of you this week:

(Photo credit: pinterest)

And remember... as much as I love you, and so does your dad, your grandparents, your aunties, uncles, and so many others, remember that God loves you SO much more than any of us ever could.  Don't ever forget that.

Love you chica,

Your momma

Oh and I have a P.S.  Here's a couple more photos from when we took Santa and Jeffly to the river yesterday, since I don't know how well you can see my belly in the other one above, and just cause I wanted to show you.

See the kids hiding behind me - they are kids from the barrio around here who take baths in the river in their skivys or birthday suits, I can't help but love all their cute little naked butts.  Don't worry, we won't bathe you in the river (it's kinda dirty), we'll use something much classier... like a bucket. ;)

Okay that's all - 17 more weeks til I get to meet you - can't wait!!

Where to start?

Rock climbing wall

First challenge at the challenge course was getting there. Second was getting the whole team through the burning hot flaming tire. 

The pool was closed, and we couldnt go to the river so we made do with what we had.

Well I guess I can start here, Camp was AWESOME!! I don't know if it was just being around the kids outside of school, or if it was the kids that came, the speaker, the games, the staying up till 4am, or the way God used this opportunity to move and reach his children.

The kids had to win games and get tickets to either wet, throw flour, or oatmeal on their leaders. Being their art teacher, I had them lining up for the opportunity.

A picture that says a thousand words.....

Our Wyldlife group from the area

The speaker focused a little bit about who God was, and how Jesus was the visible image of an invisible God. He also asked the kids who they saw God as, a Santa to whom you just asked for things, an absent father, who created the world and then left, or an image of an old grandpa, someone your parents and grandparents can connect with but they cant. He then brought up the fact that at times in our life we might be disconnected from God and often times settle for the lesser and not the abundance God has in store for us. He brought a Mc Donalds hamburger, and a Bic Mac for the illustration which really got the kids thinking. We often settle for the hamburger when we could have the toasty sesame bun, two all beef patties, and special sauce. I thought it was a great illustration.
We played a ton of games, stayed up all night played a couple pranks on each other. Worked as a team in completed a challenge course, rock climbed, swam in a big 50 gallon barrel because the pool was closed, and sooo much more. It was an awesome time.
After it was all over the speaker asked if the kids had made a connection with Jesus for the first time, or had reconnected with Jesus. Two kids stood up from our group who had made a first time decision to follow Christ. They got up and they talked in front of the entire camp which you can imagine took some courage. Then he asked who had made a decision to re-connect with God, and a ton of kids stood up and we went around the group and found out what that meant to each and everyone of them. By the end of it I think more than 50% of the  camp was in tears.
There were some powerful testimonies from the kids, and believe the spirit really moved this weekend. Now we are back into the swing of things. Valentines day parties, at school and the safe house for the womens ministry, visitors coming weds. and more coming Fri. Wyldlife club tonight, and soo much more. So the work is not done, please please keep supporting us in your prayers we need them more and more each day.
I would ask for you to pray for my campaigners group, a small group of kids from Wyldlife who are looking for some more in their spiritual lives, I want to have somthing started up by next week. So keep that in your prayers. We are also still praying about whether or not we will be here for another year or two, and what that might look like, and also keep in pray for Kristin and our baby as well.
Last but not least I want to thank everyone of you for helping us out down here and supporting us in the financial side of things and also in the spiritual side, with your prayers. THANKS

22 weeks

Here's your momma playing Susie Homemaker in the kitchen this weekend - a rare sight!  I don't know why I hold my belly like that - it feels like I'm holding onto you but it just looks like I have to pee! :)

Baby Girl is the size of a Summer Squash!

Hi Baby Girl,

How are you feeling in there?  You've been moving around a lot!  I used to never be able to sit still and now I think I could lay for hours just feeling you move around without ever getting bored.  The other teachers and my students are now able to feel you kick too!  The kids in my class come and put their ear to my belly all the time cause they say they can hear you.  I wonder what they hear in there?  I am always playing with them - now when we do point basket with my 6 groups of kids, I ask you to kick the amount of times for which group you think is behaving the best and should win.  Then I say "2 kicks - points go to group 2!"  I don't know if they fall for this, but they love it anyways.  This week they had fun naming you again.  Your name was Roxana, Jaila, Llenifer, and Cristal (again, that's a popular name here I guess).  


We celebrated our 100th day of school this week.  I asked the kids to bring in 100 of something and we had special "100" themed centers.  

Eddily brought in 100 hearts to pass out to friends!



Showing off our 100 Day Crowns!

Kiara put on her Wacky Wish poem that she wishes for 100 babies because she says she wants 100 of you! (I'm okay with just carrying one though :)

Here they are at centers writing their 100 favorite things about school - can you guess what made the #1 spot?

Of course you did!  You are a popular girl!! 

This weekend your daddy was away at Wyldlife Camp with his youth group.  I missed him, but I made it a productive weekend.   I cleaned, swept, mopped, did laundry, grocery shopped, taught myself to cook a few new dishes (thank you Pinterest - and my awesome teacher friends who helped :), and even hid little notes for him all over the house.  I don't think I have a domestic bone in my body, but I love your daddy a LOT and wanted him to come home happy, cause he makes me happy all of the time.  Right now he's sleeping like a baby.  He said the boys in his cabin kept him up til 4a.m. and played pranks early in the morning with things like toothpaste in hair and baby powder in the sheets.  He said they even toilet papered their own cabin.  Your daddy is a trooper. 

On Saturday at OANSA, we had "Disgusting Day" with the kids where they did disgusting things like eating peanut butter out of diapers.  I wonder if kids will still play these kinds of games when you're older?

I read the silly note that you dad wrote you in the last blog, it made me laugh.  He is a funny guy.  It also made me wonder - will technology really advance that far by the time you are our age?  It kinda scares me to think about.  Believe it or not baby girl, I grew up before the internet even existed.  And you know what?  It was fantastic.  I hope you are still able all the things I did in my childhood.  Camping out in tents.  Singing around the campfire and roasting anything and everything over it - marshmallows, hot dogs, pizza pies, hobo pies, and even pancakes.  Going berry picking and picking wild flowers.  Running through the sprinkler.  Making up secret clubs with secret names and secret languages.  Building sandcastles.  Going on "mystery trips".  Building forts out of chairs and blankets.  Having bicycle parades down the street with friends.  Playing neighborhood tag and "Cops and Robbers".  I was lucky to grow up on a lake in such a fun neighborhood living on Silver Hill Drive - someday I will take you there and show you the house that I grew up in.  In the summers, I put on my bathing suit every morning and went swimming, boating, and tubing all day long.  We had paddle boat races, pig roasts, water games, and 4th of July fireworks with all the kids who lived on our street.  On summer nights, we all brought our lawn chairs over to our neighbor's house where we watched "drive-in movies" in the backyard and he popped popcorn in his popcorn machine for us.  It was the best.  I hope you can enjoy some of these same things that I did as a little girl.

And while the internet is way overrated, I still do love using it to learn more about how to take care of you!  I came across this blog post the other day that I loved called Rules for Mothers of Daughters.

http://diapersdaisies.blogspot.com/2012/01/rules-for-mothers-of-daughters.html

I love it.  You probably won't be able to click on it anymore by the time you can read this, but it made me decide to make my own list of rules, or promises actually, for you.  So here it goes:

1.  I promise to love you unconditionally.  I will love you through your highest and lowest moments.  I will love you through your greatest accomplishments and biggest mistakes.  Even when it might not feel like it, remember that I always always ALWAYS love you.  No matter what.  

2.  I promise that as much as I love you, you will not come first.  I know you're thinking, What Mom?!  But I promise to try my best to live my life in this order:

1. God  2. Your dad  3. You  

I know it's going to be really hard cause I haven't even met you yet, and I love you SO much already, but I promise to try to keep these straight.  If I can get the first two right, I think the love you will be getting will be so much better anyways.


3.  I promise that we will have fun together.  We will get dirty, be silly, use our imaginations, and laugh til our bellies hurt.  We will have dance parties, pajama parties, and tea parties.  We'll play dress-up, whether as princesses or superheros - you can pick.  I will love all of it as long as I am with you.


4. I promise to be your biggest fan.  Whether it is at a dance recital, t-ball game, or graduation, I promise I will do my very best to be there at every one cheering in the front row.  I will probably embarrass you, but remember that I'm just doing it because I love you SO much and am just so proud of you.


5.  I promise to show you tough love and to discipline you.  I may seem harsh at times (this is the teacher in me!) but I will teach you to have manners and treat others with kindness and respect.  I will praise the bejeezes out of you when do well and give you the most fair consequences I can when you make the wrong choices.  Sometimes you might feel like you hate me, but I'm doing it because I LOVE YOU.


6.  I promise to do my very best to listen to you, really listen, even if there are things I don't want to hear.  I hope you will confide in me with all of your hopes, dreams, and fears.  I hope you will share your heart, and let me be there for you in whatever ways I can.


7.  I promise to read to you!  Your momma is a bookworm and I can't wait to read to you!  I can't wait to read Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, and so many more!

8. I promise to love you for the person that you are.  If it's a ballerina, basketball player, or bookworm, I will love you for it.  If you're a homebody or a world traveler; a teacher, doctor, artist, or actress, I will love you and support you in whatever direction you decide to go. 


9.  I promise that I am going to push you to be the very best you can be and to live your life to the fullest.  I will hold you to high expectations.  I promise to be there when you fall and to love you through all of it.  


10. I promise to take you places.  There is so much I want to show you in this world!  I want to take you to Chicago to all the places I spent with your dad when I met him for the first time, to the places we worked together, traveled together, and went on our first dates.  The places I loved as a little girl  and that I hope you will too.


And it was going to be an even ten, but I have just one more...


11.  I promise I am going to screw up.  I am going to make mistakes.  Sometimes they might even be big ones.  I promise I am going to be a far from perfect mother.  Please forgive me for this and know that I even when I screw up, I still really really do love you. 

Okay, I know this is getting long now, but there's one more thing that I found online today that made me think of you and that I wanted to show you:

 

Since it's Valentine's Day week, love is a big theme here.  I am having a Valentine's Day party with my class this week and we are also having one at our house with the women from the local brothels.  So next week, I'll share with you all about it, as well as a few more of my thoughts on LOVE :)

Love you baby girl and can't wait to meet you in 18 weeks! xoxo

Love,
Your Momma

Wyldlife camp!

Well camp is coming up this weekend already! Thank you everyone for your support! The kids are soo excited about going this year, and it looks like we will have a pretty good turnout after all!
This past weekend we had another be a blessing. Which is a way for the kids to earn part scholarships for camp. We had about 20 kids show up on a Saturday morning and we went on over to the old folks home here in town. It was great fun. The kids were really out of their comfort zones, but once they started talking to them I think they really enjoyed it. I also know that the elderly had a great time with them. We brought some games like UNO, and Dominoes to play with them. They really enjoyed the company. I talked to a couple people or listened to them talk mostly, but probably only picked up about 20% of what they were saying most of the time. All in all it was a great time. Thank you so much for helping support this cause. Here are a couple photos of our time.

This is a funny picture because it looks like Josue was in a real heated conversation with this nice old lady. I think they were talking politics?

But as you  can see they found some common ground and made up ha haaa.

I talked with my friend Santiago for a while he talked mostly about how he wanted to get out of there and couldn't wait until Monday when his family was coming to pick him up. He also told me all about his life as a bean farmer, and how difficult that was compared to these days.

Smirnof, and Sueliedy playing dominoes with a couple old friends, I guess they got whooped every game they played