After a 16 month hiatus, I have decided to return to the blogging world! And boy has a lot happened in the past 16 months. In my last post I shared that Andrés and I got engaged.
Since then this happened...
And very shortly after this happened...
And then this little one came along!
I know! We were a little surprised too! And so, so happy. Contenta con la vida!
We are now a family of three.
Here's a short recap of what took place over the last 16 months:
I moved back home to MN at the beginning of March 2012 to be with my family, start wedding planning, and to work and save up money for said wedding. The Lord was so kind to provide a job almost right away. I was hired to wash motorhomes. Yes, you read right. It was a good job and I got some exercise and am very thankful for the two months I did that, but washing RVs is just not for me. In May I was able to find other work for the United States Postal Service! I worked as a mail processor in the St. Cloud plant and I really enjoyed my work and co-workers. I got a workout every night (helped me get in shape for the wedding) and my co-workers were so supportive and happy for me when I got married and pregnant. The only downside is that it was the night shift- ugh.
I got to spend as much family quality time as I could when I wasn't sleeping, and everybody chipped in to help the wedding come together. Andrés came up the week before the wedding and then on August 4, 2012 we became man and wife! It was an awesome wedding and reception but the details must be saved for a later post. At the end of August Andrés returned to Chile and I planned to follow him after a few more months of work. On Septembter 13th I found out I was pregnant and Andrés got to learn about it through Skype! Oh the joys. Through the help and support of my parents I was able to move down here at the end of October and join my husband. I found part-time work right away and for months 5-7 of my pregnancy I was blessed with full-time work and again, awesome co-workers. Then on May 2nd my mom arrived and just four short days later Amanda Rosario was born! What a whirlwind. Andrés is now studying and working and I am a stay at home mom for the next few months. It's a blessed life. It's a sleepless life.
Now since I'm a wife, mother, and indefinite expat I'm sure most of my posts will be focused on these new aspects of my life. I hope you enjoy reading about these adventures and I'm so happy to share them with my friends and family- it makes me feel closer to you all across this distance. Also, don't expect posts too frequently (I make no promises to keep up the blog) because I'm still getting the hang of mothering and Amanda is still learning about life on the outside of the womb- which means she's almost permanently in my arms! With that said, I hope to see you here again somewhat soon. God bless!
I haven't posted in the last few days because I am convinced the internet is against me. Yes, this lovely technology that wants to connect everybody in the world, for some reason, wants to exclude me. Why am I convinced of this? Well, the answer my friends, is that since getting the internet in my apartment last September so that I could video chat with my boyfriend my computer has totally quit on my once (for a period of one month until my amazing boyfriend was able to bring it back to life!), my power cord has gone completely kaput two times, and then on Sunday my modem crapped out on me. What is this nonsense?! It makes me feel totally out of the loop. But now my modem has been replaced for free (yay for a warranty I didn't even know I had!) and I'm back online. :)
Speaking of being out of the loop, I've come to realize that when come back from Chile (months and months from now) I'm going to feel out of the loop in one of the places I feel most comfortable: Mass. You see, for you non-Catholic readers or for you Catholic readers who are currently out of the loop, starting the first Sunday of Advent this year (November 27, 2011) changes are coming to the wording of the Mass. The Mass has been totally re-translated from the Latin into English and is set to be implemented in November... when I'm in Chile. Tonight I just got done with my last class of a five-week course where I taught parishioners about these changes that are coming. And then I realized I won't even be here for them when they start up! I'm a little disappointed about this because I was really excited about the changes and the opportunity to be drawn deeper into the Mass. The implementation starts in November and I won't be back until the following June at the latest- by which time everyone else will already be used to the changes and have the new responses memorized, and I'll be like a lost little puppy having to read from a missalette still. Oh well, I'll get over it because Mass is Mass AND I still get to receive Jesus AND I love going to Spanish Mass which I'll get to do all the time in Chile!
In my very first post I alluded to us having a plan. The gist of that plan is I go to Chile from August 2011 to June/July 2012. While there I teach English and he goes to school and works during the summer. Then I come back to the States for anywhere from 5 to 9 months to save money for a wedding and student loans. Andrés could come for the winter of 2012-2013 and possibly do an internship and hopefully that's when we'd get married. Then he'd return to Chile and I'd go soon after.
Now I admitted from the beginning that this was our plan and I've prayed about it but that God could have something else in store. I just didn't think that "something else" could come this soon! I don't want to give too much detail here but there's a possibility that the plan, or rather my moving to Chile, might be held off for a year. Padre is trying to work on a deal that could keep me in the parish and diocese for one more year and still get to visit Chile and Andrés regularly- meaning not going 6 months without seeing each other.
On the one hand that would be really good financially for us. It would give me a lot more opportunity to save for a wedding and pay my student loans while on a U.S. salary. On the other hand, I've been hoping to move to Chile for over a year and it feels really weird to think that might be changing when I was finally able to really believe it was going to happen. Plus I HATE being apart from Andrés all the time. I just want to be on the same continent (who am I kidding? I want to be in the same country, city and neighborhood) as him for awhile. And who knows? Padre's deal seems almost impossible, yet at the same time he's serious about it and very resourceful. So for now I'm going to keep on saving money and preparing to move but keep an open mind and heart about this other possibility. I won't know anything for sure for probably a few more weeks, but I'll give an update when we figure things out.
