Need some rest

Well my plan of blogging about the Week of Truth did not really work. No excuses, I just didn't do it. (okay, just a little excuse, I felt soooo tired every night that the last thing I wanted to do is sit down and type)
But the week itself went well. I got to read a lot and that made me develop a new hunger for reading itself which is great! Today, when everything is so ready for us in the media, we don't have to READ books anymore. Just turn on your iPad and recline. All the information comes to you in the forms of facebook, yahoo news snippets, flipboard, and we can satisfy all our hunger for stories with movies and tv shows. Why would anybody READ anymore?
Well, anyway, I needed to find that hunger for reading in me again and I did. Last winter was a great reading season for me. Every night at 7 I would pile up cushions and blankets in front of the living room radiator and read. :) Glorious times!

Just a quick note on last Tuesday's "bad day"...
Part of the story also that later that night Scott left for a soccer game with friends for hours, so I did get some alone time that day after all. I watched two episodes of Downton Abbey, took a hot foot bath and made pickle-ham-cream cheese appetizers. Much needed solitude CHECK! Wooo baby!

this in an "old" picture from way back when I was only 10 weeks along :)

Now it is a week later, Wednesday morning. I am 13 weeks pregnant today!! :) Yippie!! Thank you God for taking care of this little baby and me. Yesterday I was talking a little bit with my neighbor, Barbara, who just had a baby and I consider her my main source of information about everything baby. She kept referring to my "belly" as IL PUPO [pronounce: poop-oh] or sometimes LA PUPA. So after a while I asked her WHAT IS A PUPO?? She smiled and her eyes widened. WELL, THE BABY OF COURSE! Oh-pfff-of coUrse! What was I thinking! Naturally! :) Funny way to call a baby but okay. I will go with it.

I am really hoping to get some rest today because I have had some tirering and emotionally draining days behind me. [No, I am not gonna talk about that 4 year old in Sunday school whom I had to wrestle physically to keep from harming others and potentially himself and who tried to jab sharp scissors in me and who made me shake and cry and tremble for the whole day] [I am also not gonna talk about wrestling with greedy multis who are not willing to work with you on resolving issues but instead threaten you] [And no, I'm not even gonna mention this emotionally and physically draining period  of waiting for Scott's biopsy results and dealing with the physical consequences that this gluten-eating-diet caused in his body]

Moving on.
Life is beautiful. I am unspeakably grateful to the Lord for every single day, our life, our general health, family, ministry, Benjamin, our growing little PUPA, the beauties of the season, Italy, people who care about us here, and so many more.
Oh, did I mention Benjamin and I have been working on making paper snowflakes vigorously and decorate our house? We are just getting started but it already feels so nice and cosy.

and no...I do not believe it is too early for Christmas decoration

OH, and some good news!! My cousin, Marti has just gotten engaged to a KOREAN gentleman!! I am SOOOO excited that we will have a Korean in our family!!! :) Totally wicked awesome!! It will give me a sweet excuse to dust off my Korean books again and pick up studying where I left off a few years ago. Yay!!!

All right, 6:46 AM, better start on breakfast. The boys will be up shortly.

Truth for Tuesday

I had a bad day.

In the morning we had a long meeting from which we rushed to Termoli to the hospital to pick up my blood test results, then ran over to Campomarino and got our weekly groceries at Lidl. We picked up Benjamin from school on the way home. I made lunch, put away all the groceries, baked all afternoon, helped Benjamin do his homework which he didn't have an inclination to do therefore made us both miserable for over an hour, he had a tantrum, then Scott returned from  Italian school, I made dinner, cleaned up.... We wanted to watch a movie together before Scott was gonna go watch the soccer game with friends, but Benjamin kept interrupting, yelling, chatting, gibbering which I just couldn't take anymore....I fled to my room, cupped my hands over my ears and felt like exploding!

Let me tell you what happens when an extremely introverted person doesn't get her hour of peaceful and quiet solitude a day. This.  

And I haven't even read my Bible today or anything. 

That's the truth for today. 

A week of truth

I have been wondering why my life is a constant depression and discouragement. So is husband's. One day he has to scrape me off the floor, the next day I do. What is wrong with us! We are healthy, have a nice family, we live and serve in Italy, we are loved, saved, cared for... Why are we worrying all the time? Why are we discontent, sad, ineffective?
I proposed a change. A week where we reduce entertainment and fill ourselves up with TRUTH all day long instead.

Goal: 
Stop worrying about money, future, and start focusing on the Lord and all the things above. Fill your head with truth and start being an encouragement to others.

Rules: 
NO entertainment (news, sports, pinterest, tv shows, movies) before dinner.
YES read the Bible, sing, read faith-strengthening books, watch RightNowMedia videos, teachings, pray, meditate, tell each other what the Lord is teaching you etc.

I expect MUCH out of our little experiment. Every night I plan to blog about the day and the things that I have learnt.
May God bless this experiment and use it for His Glory!
We sure need a change of heart.

Further than thought

The last few days seem like a blur. I have been stressing so much about this pregnancy. My brain has just been...GOING...all the time. Even in the middle of the night I lie awake thinking about all the bad things that could happen. I was even watching youtube videos of ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages...how crazy am I!
My neighbor, super nice lady, helped me to call and get an appointment for today, which was good because I was just about going nuts with worry. I was thinking...what if I'm not even pregnant, what if I am just imagining this whole thing!
I just needed a doctor's confirmation and to see that the baby is growing in the right place!
We went to Termoli for my appointment. The doctor was very nice. He didn't ask a whole lot of questions, just the usual stuff...last period, previous pregnancy, medical history etc.
But then we quickly proceeded to the exam room. Needless to say I was a bit nervous about the internal or transvaginal (can't believe I just typed that word) ultrasound. But it turned out to be nothing. Wasn't even uncomfortable or anything. So much for scary youtube videos...I really should stop watching them as reference.
The doctor got a good look at our little munchkin. When I first saw the baby I was soooo relieved...YES!! There IS a baby in there!!! :)
Finally I can stop feeling like a fake. (Because that is how I have been feeling in the last week, doubting everything)
The heartbeat was the other huge thing, it was unspeakably wonderful to hear the fast and strong little heartbeat.
Husband filmed the whole thing. It will be really helpful to listen to the doctor a few times and make sure that I didn't miss anything important. My Italian is not yet up to par as for the medical terminology.
PolkaDot measured 3.14 cm and the doctor estimated her at 10 weeks! Which is a week further than I thought. I must have miscalculated something. Whoo! It is nice to jump ahead though. Even if it is just a week.
Here is a couple of the pictures we got. Isn't she cute! :)

All that to say, I feel much better now that I know everything is okay at this point. Thank God! 

We are so grateful for this wonderful gift of life :)

What a day!

I did NOT want to get up from bed this morning. I thought of all those early, very early cold winter mornings when I had to get up, take the bus to the city and take an oral exam at the university. Oh how I dreaded those early mornings. I always got sick from stress before exams in college, I don't even know how I made it to graduation. Anyway. Bunny trail. 

I dragged myself out of bed this morning. I was stressed about different things and I also didn't want to face some of these stressful things. I was also very nervous about Scott's endoscopy in the afternoon...

Actually everything went well. Now we are just waiting for the results of the biopsy. They said in about 3 weeks we might find out. We are hoping for Celiac diagnosis. We know he is celiac, but whether the Italians will acknowledge that or not, that is the question. We are hoping to obtain a Celiac health card for Scott that will give him many benefits. He was eating gluten for 4 weeks and I really hope that his sufferings were not all in vain!

It is all out of our hands now so I better stop worrying about it. 

He is back on the gluten free diet. For one month I didn't have to worry about cooking and baking two different versions of everything. It was comfortable, convenient, but I hated feeding him stuff that I knew would make him sick. So I would rather do double work but have him well. 

Little PolkaDot is doing well I think, I am 8 weeks and 4 days along now. Next thing on my ToDo list is to call and get an appointment at the hospital. Just want to see that everything is going well in there. 

Tomorrow is Wednesday the 8th of October and I am making a Thanksgiving dinner. Why can't we celebrate this wonderful holiday more than once a year?

We can! I declare!

:)

Meet Marika

Hello! Just wanted to introduce my friend and neighbor, Marika. She is also my biggest language helper.

So many things happened

I have been feeling a little guilty every day the last few weeks for not blogging. Not because I have like hundreds of subscribers who check multiple times a day whether I have written yet, but because I want this blog to be a journal of our life. I can't just skip two whole weeks and not post anything. Ts-ts-ts!
Anyway. Next topic.
Probably the biggest news right now is that a few weeks ago we found out I am expecting! I don't mind saying it out loud, firstly because not many people read this blog, secondly because the cat is kind of out of the bag already anyway. I am 8 weeks and a day along and feeling all the early pregnancy symptoms all over my body! Thank God I am not the pukey type, if you know what I mean, but I do feel nauseous and bloated all day. I have aches and pains and I go from sleeping 12 hours one night to 5 the next.
I haven't gone to the doctor yet. Wanted to wait until after Scott's endoscopic surgery next Tuesday. Just wanted all that behind us and then refocus on the baby. My neighbor keeps telling me that I should go see an OB soon, hear the heartbeat, see if it is implanted in the right place etc. She put the bug in my ear because all the sudden I started freaking a little bit. To the point where I asked husband t9o pick up another pregnancy test for me the other day. I did it and the second pink line was waaay stronger than the first one weeks ago. That kinda gave me a peace of mind.
No matter what though... the whole thing is in the Lord's loving hands. Just the fact that I got pregnant is a miracle for us since we had been trying for like 5 years. He giveth and taketh away. If that is His will. And that is good enough for me!

October is here and I am in love. Just like every year.
We went out last Saturday to soak up some afternoon sunshine. We have found this beach 2 minutes from the mall where we usually get groceries. The weather was perfect and it felt wonderful walking around. Benjamin got a little fishnet from the Chinese store and he was trying to catch a fish.

Do you want my spot? Take my handicap.

And then on the way home we saw these magnificent pink clouds

Benjamin getting a haircut at Mr.Nicola, our landlord

He is not too happy with this operation. To say the least. 

Little man in the big chair

Great to see Bibles and other Christian materials on the bookshelf at the barber shop

I gotta say I am so impressed and proud of husband. He has been so motivated and diligent in learning Italian. He is meeting with Bruno, his Italian language helper several times a week 3 hours at a time and they just talk in Italian and in English too. He has made such a huge improvement since the beginning of the summer. I am really and truly proud of him!

All right. That's all the pictures I could scrape up from the last two weeks. I want to be more diligent in taking good quality photos of our life. Especially now, documenting my pregnancy. I should go to Pinterest and get ideas. 

It is Saturday morning, Benjamin poor thing is in school, yes, Scott is doing something in the office while I am sitting here on the couch in the living room, feet up on the coffee table, laptop on my lap, blogging, watching You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. One of the favorites of fall movies. I dream about fall in New York. 

Gotta go make some tea. Ciao.