|
||||||
|
Well, we’re getting there! Pregnancy generally lasts around 40 weeks, so we still have 2 weeks until the so called “due date”. My due date is April 17th. Here in Ireland the doctors still wait until 10 days after the due date to think of what to do. If the mother doesn’t want a c-section and baby’s in the right position, they’ll induce labour, otherwise c-section! When I was pregnant with Evelyn I could still do it everything at 38 weeks. Of course that in a slower pace, but I could still clean the house, walk and so on. I could not sleep lying down because I had A LOT of heartburn… now I can sleep lying down but my back is so sore during the day that can’t do much anymore… Besides that, we’re fine. Just waiting. Although the date is on the 17th, the baby is already fully developed. It’s just putting on weight, so it might be born at any time now! Today we went to the hospital for an antenatal check. We had a scan and the doctor said that our baby is already around 3.200kg! I hope it doesn’t get as big as Evelyn (she was born with 4kg!) The next Sunday we celebrate Easter. Do you know what it means? It’s much more than bunnies and chocolate eggs (although I do enjoy the chocolate part Have a blessed week, with the peace that comes from Jesus! In my last post I said I’d try to post every week and I spent 3 months without posting here! O_o OK, no more promisses… the problem in spending a long time without writing is that I end up having a ton to talk about! Let’s get started! Two new things happened in the last Christmas for me and both have to do with “making”. The first was making a decoration (yes, I said making) and I’ll explain why soon. The second was making (cooking in this case) the Christmas dinner. It was the first Christmas that Evelyn could already understand things and I honestly didn’t want her to associate Christmas with a decorated pine tree (a.k.a. Christmas tree) or with Santa Claus… The true meaning of Christmas is in the Bible and these two items are not included in the original story. That doesn’t mean I’m not planning to give Evelyn any gifts because in the true Christmas story Jesus got presents! But we decided we wouldn’t have pine trees or the long beard man dressed in red… I was with this fixed idea of making a Nativity scene, but I wouldn’t have time to make a sculpture… So I decided to paint. Those who know me a bit know that I like visual arts, specially paints! I’ve tried oil on canvas when I was in Brazil and ended up leaving all my material there when I moved to Ireland (my heritage to my brother-in-law, LOL!) After sometime, I decided to give acrylic paint a try and that’s what I used to paint my nativity scene. I got inspiration from a clipart that I found online, but as I didn’t have much time and had loads of other prep to do, I focused on the main characters: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. That’s how it turned out:
Who knows if this year I can paint some sheep, cows, wise men and shepherds?! One can dream Well, regarding the dinner, I bought a frozen turkey that was written “Oven ready”. I thought “great! while I prepare some snacks and side dished I pop the turkey in the oven and voilá!”. On the 23rd, I took the turkey out of the freezer and read that there were some parts inside! I nearly fainted! I had absolutely no idea on what to do with a whole turkey or with how to make a nice seasoning that would be tasty and easy. Google came to my rescue LOL! I found a nice and easy recipe and ended up filling the turkey with the stuffing that I’ve bought to go as a side dish. In the end, the parts that were in the turkey were 3 organs that were bagged inside the turkey. I didn’t have to clean the bird inside! phew! I used the organs to make a gravy to go with the turkey and was, of course, feeling like THE COOK! If there’s something that I don’t enjoy about housework is cooking… but this time it was really worth it! And it seems like Esdras and our 3 guests liked it too. It was a big relief. Too bad I didn’t take pictures… Quick updates (ok, maybe not so quick LOL!) Evelyn is nearly 18 months now. She can say some few words and make herself understood with gestures and sounds. She’s very smart! She’s all over the place, running, climbing on our dining chairs, eats fairly well with a spoon (ok, not without some mess,) mounts tower with blocks, pushes her dolls on a dollie buggy and so on. She has changed so much since my last post that I can’t even summarize! Oh, and she’s also a great helper. She helps unloading the dishwasher, loading and unloading the washing machine, and also pushes the vaccuum cleaner around when I’m hoovering our bedrooms!
I’m getting to the 36th week of my pregnancy. The hospital bag is ready but the baby room is not. We have everything already, we just have to put some things in place, like curtains for example. Evelyn loves to play in the new room, and she seems to know that there’s a baby coming. When we ask her where the baby is, she comes and pets my bump!
Well, I wrote too much already… If you like natural phenomena you might want to peek on Esdras last blog entry about the Northern Lights! He went in a very nice trip to Norway in February and took a bunch of lovely pics of the lights! Before the farewells, I’d like to ask for your prayer. March 17th is a special day here in Ireland. If you don’t know why, have a look at the posts St. Patrick’s Day and It’s Him Again. We know that we have to talk about God’s love in our daily lives, but we can’t also miss opportunities like these to remind people that St. Patrick wasn’t a long bearded drunk man. He was a godly man who came to Ireland to say that Jesus is the only way to God! Let’s pray that people will find Jesus, thus finding God! Big hug to all! God bless! Chasing northern lights or aurora borealis (yes, the dancing lights in the sky)
Where to go? When to go? How much does it cost? How long does it take to arrive there? What should I take with me? Okay guys, first of all you need to know that I’m a budget traveller and what you will see here is a cheap way to do things, if you want to stay in fancy places or you don’t know what to do with your money, you can contact me and I will give you my bank details. Where to go? I am going to northern Norway, to a city called Tromsø, however, in Europe you can go to Iceland, Northern parts of Finland or Sweden, above the polar circle please. When to go? To see the aurora we need to have dark nights, so, we should go between September and March. How much does it cost? Wow! this is a good question, really! There are a number of ways to go, I will describe how much it is costing me this trip that I’m doing now in the 21st of February. Going: Returning: So, if my calculator is right the total is 571 Euro, I’ve been buying the tickets and the bits and pieces since December, which means that I did not need to spend everything in just one shot. Believe me, this price is very good, try to search for travel agencies prices in the Internet… you will see prices 3 times or more expensive than this one. Other thing, doing this way that I’m doing we are going to cross the polar circle by TRAIN, how cool is that? How long does it take to arrive there? Yes, this is the tricky part. I will be leaving the beautiful Irish midlands at 2:15 in the morning, will arrive in Oslo at 4pm and in the final destination only 9pm of the next day! However, from tomorrow going up north by train it will be possible (if the weather permits) to see some lights from the first train stop in Trondheim. What should I take with me? My suggestion? Just a backpack! That’s it! *All the printed document of your trip such as flights, trains, buses, accommodation, maps, etc. Information! Don’t forget to check-in online and print your Ryan Air boarding passes! That’s it really, I hope that this information was useful for you. By the way, you don’t need to go north by train+plane, you can take a direct plane from Oslo as I did in 2010 with my Wife, however, I think that the adventure by taking a 17 hours train is something really worth doing once (or twice) in a lifetime. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4; cf. Psalm 97:6) (Sorry if you came here before and found just a weird conversation, it was part of the post, but I have written it only in Portuguese! Now, 2 weeks later, the English version! I admire very much the blog writers that post daily… or even weekly! I don’t have this determination 20 weeks pregnant. Phew! We’re half way through! (full term pregnancy lasts normally around 40 weeks, remember?) At this point, the baby weighs around 300g and keeps growing in fast pace. The bum is not much bigger than in the last post (there’s a photo there!). I’ve been having loads of back pain, but I believe it’s not yet the “weight” of the bump, I didn’t even gain much weight in this pregnancy. It’s bad posture for sure! Evelyn is gorgeous, she’s understanding more and more the words we say but still speaks very little intelligible words. She waves hi and goodbye even when I tell her in English (our mother tongue is Brazilian Portuguese). We taught her a hand sing (baby sign language) meaning “more”, but she uses it whenever she wants something! (smart girl!) She didn’t say clearly “mommy” or “daddy” yet, but I don’t think it’s bad. I think she’s more concentrated on her motor skills so she might take a while for her speech to develop. Absolutely normal, according to specialists. The other day, I wrote about Gaius Baltar, one of the core characters of the TV series Battlestar Galactica (a very polemic one too). The title of this present text has to do with another character of that series: Kara Thrace, a.k.a. Starbuck. In my opinion she’s the most confused/confusing and unexplained character, but I like her anyway. She puts her emotions on everything she does, even when she doesn’t know what to do. She’s stubborn and proud, as much as most of us, and she’s inconsequent most of times. As I also used to do some years ago, in front of others, she shows a strong and determined person and shares her mistakes, weaknesses and fears with a few close friends.
Here you find a conversation she had with Lee Adama (another very “difficult” character). The dialog is broadcast in the end of the series, as a memory of the day they first met.
Many people may not confess that, but they have the same fear. They live trying to leave their mark in the world so that when they’re gone they won’t be forgotten. I lived like that for many years. I’ve changed my way of dressing, speaking, acting, and facing situations so that people would go home thinking about me. I don’t know if it worked or not, but today I’m sure that nobody is unforgettable. The biggest achievements we can think of are unknown/forgotten by many people. Nobel Prize, important pieces of literature, change of currencies, kings, queens, thinkers, educators, wars, and so on. By the way, many people have a deep knowledge on the deeds and achievements of fictional characters (like Harry Potter, Twilight and even Galactica!) and don’t know that people have shed their sweat and blood to “have their names written in History”. Then there’ll be people thinking “why will I live then if I’ll be forgotten anyway”? There is a way of being remembered even after you die, I mean, forever. There’s a very special book, it’s in the hands of our Lord Jesus. In this book are written the names of those people that understood that no “good deeds” that they make will be enough to make them deserve go to Heaven. Nobody, by their own deeds, can go there. But Jesus can, and He died to rescue us from this “curse” of imperfection. The Bible is very clear on what reaction Jesus will have: If your name is recorded in the book, you’ll be remembered by eternity, and He’ll tell you: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21) If your name is not on the book, you’ll be forgotten… set apart from God forever… Jesus will tell you: “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!” (Luke 13:27). What do I have to do to have my name written in such a special book? It’s a personal decision that involves a change of attitude regarding the world. Jesus has already done what God what supposed to do, He pay the price for anyone who believes his sacrifice to go to Heaven. Our part is deciding if we rather we believe or not that Jesus, and only Him, is the way to get right with God again. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 Is your name already in Jesus’ book, or you’re gonna be forgotten for eternity? Here we are, baby and I. 17 weeks pregnant. This pregnancy is being very different from the 1st in some ways… I think what makes the biggest difference is that I could sleep as much as I wanted in the 1st and now… ugh… I’m sleeping really bad now. I don’t know what it is, but I wake up at night and take loads of time to go back to sleep, several times! And when I seem to be getting into a nice sleep, I hear the alarm clock (rather the phone or Evelyn lol!)
I feel less hungry this time, but when I got pregnant this time I was already overweight (baby weight from the 1st pregnancy.) My concentration skills are REALLY VERY limited and I don’t forget my own name just because it’s written on twitter, facebook, e-mail etc. Other “new thing” is the pain on my back. I had a herniated disk in 2008 that made me run into the ER 4 times in 6 months, because I couldn’t bear the pain. It got way better after a while, specially after I quit my job at the time (it made a HUGE difference), I started exercising a bit too, so I didn’t have many problems during the 1st pregnancy, not now… it might be because my muscles are still “relaxed” from the 1st pregnancy, and I’m also lifting a toddler with me all the time to put in her cot, take from it, bath, high chair, car… I also didn’t have as much headache as I’m having now. I spent 7 days in a row with a very bad headache. I was thinking that the computer might have been the vilain… I also feel more thirsty and wake up every day with my hands swollen! But even with all that, I’m feeling much better than many other pregnant women, I think! Oh, and you might have noticed that I’m wearing glasses in the picture. I’ve had the laser surgery on my eyes since I was very very shortsighted… It was in the middle of 2009, the optician said I’d be glasses-free until I was reach my 40′s! But last year I started noticing my sight blurred again, and I thought it was the pregnancy (yes, pregnancy hormones change our eyesight.) But last week I went to the optician here in Ireland because it didn’t really get any better after Evelyn was born, we were also about to put our car back on the road and I wasn’t feeling comfortable to drive like that. Result: there was still -1.00 in my eyes Evelyn is gorgeous! Smiley like ever and now she walks everywhere! On the 11/10 she had her first steps and had never stopped ever since! She is very sociable, she “talks” to people on the shops and waves to everyone at the mall! She has learned many things at home too, like opening the washing machine and climb her highchair. She also sits with books and flips the pages (sometimes she eats them, it’s true) and today she took a nappy sack (with a nappy in) and took it to the rubbish on her own! She walked all the way to the bin (which is taller then her), opened it and put the sack in! the problem is that she wanted to spy on what was inside later lol! Curious Evelyn… After a lot of fights and tears she now sleeps on her own again and the whole night. When we went to Brazil she got used to sleeping in our arms or always with one of us in the room with her, then when we came back it was hard to break this habit I think those are all the news for now! I’ve been really forgetful… but even if I had more, I think I wrote enough for one day! God bless you, may Jesus bring you peace, and pray for us! It is interesting to notice that there are things we want to run down the streets telling everyone, right? Some things happen to us that seem to trigger the desire for the whole world to know/notice/see that there’s a change in progress. Two things led me to think about this on the past few days. The first can be summarized on the picture bellow.
The second was Battlestar Galactica. For those who never heard of, it is a very interesting spacial sci-fi series. A segunda delas foi Battlestar Galactica. Unlike Start Trek (that Esdras and I also like very much) there’s no tech stuff like lasers, individual com badges, universal translator. It looks like it’s real people in real life situations, but they’re in space and fighting for the survival of human race. But it wasn’t space that made me think about “spreading the news”, it was a very polemic character called Gaius Baltar. He starts the series as a scientist who participates passively in the nuclear attack that the Cylons made agains the humans (at that time he didn’t know their destructive plan). After that he remais on board Galactica as a researcher, but he doesn’t take sides in the war (he keeps information about the Cylons from the military). Nobody know about his visions he has of the blonde Cylon or of his participation on the attack. Some time later, the blond vision convinces him that he plays a key role in God’s plan to save humans and Cylons. After he begins to truly believe thi, he still makes some decisions based on his own ego and in his self-preservation instinct. Then he starts to find followers for the “one and true God” and becomes kind of a religious leader.
But what was really fascinating about him is the courage he has to speak for anyone to hear, regardless of the situation or the “VIP level” of the person. And that’s why he becomes a leader, because he speaks with such a passion that shows that, even though he made mistakes, he screwed up and keeps doing wrong, he found forgiveness and God loves him the way he is because He was the one who made him! Then I thought… am I speaking with the same passion about the One and True God? And you can say that for him it’s easier, because he’s a character, he’s not real. BUT MY GOD IS REAL, and if I let my passion die He’ll have this against me “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you, because thou hast left your first love.Revelation 2:4” I want everyone to know that we have another baby on the way, and with the same intensity I should desire that they all would know the Love that saved me, the only way to God, my best Friend, my Lord: Jesus! That’s it. One more baby coming to our family to bring us joy, but what is really keeping my mind and heart busy is: what am I doing with the gifts and the purpose that God gave me? “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.Mark 1:15” Have a blessed weekend, and my prayer is that the passion you have for Jesus will always be fired. Coming soon! Please pray for us while we engage again in this evangelistic programme! This is a fantastic moment of our lives, it could last forever… Hundred More Years Diamond ring and 12 red roses Yes, back to the blog, but not back to Ireland yet. And if you think we are still in Budapest, I think you got lost in all of our changes LoL! We left Ireland and went to Budapest/Hungary to wait until Esdras had his visa issued. After that we had a nice “vacation” trip to Venice/Italy where we met Esdras’s brother. The original plan was that I would go back to Hungary with Evelyn and wait until there was something already set for Esdras’s Italian citizenship, but as things were set faster than we expected we ended up staying here, the 3 of us.
Now we are at the Veneto region, surrounded bu mountains!
The changes were very drastic and it wasn’t easy for an almost-6-months-old baby (like when Evelyn left Ireland). It wasn’t easy to sleep on the floor for a few days, it wasn’t easy to get used to a new house, it wasn’t easy to get used to a new cot. And when we left our “home”, she used to sleep through the night, when we arrived in Budapest she woke up every hour at night, and the sleepless nights had a huge impact on me… The worst part is that there have been so many changes that we didn’t know what was the problem, we only knew that she would keep waking up… after a while we found out she was all itchy, day and night (of course at night it was worse…) We thought the problem was the milk because we’ve changed the brand (in Hungary there was not the same formula brand we used in Ireland), then we though it was the food because we’ve given her jar food, we changed everything and nothing would make it better… when we arrived in Italy it seemed she was a bit better but it was for a short time. I decided to take Evelyn to a doctor (no, I don’t speak that much Italian but the doctor speaks English!) The doctor told me to stop all the foods to test if it was the milk and if it was to change for a no lactose formula. We did as he said, tried different milks and it didn’t get better (and it gave her an upset tummy!) The doctor also told me that although he thought it was too early it was a good idea to do the allergy tests. We then saw an pedriatric allergy doctor (this time in Italian alone, but that’s the way we learn isn’t it?!) and the first thing she said was to wash her clothes ONLY with glicerine soap. Then she set up the appointment for the test! The test hat 3 stages: blood tests and skin test with fresh food and with essences. Evelyn cried only a little bit for the blood tests, even tough the skin test was a “prick test”. What we could see very clearly on the skin test is she’s allergic to EGGS! No milk, no types of meat, nothing that I have (I have allergy to a lot of foods!) The doctor also said not to give her chicken and apple. She prescribed creams that worked!! Evelyn is now a new baby! Now our fight is against the bureocracy of the travel insurance, but I’m so happy her skin is better and that she doesn’t tell herself apart with her finger nails that I’m not really upset with that. When we left Ireland she wasn’t 6 months old yet, now she’s 7 months! Over the past 2 weeks she learned to do a lot of stuff: she sits upright, she speaks a lot of well defined sounds (papa, baba, tata, dada) and she started crawl very fast (on her tummy, not on her knees!). She’ll soon be sitting up and running around the house!! O.o
Well, that’s all folks. I will sit and write another day, I promise. This experience of having no home is not easy, but we know who is in control and we thank our Lord and God for looking after us, taking us by the hand and guiding our steps. We praise Him for finding this doctor that helped Evelyn to recover from this eczema!. God bless you all! |
Esdras Alves Passos
Mariana Alves Passos
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 ..:: Alves Passos ::.. - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
) Come back next week and I’ll tel you what Easter means according to the Bible.
She understands all I say in Portuguese and we can see that she’s picking up some English too! Spring is nearly here and she’s already in flip flops 
)
But I’ll put an effort on coming here more often! Who knows if the info we put here is helping someone out there! 
