The Times, They Are A-Changin'

Hello internets,

I apologize in advance if this post comes off as whiny, TMI, or angsty.  I have had a lot of things on my mind lately (ha!) and wanted to take a minute to share my thoughts and most of all gratitude to my friends, family, and community.  

Anyone who really knows me knows that I love change. I would like to think that my upbringing (constantly moving to foreign countries) prepared me well for the Foreign Service. Yet, I have to admit that the last year at the Peterson house has been a constant whirlwind and admittedly I have at times struggled with the changes. Ryan joined the FS last September (I cannot believe it was only a year ago!) and since then nothing has been the same. It’s been a crazy year. We bought a house, got pregnant, moved twice within 6 months, arrived in Ciudad Juarez, and had our sweet little Senor.  I would be lying if I said we managed all of this without a lot of murmuring and tears (out of anger/frustration/etc.) on my part. 

I am embarrassed to say that over the last few months here in Juarez I have often called Ryan (or other family members) in tears, complained constantly about possible employment prospects, and generally become a bit emotionally unhinged.  I don’t want to embarrass him, but Ryan has been my rock throughout this crazy transition. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what I would be like at this point without his love and support. He deserves a medal for dealing with all of my hormonal madness.  I am also grateful for our loving family members and a wonderful consulate community who have embraced our little family.

El Senor’s arrival has also thrown me for a bit off a loop. It reminds me of the scene in ‘Juno’ where Jennifer Garner’s character is holding her son for the first time and she turns to Juno’s stepmom and says “How do I look?”  Juno’s stepmom replies "Like a new mom. Scared Shizless."  I am currently experiencing said terror, but the love and support from my family and friends have given me enough courage to hold on. I have no delusions that this will be an easy transition, but like the others we have experienced over the last year, I know that this one will be more than worth the while.

So in the meantime I doubt we will be posting many (if any) pics of fun baking projects (don’t worry I won’t/can’t stay away from my favorite hobby for too long). Though times keeps a-changin' and I expect there will be some more tears (mostly mine, not El Senor’s) I know we will be able to make it through this. Maybe you don’t believe in divine intervention but I can tell you that the events of just the last few weeks have reaffirmed my faith in a loving God who wants us to be happy. Just my two cents.

Love,

Sarah

* Disclaimer: I actually don’t really like Bob Dylan. Before I get any hate mail I would like to clarify that I think he is a brilliant songwriter, but I really don’t like his voice that much. Regardless, I felt the title of this song was an appropriate way to summarize how the last year has felt to me.

Adventures in Baby-Raising: Week 2

Greetings from our home in Juarez!  We ended up staying in the hotel for about ten days, when our birth certificate for El Senor arrived three weeks early!  We feel incredibly fortunate and blessed, because we were starting to lose it in the hotel.  Is it sad that I just wanted to have my DVR back?  It wasn't all bad, however, since we had plenty of visits from supportive friends and family.  That includes my parents, who came all the way from Arizona to meet their seventh grandchild. 

As you can imagine, once that birth certificate arrived, we got out of town as quickly as possible.  So long, Staybridge Suites.  Under different circumstances, we could have had a very pleasant stay at your establishment.
 

It is very nice to be in our own home again.  It is not without its challenges (now we have to drive across a border to go to doctor's visits), but we are just glad to be in our own place, and for El Senor to have his own room.  Look at that little burrito baby, just living the dream in Juarez. 

Look at this Cake!

Let's take a break from baby talk and look at this cake.  The Community Liaison Office (CLO) at the Consulate threw Sarah a baby shower a few weeks ago (along with two other pregnant ladies at Post), and Sarah volunteered to make a cake.  But not just any cake: a three-layer chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. 

It has one layer of chocolate cake, then a layer of cheesecake, then a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, covered in chocolate frosting.  Don't worry, having a baby will not be the end of our baking adventures.

Adventures in Baby-Raising: The Birth

Hey everybody, sorry it's been a couple of weeks since our last post.  As you can imagine, having a newborn is a somewhat tiring activity.  The good news is that our little guy slept relatively well last night, which means I have finally managed to muster the energy necessary to update the blog.  Since this is a public blog and we will be posting from all over the world, Sarah and I thought it would be best not to include our son's name online.  If you want to know what we're calling the little guy in real life, please shoot me an email.  As far as the blog is concerned, he'll simply be known as El Senor.

(Don't worry: in the picture above, I'm doing what I'm told is the proper way to burp a newborn.)  I won't go into a very long, drawn-out explanation of the birth, as many people tend to do on their blogs.  If Sarah wants to go into further detail, she may update the blog in the future.  Sarah started having regular contractions around 3:00pm on on Wednesday, August 21st.  So what did we do?  In typical Peterson fashion, we decided to make a lemon pound cake, since we already had the ingredients ready to go.  So we baked the cake, packed our bags, had a few slices, and then made our way to the hospital.

Sarah was in labor for some time, so El Senor wasn't born until Thursday afternoon.  He came two weeks early, which is a good thing, since he was a pretty big boy (8lbs. 5oz.).  El Senor came out as a healthy little boy, but had a lot of trouble learning how to eat in the first few days.  Which meant lots of time feeding him with a syringe dropper until he got the hang of sucking and swallowing.  Rest assured, he's eating really well now.

Next came one of the most unpleasant parts of the newborn experience: moving into a hotel.  Since we live in Ciudad Juarez, but chose to have the baby in El Paso, that meant we couldn't return home until our little guy had a birth certificate.  Which normally wouldn't be an issue, except in Texas, where getting a copy of your birth certificate can take up to four weeks!

The hotel had its perks (free breakfast, housekeeping), but the disadvantages were somewhat challenging.  We were constantly on top of each other, and had no separation to rest or relax.  In short, it's just hard not being at your own home with your baby.  And no joke, our hotel had the worst tenants.  The room above us was occupied by a bunch of twenty-somethings in town for a rave, which meant they spent three days drinking, listening to techno, and jumping up and down at 3:00am for three days, until they got kicked out by management.  Compare that to the family on the other side of our wall, who apparently kept a whiny puppy in the bathroom during their stay.  Luckily, we didn't have to stay at the hotel for too long, but more on that in a bit...

Welcome to the World

Welcome to the newest member of the Peterson family! Today (August 22nd) at 3:01pm, we welcomed this little man into the world. We're still working on the name, and I'll provide updates in the next few days. As for information at the moment, he weighs 8 lbs. 5 oz. and Mommy and Baby are doing good. Yeah!

THUNDERCATS ARE GO!!!

It is currently midnight at the very start of Thursday, August 22nd, which more than likely will be our son's birthday! We are still waiting around in the delivery room for the action to start, but so far Sarah and baby seem to be doing fine. We'll keep you posted. Woohoo!

Noticias de Juarez

Howdy, folks!  It has been a very busy couple of weeks down here in Juarez.  We're still frantically getting ready for the baby to arrive, and work is always going to be busy.  But we are still doing well and surviving here in the Borderland.  I figured the best way to give you all updates is through brief headlines.  Here we go:

Our HHE Finally Arrived

As you may recall from a previous post, all of our worldly possessions go into two piles: Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB), and Household Effects (HHE).  UAB comes by air and usually arrives at your house about a week after you do.  HHE, on the other hand, has to clear a more rigorous customs review, and can take up to three months.

Our HHE took just about two and a half months, but it was good to finally receive it.  So we have spent the last two weeks unpacking boxes, organizing furniture, laying down rugs, and doing a million other things to make our house feel more like home.  Plus, I finally have some more ties to wear.  I severely underestimated the amount of ties I would need for two and a half months, so it's good to have some variety again.

We Made These Cheesy Bread Bun Things

Sarah found a recipe for some amazing rolls, which come from a pretty simple dough with parmesan cheese and cheddar on top.  But the best part of all is that you put some mozzarella in the middle of the bun before you bake them.  Too bad I ran out of all that Mennonite cheese.

We're Waging a Battle with Pigeons on Our Balcony

So about six weeks ago, two pigeons moved onto a pillar on our balcony.  I'm not a huge fan of pigeons, so we decided we needed to knock out the nest they were building in the hopes that they would move on after their home was demolished.  Alas, by the time I got out there with a broom, I saw they had already laid two eggs in the nest.  Sure, I'll destroy some birds' home, but I'm not about to commit bird-icide.

So we let the pigeon family have their nest, all while their droppings continued to pile up on the balcony.  Over the next few days, I became an expert on the pigeon life cycle, and determined that the eggs would hatch in 14 days, and then the babies would fly away three weeks after that.  So, we decided to wait them out.

The eggs eventually did hatch (well, at least one of them did), and the baby, mom, and dad, seemed to be doing well for about two weeks.  But that's where the mystery began.  We started hearing strange squawking from the balcony, and one day we looked out and the baby was gone.  Plus, new pigeons started showing up.  And the mom pigeon appeared to be injured.  What happened outside?  Was this some sort of pigeon home invasion?

Sure enough, I did some research and pigeons apparently steal each other's nests.  However, they don't normally attack each other's babies.  As near as I can tell, the baby flew off on its own around the same time the intruder pigeons showed up and messed up mommy pigeon.  Eventually, mom pigeon healed and flew off, but then all these other pigeons started showing up and fighting for the nest.

The sad thing is, I almost began to care for the pigeons.  Maybe it's because we're expecting a baby, but I was content to witness the miracle of life on our balcony, at least when we were host to a single-family pigeon house.  But, man, the neighborhood has gone downhill fast.  There's fighting, injuries, missing children.  I am NOT running a pigeon slum on the balcony!

So the last few days I have spent my free time spraying pigeons in the face with a hose and generally evicting everybody.  I'll keep you posted on how things proceed, provided I don't get my eyes pecked out.  

We Took a Trip Downtown

Sadly, much of Juarez is off limits to us FSOs, but we got permission to drive through the downtown area with a few friends of ours to get a feel for central Juarez.  It was nice to be able to get out and walk around a bit.  Many parts of the border feel kind of like the US, so it was fun to feel like you were really in Mexico.  There's not a ton to see downtown, however, besides a small plaza and the old Cathedral (and a pet store that sells cute Chihuahua puppies). 

We Made Homemade Pop Tarts from Scratch

We had a couple birthdays in the Consulate over the last few weeks, and Sarah was kind enough to do some baking for the celebration.  I was just expecting some muffins or something, but this is Sarah we're talking about, which meant we spent Thursday evening whipping up some homemade pop tarts.  We went with cherry-filled and nutella-filled, and let me tell you, they are worth the effort.

I Beat that Stupid Peg Game at Cracker Barrel  

If you have eaten at a Cracker Barrel in the last 20 years, then you know what I'm talking about.  Every table has that little game where you jump pegs until you have no more moves left.  For perhaps the first time in my life I finally made it to one peg.  This is perhaps the crowning achievement of my 30 years on earth.  I mean, that bald dude behind me seems pretty impressed.