My Mama

This is my beautiful Mama.  I love her so much.  Now that I'm a mom, I love her even more.  I love her for all of the late nights, the bedside nursing, the diaper changing, the thankless tasks, the endless meals, endless dishes and endless discipline.  I cannot say enough how much she means to me.  She taught me just about everything I know.  She taught me about beauty and how to find it in ordinary places.  She taught me the value of making things beautiful and making a home where people feel welcome and safe.  She taught me how to love Jesus and serve others.  She taught me about being not only a good mom, but a good wife.

If we lived in the same country, I would always want to live down the road from her.  She's not merely my mom, she's my friend.  She's the one I ask when I don't know how to cook something or how I should decorate something on a budget.  She can still shop for me and get my taste and size right.  

Maya has recently learned to say Mama, and there is something very special about her calling out to me, "Mama, Mama!"  Something very special about a mom and her girl.  Happy Mother's Day, I love you mom. 

Am I That Old?

Yesterday, right about the time we should have been leaving the house for church, I realized I hadn't fixed my hair or put on makeup yet (I had gotten sucked in to reading someone's blog).  I also still needed to wake up, change the diaper, wipe the snot, fix the hair and put the shoes on my toddler.  Yikes.  Decided the ponytail would have to do, and I slapped on some makeup--just the necessities.  Got Maya ready, and we jumped in the elevator to head down to the parking area.  We jump in the car, and as we're pulling out of our gate, I pull down the visor/mirror, just to make sure I stayed in the lines.  To my horror, what did I find?  MY FIRST BLACK CHIN HAIR!!!!  Now I know that chin hair is part of growing older.  I have observed women farther along in their journey than I plucking those little (insert bad word of choice here)'s out, but ME?  I AM TOO YOUNG TO HAVE BLACK CHIN HAIR!  So of course, something had to be done--I couldn't show up to church with a black chin hair AND a ponytail!  But try as I might, I pulled and pulled at that little (insert same bad word here) but it just would not budge!  It curled, it stuck out--it mocked me, people!  For some time now, Matt has been growing these amazing eyebrow hairs (that for some reason I have always called black georges (sorry if your name is george)).  They are black, usually, and grow about twice as long as his normal brow hair.  I think deep down, I felt superior, because I didn't have any defiant hair growing from my face as yet.  Well so much for superiority (not to mention being five years younger than him)!  I have now joined the ranks of the rogue hair growers.  I am officially old.  Shouldn't my life have more to show for my age than this?  This nasty chin hair?  It's Monday morning, and I'm off to find my tweezers . . .

Random Ramblings

Maya and I were having a little wrestling-fest and I had matt grab the camera.  I had the camera set wrong, so most of them turned out blurry, but I still love them.

 Maya and Daddy's morning routine:  wake up, drink milk, read books, rock in the chair.

 Love these two so much!

 These were the curtains in Maya's room before I chopped them off and added some fun.

They just didn't look right before.

Another before shot.

 Here's the after!  Cute, huh?  :)

Not a very good shot--I still haven't learned how to use the light metering on my camera. . .

Mother's Day

It was Mother's Day here today, so yesterday our church had a lunch celebration together after church.  This is the first sort of "social" thing at our church that we've attended and it was so much fun to get to know some of the folks a little bit better and see how they do a church dinner.  We have been really blown away with how friendly and kind everyone has been toward us.  And accomidating!  It's just amazing to see so many people make an effort on our behalf.  People willing to take care of Maya during the sermon ("nursery" looks really different here).  Providing translation for us any time we want (we choose to stick it out in Arabic, but we've had friends who have taken advantage of their standing offer to translate the sermon for us).  Calling us when we're not there, and I've even had a play date with one of the gals from church who has a little girl a bit younger than Maya!  Also, to celebrate Mother's Day, my precious husband got me a bread machine!  I am so excited!  Now all I have to do is muster the strength to use it.  That sounds simple enough, but even dumping some ingredients in a bread machine has been more than I can do some days (Yes, I continue to struggle a great deal with morning sickness).  I have always disliked the bread here (hard, dry if you want whole wheat, weird and sweet if you go for the slightly softer white).  It goes bad so quickly that you have to keep it in the fridge (someone tells me this is because they don't put all the preservatives in it that bread in the U.S. has, but I say give me some American preservatives!) and keeping it in the fridge makes it even harder.  So. . . . I have always wanted a bread machine so I can (easily) make my own bread!  I am so excited that Matt found one for me!  As soon as I give it a test drive I will let you all know.

Morning Sickness

Well, you might have severe morning sickness if. . . .

• You lurch out of bed in the middle of the night to run to the bathroom and puke (several times a night)
• You carry puke bags in your purse and car (and have had to use them)
• You puke 8-10 times a day, even while on nausea medicine
• You lose weight instead of gaining
• You keep food in your bedside table, just in case
• When choosing what to eat, you consider what that food will taste like when vomited
• The delivery guys from the restaurants in your area all know you by name
• You are unable to touch, cook, or smell meat of any kind
• You fix yourself something to eat, and then become so grossed out, that you cannot eat it
• You debate each night about whether or not to take your pre-natal vitamin because you're pretty certain you won't be able to keep it down long enough to fall asleep
• The smell of your fridge turns your stomach every time you open the door
• You get heartburn so bad from the puking that you stay up several hours later than normal, just to stay in an upright postition to try to get it to go away
• Your 15 month old learns to mimic the sound of puking

I'm gonna talk to my Doc tomorrow and see if there is some other medication I can try.  Suggestions are welcome.  I've tried Motilium (domperidone), Primperan (Metoclopramide), and I'm currently taking Kytril (Granisetron), which only works part of the time.

Teeny Tiny Bit of News

We have a little bit of news.  News about the size of a raspberry to be exact.  The next Jacobsen is in the making--I am pregnant!  I will write a post soon about the havoc that this child is wreaking on my body, but for now, let's just be happy.  And happy we are.  So grateful that the Lord has blessed us with another baby.  I am due October 13th, my little sister's birthday!  My Dr. even surprised me with her willingness to consider a VBAC, if all the criteria is met (i.e. no induction, not overdue, no high blood pressure, etc.).  Our friends who live in the South just had their second daughter, and their first is the age that Maya will be when our #2 comes on the scene, so it's fun to see how she has handled things.  When we went to visit them in the hospital, I was terrified at how Maya lunged and grabbed at the baby and I'm really grateful that she will be quite a bit older when baby #2 arrives.  Please pray for me--I have been very sick this time, and even with a very expensive drug from the states, I still continue to puke multiple times throughout the day and night.  Thanks for celebrating the good news with us!

Baby Doll

We got two sweet baby dolls as a gift from friends, right when Maya was born, and they have been sitting up on the top of her bookshelf ever since.  I noticed the other day that she had noticed them, so I thought, hey, it may be time to get those down.  Maya was fighting a nasty cold, so forgive the jammies, the bedhead, and the snot-crusted nose.  I promise, I do occassionally bathe and dress my child.  I don't know where my camera disappears to in those moments. . . .

I loved what was written on the box--reminded me of my China days.