Feliz Navidad!

FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOU AND YOURS...MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's been QUITE the year in the Hernandez household. We have been living here in the DR for a little over a year and have made some great memories this past year. We started out the year with Little E's big first day of pre-school. He did so well adjusting to an all Spanish pre-school program and has grown so much in his bi-lingual language skills over the past year. He can say all of his colors, numbers, some of the letters, his name, how old he is, and the words to boss us around in BOTH English and Spanish.

February 27th is Independence Day here and the colegio had a celebration. All of the kids dressed up in typical "campesino" attire, which is the costume of the country people of the past.

Eric was so excited to share a childhood memory of his by taking Little E on his first horseback ride by the river in Jarabacoa.

Eric's easter basket contained his very first Thomas the Tank Engine train...and, it has been a Hernandez obsession since. We actually love that his imagination grows as he replays scenes from the videos on his own track. This one train became a fleet.

The view from our apartment. Santo Domingo has become home. We are taking the "bloom where you are planted" attitude.

Along with teaching classes Eric initiated an institute for structural engineering research at the University where he teaches. They have already purchased a "shake table" for earthquake as well as hurricane and wind damage experiments, and have offered engineering courses to local professional engineers. Eric loves working at INTEC and plans to continue helping them grow their master's program in engineering.

Little Eric celebrated his 2nd birthday with Elmo in June.

Eric's dad and family came for a visit in June. Here is Little E with Abuelo.

I've made some fantastic friends, most are missionaries involved with an all English Bible study I attend. Here I am with April enjoying coffee at our favorite spot La Cuchara de Madera.

We celebrated the 4th of July at the U.S. Embassy's annual party. It was a Hawaiian theme to commemorate Hawaii's 50th anniversary as a state. Here we are standing under the fireworks (which you can't see) with our friends Fernandito and Rhina.

My friends from our Bible study. Most are missionaries doing various work all over the country or work in the Embassy. This group of women were lifesavers to me in the early months as I was transitioning.

Already taking after his father playing chess. He can actually identify all of the chess pieces, in Spanish, of course.

Helping Abuela pick mangoes in Jarabacoa during mango season. Gotta love living under a mango tree, as Eric's grandparents do. Can you imagine just plucking them from your yard. Too bad mango season is a short two months!

Eric playing with his friend, Edwin. They were good buddies until Edwin moved with his family to the states. We miss him a lot.

In August we went with Eric's extended family to Samana, my favorite beach area. The long stretches of beach are lined with coconut trees with not one hotel in sight as they are banned from building right on the beach. The header to my blog is a picture from one of our trips.

Zoila and Paula Marie with me and Eric in Samana.

In September Eric started back to pre-school and is in the "big kid" class. He is the youngest in his class and is keeping up. His little friend Esther, who is the oldest in the class, has kind of taken him under her wing and tries to explain things in English if she thinks he doesn't understand. So cute.

In October we got a visit from good friends, Kelly, Steve and Maddie Josti. We, of course, took the opportunity to go to the beach for a few days. Here we are toasting our friends Anne and Eric in the states who had gotten married that day.

The friends are reunited...Eric and Maddie.

One of my very favorite things I do each week is go out to Cercadillo where I work alongside very good friends Ina, Kirsten, Mercy and some local students and missionaries to teach women how to sew and make handcrafts to sell. Here are some of the dear, dear women sewing.

We wish you all the best as you enjoy the Holidays. Join us in remembering that this is the time of year to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus...Emmanuel, God is with us.

I'm here....I promise.

I'm embarrassed at how long it's been since I've posted last, and that I kind of left our news about not having a baby right now hanging in the air. I have had thoughts at odd times about blogging, times when I wasn't near a computer, or we didn't have electricity. I even started downloading pictures from a recent beach trip (click HERE to see the pics) with our friends the Josti's who came to visit and the power went out right in the middle and I gave up. And, on top of it all I have just really been coasting through each week taking it as it comes and trying to enjoy the things that are right in front of me...like leading the weekly discussion about relationships with the Legado student program at our church, planning for and going out to Cercadillo to work with the women, playing with Eric, learning and practicing Spanish with my friend and tutor Marta...you know everyday things. Cooking, shopping, eating, hosting friends, disciplining and correcting the behavior of a 2 1/2 year old before it goes out of control, spending time with Eric when he comes home after a long day, etc.

I am about to do a year wrap up as a Christmas card to family and friends, as I we are not able to send out a physical card this year. Lot of pictures are coming. But, until then I just wanted to check in and thank you all for hanging with me and giving me the space to take a little breather from the "internets" as Eric calls them.

Plans Change...

We're not having a baby after all. I had a miscarriage last week. Actually, it's my second (the first was before I got pregnant with Eric). Why these things happen I don't know. I know the statistics say something like 20% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage, but that doesn't help your hurting heart much. I still wonder why there was a heartbeat one week and all indications were that everything was good and then there wasn't. What happened to this little one? I keep asking this question to God knowing that I won't know the answer. I wrestle with this...the what happened and why question. I am so profoundly sad that I won't be able to be a mother to this baby or that this little one won't be a part of our family here on earth. My heart smiles, though as I consider that this one is with our Heavenly Father, being spared all the pain and sorrow life on earth brings with it.

I keep thinking of Job in the Bible when he was surrounded with calamity from all fronts he said, "Should we accept good from God and not bad, too?" (my paraphrase). A popular song I have sung in church for years has also be on my mind a lot these days. The lyric is, "You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name." My head is asking the questions, my aching heart is choosing to trust God.

I must say a tremendous blessing has been good friends. Our good friends Kelly and Steve were visiting us while all this unraveled and their presence represented a sense of family and home for me. My mother-in-law went out of her way to make sure Little Eric was taken care of. Friends near and far that knew what was going on have been willing to enter into our grief with us. I have made some really good friends over the past year here, friendships for which I am grateful. What has made a deep impression on me is how many people have openly acknowledged the miscarriage and been heartfelt in their sadness, not mincing words, not feeling akward, not covering it over with idle chit chat. This has been refreshing to me as it has helped the grieving process along for me.

So, here we are pressing on and taking it as it comes. Looking for the good in it all and feeling the sadness along the way. My hope is in Him and his promise that my life and the life of my family is in His hands. The day before all of this happened a friend reminded me that God is saying this to me, "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Then you will have a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)"

Thank you, Lord that your mercy is new every morning. Thank you that I can weep and not fall apart. Thank you that there is hope for more than what I see here on earth. Thank for the incredible husband and child I have right now. You are good. Amen.


* p.s. I have literally been trying to write this for about three days and everytime I actually get a chance to get on the computer and get my thoughts focused the electricity goes out. Today I actually wrote this through four power outtages each time the computer turning off in the middle of a sentence. Is it strange that my 2 1/2 year old knows how to say, "No power or water" ("No hay luz, ni agua). Thank God I am finally done!!

Guess who is going to be a big brother?

Yep...this cutie...who is getting so tall.

I am due at the end of May. So tired. So sick a lot. SO excited!

BTW...this is why I haven't been blogging much...the crummy, morning sick part.

Altos de Chavon

Last weekend we took a day trip to Altos de Chavon. It was just what we needed to get out of the city and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. It's this little village on top of a hill overlooking a river that was built as a replica of an italian village. It is so sweet and quaint with cobblestone paths, little art shops, a cafe, romatic restaurants, waterfalls, and a amphitheater where they often host concerts (Kenny G is coming up, Andrea Bocelli was here in the Spring). I felt like I was in Europe, definately not like the Caribbean, and I didn't want to leave. Can't wait to go back and hope we can make it a romantic trip next time.

Here are a few pics from the day:

The expert map reader.
Eric and Ericito on the stage at the amphitheater.

Pretending to be in Europe waiting to hear the 3 Tenors.

The Church in the middle of the village. You can't see the inticate cobblestone patterns on the ground, but they were amazing.

Happy boys.

The whole village is built overlooking a river.

Here is some of the mosiac work on the buildings.

Eric, me, Edi and Little E.

My Chacabana Man

This past weekend Eric participated in his first graduation ceremony as a full-fledged professor. Most of you know he is a research professor at a University here in Santo Domingo that specializes in technology. To his disappointment, the "proper" faculty attire is not robes and hoods, but Chacabana. Chacabana is a typical Dominican dress shirt made out of linen with two pleated plackets down each side of the front of the shirt and 4 pockets. So, here he is sporting his look for graduation. He did wear his Northeastern pin to show his devotion to his alma mater.

Untitled...not enough coffee or energy to come up with one.

5:18 a.m...I hear the doorknob turn and the pitter patter of little feet..."Mama, ven," which literally means, "Mama, come," but in my head I translate it to mean, "Get out of bed right now. I don't care that it's still dark and I have a fever and a cold. I am ready to hit the day and you better be too."

Where's the coffee? Oh, yeah I need to make it right after I get the little one settled into a Thomas video (that I sadly know by heart). *side note: I actually put the movie on in Spanish the other day so we I didn't have to hear it in English ONE MORE TIME. OJ in hand, DVD in, sick child on sofa and the sun won't even be up for at least an hour. Oh joy.

Somehow my sick child becomes more energized when he is under the weather. How exactly does this happen? I used to wonder why the children's channels played cartoons in the middle of the night, but now I know it's really for the adults with sick children who are awoken in the middle of the night and don't have the energy to do anything else but doze on the sofa while their child is happily awake with no idea what "the middle of the night" is. Seriously, when he is sick and he comes into my room at 3 a.m. it's not because he is crying or hurting, it's because he woke up with all of his energy ready for a new day that won't officially get started for a few more hours.

I guess I can be happy that my child is a somewhat easy sick kid. He doesn't really whine and pretty much acts normal. But, why does he have more energy when I need him to be the most laid back so I can get a break from either fighting off what he has or recovering from my own lack of sleep thanks to 4 hour apart tylenol doses and 3 a.m. wake-up calls.

This morning, well before the sun was up (he actually pointed out the window at the moon), he watched about 5 minutes of the video, ran to his room to play with his train, ran back to the dining room to play with his trains at the table, rode his big wheel around the house, laid in bed with me for exactly two minutes and is now running back and forth from his room to the living room.

It's going to be a long day.

Look what I got today...

Today I had my first experience with a "missionary sale". I had heard of these sales shortly after I moved here, but since I'm not really in the complete missionary "loop" (you know I really just hang out with all the cool missionaries) I always seem to hear about them a day too late. Missionary Sales are basically yard sales that happen when a family moves back to the country they are from and they usually sell EVERYTHING. Well, I got the word from my friend Kirsten, who is always in the know, about a sale that took place this morning. The family moving has lived here for 15 years or something like that and has run a school, so you can imagine all of the possibilities of things they might be selling. It was packed and I saw a lot of my friends there, which was fun. And, I'm not sure where all of the stuff came from, but there was a ton of very random things, not unlike what you might find at a yard sale in the states, but a little surprising for me to see down here.

The best part, by far, was going through all of the school supplies and books they had. I really had to use self-control because I could have bought so many more fun finds. I just kept hearing those 6 famous words spoken by my well-meaning husband (words that have changed my pack rat tendancies)..."What do we need this for?"

Well, I came home with all of this for $265 pesos, which is something like $8:

REAL vintage (can I say that if they are from my childhood) Bristle Blocks and Lincoln Logs, some really fun fabric with numbers and equations, which I am sure will become PJ bottoms for little E, 2 christmas trees, a Barney puzzle, a NEW red recorder, a flowered mug, and 4 vintage books (Little Men, 2nd grade Social Studies book, an American History reader, and a children's Bible that I bought because I thought the pictures looked funky and cool).

And, then as I was walking out the woman selling things asked me if I wanted any plants. And, I got this beauty for another $200 pesos. It's a lime tree!!! How fun is that? It doesn't really look like much, but I know the potential it has if I don't kill it first. She said it has pretty little white flowers that turn into little limes. I am wondering if it is a key lime tree.

So, all said and done I spent something like $12...and Big E never asked the million dollar question.

After playing with his Bristle Blocks, Barney puzzle and recorder he pooped out on the sofa. He was so into the recorder that while we were eating lunch he put his hotdog down, picked up his recorder to blow on it a few times, put it back down and resumed eating his lunch.

The Social Studies book was published in 1958 and is awesome. Even though some things are really outdated (like the clothes or the fact that the part on the neighborhood park says that "I can go there alone.") little E and I were reading it together and he seemed to like it. Check this out:
These kids are helping to build a library area in their classroom. Check out the kid with the saw?!

And, then there are these sections called Who can help? where they ask the kids what they would do to help if they were in the picture, and What would you do? where they have these scenarios with blank bubbles above the kids where the reader can say what they would do if they were that particular kid that particular situation. I LOVE THIS and it seems so appropriate for our time, too. I'm sure President Obama would approve (wink, wink).

He's a breadman like his mama.

While I was unpacking the groceries yesterday I kept hearing "mmmm" sounds and this is what I found. Guess he likes those carbs, too. And, couldn't wait for lunch.

Colegio is back in session.

I didn't realize until just now that I only blogged once in August. I guess between power outtages (don't I sound like a broken record, but it's true!) and summer schedules it's been difficult to find a peaceful moment to sit down and gather my thoughts. And, although the weather is no indicating so, the calendar is telling me it's fall and time to regather and organize. Eric started back at his "colegio" pre-school last week. He is in the 3-4 year old class. That's right, I guess he's already showing signs of his father's intelligence and skipping grades left and right. No seriously, he is in the older class at his little school because he is with his same teacher and students from last year. The school just added a classroom for his "pre-kinder" class. It's so cute to see the little table with eight chairs each with the name of a student in the class. And, the room has all the toys and things that are perfect for his age...tinkertoys, a play kitchen with play food (which the kid needs to seriously learn how to "play" eat or we are going to have a cold a month in our house), dress-up clothes, all kinds of puzzles and books, and walls filled with letter, numbers, the calendar, weather, etc. When he started going to colegio in January it was a needed break for me, but now I am more excited about all he is learning. He is exploding with language, colors in english and spanish, letters, of course all of the names of his trains, body parts. And, his time at colegio will really help him with his spanish. I think we are taking advantage of all we can to give him a full bi-lingual experience while we are here.

I am actually kind of busy these days, too, which is a welcome change from the first few months here when I felt a little lost. I have several sewing projects in process from hemming pants and making curtains for friends, to my volunteer work with the women at Cercadillo. I am tuning up all 9 of the sewing machines while Ina is away on furlow in the states. I continue to go out to Cercadillo with my friends, Kirsten and Mercy each Friday to help lead the women's bible study. I am also about to start leading a discussion group in Spanish (hold on everyone) on relationships with a new leadership school that my friends Kirsten and Rich Root have started called Legado. The 10-week series is a DVD driven talk about relationships that Kirsten and I will lead a discussion on afterward, so the Spanish part is really aided by her fluency. But, speaking of Spanish I am about to FINALLY start spending time once a week with a tutor. It's really quite overdue, partially because my previous attempts at tutoring with a few members of Eric's family kept falling through, and partially because Eric thinks I don't really need a tutor and that I just need to talk more. Well, "talking more" has gained me vocabulary and the ability to understand what people are saying to me better, but my grammar lacks a LOT and needs a LOT of improvement. So, my friend Marta, who teaches in a local elementary school is going to come over to my apartment each Thursday afternoon and get me going ahead.

I know I sound like a broken record as I stated earlier, but it's H-O-T. I mean, man it's hot! August and September are supposed to be the hottest months and then it should get cooler (for all my upcoming visitors!). It's just hot and humid from the time you wake up until the time....all the time. We have been kicked in the but with very high electricity bills the past two months (that with regular times when we don't have any power), so we are really trying to conserve and not use our AC until we go to bed at night. Whew! But, at least it's not like this all the time, which is what I thought before I moved here, because every other time I had visited was during this hot season.

We keep hearing stories about thefts and robberies being on the rise, and then on Friday Eric's computer bag with his computer and everything for work was stolen out of the trunk of our car while parked in a supposedly secure parking lot at a mall at 10:30 a.m. with full security all around. How does this happen? Well, no luck in recovering those items, which included some really nice pens in a leather case I gave him for graduating from grad school. And, we have bumped up our family "security alert" to orange, meaning no walking around outside, doors locked at all times, and the particular mall where the theft has taken place is off limits. Bummer.

Well, here are a few pictures of Eric's first day of school. I forgot to mention that his good buddy, Esther or "Esto" is in his class. They kind of look alike with their light hair and olive skin, too.This is the night before Colegio, he was running around like a crazy man in his Thomas undies (potty training has NOT officially started) and his Plaza Sesamo "Fake" eating the food.

Trip to Samana

We recently spent the weekend at our favorite beach (the picture in my header is actually from this beach) on the Samana peninsula. We went with an assortment of cousins, aunts and uncles, and Eric's immediate family. There were 13 plus two kids in total. So much fun was had as we cooked our meals in the outdoor kitchen and ate them on the patio of the villa we stayed in, swam in the pool until our fingers were shrively and visited 3 different beaches. One of the beaches, Playa Coson, was completely deserted and actually couldn't be reached without a 4-wheel drive. We were laughing that to get to this beach in the middle of nowhere you have to literally drive down an unmarked dirt road until you see a tree in the middle of the road at which point you turn right and look for a break in the barbed wire fence where you turn left and follow that unmarked road until you find the beach. Crazy.

And, it was so much fun. Here are some pictures:

One last noteworthy thing to share is that last weekend was our 4th Anniversary and my wonderful husband took me to dinner in one of Santo Domingo's oldest and nicest restaurants that is deep inside a cave. So much fun and so sorry I didn't think to take my camera. I was too busy getting Little E packed for his first sleepover at Abuela's house!