Some cute Katie pictures...

She's Here!!!!!!!

Katie Noelle was born at 3:15am here in Lisbon (that's 7:15pm in Ca)!! She weighs 3.31 kilos (almost 7.3 pound) and is 49.5 cm (about 19.5 in). She's healthy and doing great! We were able to come home from the hospital last night (Wed.) around 8pm. The hospital care was great and the delivery was actually pretty fast. I'll write more about it later. For now, here's some pictures to enjoy!

Hello World!

First family photo

A long night...

Ready to go home

Waiting...

Today is December 15th. According to my first doctor my due date is tomorrow, December 16th. According to my second doctor (who we have now) my due date is Monday, December 17th... The baby hasn't decided who's right yet so we're still waiting to find out...

My mom is here now. She arrived on Wednesday and will be here for a month to help us out. Yeah for cleaning and cooking for me! :-)

In case you are wondering, yes we've decided on a name, and no, we're not telling! We didn't set out to keep the baby's name a secret but it took us so long to decide and we're so close to the end now that we've decided not to tell until she shows up.

That's all the news from here... for now...

Since every post needs a picture if at all possible, here's one of my belly a few weeks ago.
In our pregnancy class they had a professional photographer come in and take pictures of everyone.
The photographer thought my belly was SO round she took a picture of just my belly.
Isn't it cute? :-) It is bigger than it looks here!!!!

Santa Traditions

There aren't too many chimneys for Santa to come down with all of the apartment buildings here. So, what does Santa do? How does he manage to get in and deliver the presents? Through the window, of course! He's actually called the robber. So sweet... hmmm...

So, many people put these Santas hanging outside their windows to show him climbing up his rope ladder to get in. Here's one we saw today:

The Baby's Room

This is the baby's room! The wall is actually darker than it looks in this picture. I really like the way it turned out. Jonathan and Laura painted it while I put together the changing table. There's still a little more I'd like to do like put some things on the walls. But, it's ready for Baby if she decides to come now!

The rocking chair is actually quite a novelty around here. This is the only one we found here. One store carries one kind of rocking chair! Good thing we like it! Really, that's my kind of decision. There's only one to choose from! No other colors, no other styles. It's quite comfortable and has the little foot rest that goes with it. Here's the best part. Directly translated they call it a "breastfeeding sofa." Ha ha ha! Isn't that funny! Jonathan was bummed because we decided that must mean he can't sit in it. :-) The Shoemakers gave us money to get it for an early Christmas gift! Thank you!!

Here's Jonathan and Laura painting

Jonathan concentrating...

The Proud Parents

Isn't she cute!? :-) We were trying on the Baby Bjorn carrier that Laura delivered for us (along with lots of other fun stuff!!) and thought this was a cute moment. He's going to be a great dad! :-)

Laundry

Do you know what this is? This is the baby's first load of laundry! We're getting ready...

We saw the doctor yesterday and she said it doesn't look like this baby is coming out any time soon... We'll see...

Pretty Flowers

When Laura was here we went to a really big farmers market kind of place in a small town about a half an hour away. It was cool to see all of the fresh fruits and vegetables and things the farmers had brought in. It was also fun to see the gypsies selling their things like "real" Gucci purses and lots of clothes for really cheap.

Well, I found this beautiful bunch of 20 Gerber daisies for only 4 Euros (about $6)! I couldn't pass it up! So we brought them home and I went to the kitchen to arrange them in a vase. As I started to trim their stems I noticed a small white bug flying off the flowers. Then two. Then three and more and more. Laura suggested I rinse them under the faucet to wash off the bugs. Oh no! That made TONS of bugs start flying around! Yikes! Not good!

So to avoid infesting the apartment with bugs we decides to banish the flowers to the window sill in a jar. We could still see them and enjoy them - and so could the neighborhood!

Maybe I won't buy the cheap flowers at the market next time... I'll at least check for bugs first!!

Laura is here!

Laura is here visiting this week and we're having a great time! Here's us at the castle on Monday. Yeah for visitors! :-)

Priority

Here's another fun cultural tid-bit for you. You'll find signs like these posted in lots of public places around here like government offices or the DMV or the grocery store (where I took this picture - and yes, that's Teri in the background).

People - especially women - carrying small children, pregnant women, and disabled people get "prioridade" - priority - in lines.

If you hadn't noticed, I fall into one of those three categories. Man has it been helpful sometimes! We recently had to do the paperwork for our Portuguese drivers licenses. Just like the DMV back home, the lines here are long and slow! We got to cut in front of about 100 people because I have "priority!"

This has also been a little embarrassing from time to time. It's SO great to have everyone stare at and make a big deal about the pregnant lady especially when she doesn't necessarily understand what's going on!

This is actually a law here (like the yellow reflector vests!) but I'm not sure where all it applies. It does apply on all public transportation like the metro, buses, and trains. There's little signs like this posted next to the best seats on the bus and people could actually be fined if they don't stand up and give me their seat! At first when people offered me their seat and I really felt fine, I felt bad taking it. But I quickly figured out it was better to just say thank you and sit down because whenever I'd say no, I'm fine thanks, they'd keep asking or someone else would offer and practically force me into the seat.

Then again there are the times when there are able-bodies looking men sitting down and no one offers their seat. Come on! There's an 8 month pregnant lady standing here, buddy! :-)

Of course all of the women push me to the front of the line in public bathrooms. There's even designated parking places at the mall and in major parking lots! It's great!

We think this would be one of the cultural things Portuguese people would find strange in the US, that we don't automatically give priority to people in these categories.

It's a major plus to being pregnant here!

The Hero

While Mom and Teri were here we had a bit of car trouble. The roads here aren't always kept up the best and we hit a few major pot holes. The kind that you can't avoid because there's other traffic on the road but that can cause fun things like flat tires.

On Wednesday night we were driving home from another town up north a bit and we hit one of these fun pot holes and got a flat tire. It was dark and we were outside of town on a little two lane country road.

So there was my wonderful husband. He donned the required reflector vest and put out the required orange reflector triangle and quickly changed the tire. What a guy!

I bet we were quite a sight. A pregnant lady, a lady in a wheelchair, my cute sister, and a flat tire. So fun! :-)

More Pictures with Mom and Teri

At the airport - Welcome to Portugal!

Wheeling Mom around. Even though I'm the one pushing in the picture, Jonathan and Teri did most of the work during the week. A great team! And major son-in-law points! :-)

In front of a munument. A beautiful day!
Me and Jonathan in Fatima

Eating yummy pastries

A couple of sister pics.

Yes, my tummy is bigger. :-)

Thanks for coming Mom, Teri, and Nancy!

A Visit From Mom and Teri

My mom and Teri are visiting this week! Our good family friend Nancy came too for a couple of days and left Tuesday (amidst an airline pilots strike!).

We started their visit with a great birthday dinner for Matthew at the Davis's.
Here's a group picture. Here's Mom and Nancy eating barnacles and shrimp. Yum!

Here's Teri and Nancy doing some sightseeing.

On Sunday afternoon we stumbled on a cultural festival. It was really cool! This is a girl dressed in traditional clothes. The next is a video I took of some of the traditional dancing. I especially love the singing in the background. It was live music!

Baby stuff

We bought a crib! It's from Ikea like most of the rest of our furniture! Here's Jonathan putting it together. I'll post more pictures as we get the baby's room more set up.


Here's me at 31 weeks! The tummy is feeling very big right now. This picture doesn't look as big as I feel... :-) That means the baby's growing! She's moving around a lot too.

My mom and Teri are coming to visit next week! They'll be here for a week to be tourists and see the city. Our plans have changed a bit though because my mom broke her foot on Sunday! She's in a cast and can't put any weight on it for at least two weeks. Oh my. Lisbon and Europe in general are NOT wheelchair friendly! So we're going to have to be creative!

Cultural Differences

In our pregnancy class they said if you're smoking, you really should try to stop. But, we know it's really hard so, if you can't quit, no more than 5 cigarettes a day is ok. What!?! We'd heard from a friend who lived in Spain for 10 years and had two babies there that her doctor told her the same thing. But that was 13 years ago! Hmmm...

We think we saw on the news today that Schwarzenegger passed a law (or maybe is trying to pass a law) in California that bans smoking in cars when there are kids inside. Is that true? We were in a restaurant just reading Portuguese sub titles because we couldn't hear the report so we may not have understood correctly.

That's quite a cultural difference!

My Kitchen Window

Can you tell what that is? It's an airplane about to land. No, it's not about to hit those buildings, even though it looks like it. The airport is just right in the city.

This is the view out my kitchen window. We're really close to the airport so we see (and hear) planes landing everyday. It's fun when visitors come. We think we've actually seen the planes with people we know on them.

Something else about my kitchen window - we hang our laundry outside to dry on the line. My belly is getting bigger so I'm getting to where I can't quite reach. Jonathan's going to have to start doing it for me! :-)

Learning...

Tonight we did something I bet you've never done before.

We went to our first birth preparation class. In Portuguese! Yikes!

You know, when I thought about having children I didn't picture giving birth in a language other than English. Well, our doctor speaks English but there's no guarantee she'll be there for sure when I deliver - doctors do go on vacation and that kind of thing - and there's no way of knowing if anyone else like the nurses or other staff will speak English either. So, I guess it's a good thing we're learning the words for this in Portuguese! What an adventure!

It went well. There's only four other couples and the instructor was really nice. And it's right down the street from our apartment!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

Futebol

We had a very cultural experience a week or two ago. We got to see the Portuguese national soccer (futebol) team play against Serbia. It was really fun! We heard the national anthem for the first time with thousands of people singing at the top of their lungs, we got to cheer with the masses when they scored a goal, and we got to hear them whistle when they didn't like a call a ref made. This happened many times!

I don't think Baby Shoe appreciated the whistling! She was moving around A LOT when it was really loud.

It was a great cultural experience.

Us with our friends Christine and Rui and the national flag

Any soccer fans out there? Do you know who Cristiano Ronaldo is?
That's him, right there! Can you see him?? The guy in red. No, the other guy in red!

What Goes Around Comes Around...

As you know I was a teacher for six years before moving overseas. Every year I had many students who were learning English as their second language. My first couple of years I had a student come in who didn't speak any English at all. These poor kids! But it was always amazing to see how far they could come in a year.

Well, now I'm the second language learner. I am living in a culture that does not run on the English language. Oh my, is it a challenge! Yes, we have learned A LOT. We have come a long way in the last year. But we still have far to go. It is SO humbling.

I had a moment a few weeks ago in class when my teacher had me read out loud to her from a book. It was like a scary flash back to all of the times I had to give my students reading tests where they had to read out loud to me and then answer questions. **Attention teachers** Just because the kid can read the words doesn't mean they understand what the words mean!!!! I know, I was reading the words but there were plenty that I had no clue what they meant. I was nervous and I was slow and oh my, I felt so much sympathy for my students. I'm telling you, if/when I go back to teaching, I will be a MUCH better teacher because of this experience. I will have such a greater understanding of what the kids are going through and what's going on in their heads. (Like, huh, I have not clue what she just said but I think if I nod and smile no one will notice.)

I often brought home papers to grade and I would sometimes read amusing things to my roommates or Jonathan and we'd get a good laugh. (Remember Andrew's box tops, Kim?) What goes around comes around...

On a test in our first semester of class last fall we were supposed to label the pictures with the action the man was doing. Like, "the man is washing the car." I don't think we even had to write a complete sentence. One of the pictures showed the man brushing his teeth. How many of you can tell me how to say "brushing his teeth" in a language other than English? Well, I couldn't for the life of me remember the correct verb so I wrote down the one that seemed the best. I wrote, "o homem esta a aspirar os dentes." Do you want to know what I wrote? I wrote, "the man is vacuuming his teeth." Oops. So when our teacher brought the tests back the next day she stopped when she came to mine and said, "Oh Traci, this was so funny, I read it to my whole family and we laughed and laughed. He vacuums his teeth!!! Ha, ha, ha! We kept picturing a man with a vacuum cleaner to his mouth."

Yep, what goes around comes around...

Did I mention this was humbling?

Hitting the Road

This weekend we decided to use the luxury of having a car and head out of town. Portugal is a small country but there is SO much to see. Each region is quite different from the others. They all have their own food specialty, pastries, and accent!

This was what Jonathan had for lunch. One of the local specialties! Goat cooked in wine. He said it was pretty good.

So our destination Saturday was Coimbra. This is one of the oldest cities in the country (maybe the oldest...) and it has the second oldest university in Europe.

It was about a two hour drive away and a lovely destination!

Pretty flowers climbing up an old wall.

View from the top of the hill.
The city is built on a hill so lots of climbing up and down stairs and cobblestone streets.

Me looking down the main street. Yes, I'm feeling big...

Jonathan checking out the sights.

It was a long day but a nice day. We're thankful for our car :-) and a country that's full of beautiful places!

New Car!

About a week ago we bought a car!

We spent our first year here without a car and it was a great learning experience just getting around by public transportation and the goodwill of friends and teammates. We certainly know the city metro system well!

But now we are glad to have the freedom that comes with having a car. Yippee!

Yep, it's small but it has 4 doors, air conditioning, and room in the trunk for a stroller. That was all I asked for.

We fit in really well in this car - there are about a million small, silver, hatchbacks driving around this city!



Now you can pray for our safety! People here are generally very polite and kind but all that seems to change when they're behind the wheel of a car. One of our guide books said that high-speed tailgating is a national pastime. Oh my...

It's a...

Girl!!!

Yep, that's right, it looks like we're going to have a little girl!



The ultrasound went really well and the doctor said things look good. It is pretty amazing what you can see in these ultrasounds! And this one wasn't even 3-D! We could see the brain and all 4 chambers of the heart and see both little feet. Really amazing.

No, we haven't picked a name yet. It's a big decision! This kid will have to live with this name for the rest of her life! No pressure.

She seems to be doing well. She is definitely growing (and so am I...) and she's moving around a lot!

Mama Mia Tacos, Please

While we were at the conference there was someone I'd never met before wearing this shirt. Look closer...


Second line from the bottom...

The Whole Enchilada! Our favorite place! It's world famous! There I was in France and someone is sporting a shirt with The Whole on it. Way to represent!

Family Conference in France

We just returned from a week in France with about 100 other folks from our organization. It was a great time to connect with people and hear a great speaker. Here are a couple of pictures from the week!

These were some of the staff and cooks at the conference/vacation center we stayed at. They were all very nice. The food was good too! Do they look French or what?

Jonathan and Matthew

Note Matthew's A's hat. He loves that team. He pretty much can't talk about anything else.

All of us in this picture are supported by the Diamond Bar church!

The Lisbon City Team back together after a summer traveling all over the place!
We have a great team!

One year ago today...

Do you know what today is? Today is one year since we got on the airplane and moved to Lisbon. Wow. It really seems crazy to think that we have lived outside of the US for a year - with likely many more to come.

Saying goodbye at the airport was nothing less than traumatic. After we finally said goodbye and walked to security the security guard asked me if I'd been running because it looked like I was hyperventilating from crying so much... I didn't laugh at his trying to be funny...

It was a bit of a crazy time to be traveling internationally. We had been planning to leave two days before but changed at the last minute when we were waiting to see when my mom's surgery would be. Then the craziness in London happened so our British Airways flight got canceled the day before we were leaving (maybe not such a bad thing as they're not our favorite airline). We were able to rebook with a random German airline that flew through Düsseldorf. Have you ever been to Düsseldorf?

It all turned out fine in the end. Highly emotional but we made it through.

I can't seem to find any pictures from that day but that's probably ok - I don't think we were at our best!

We arrived in Lisbon late Saturday and left early Sunday for a conference in France. Such world travelers!

Tomorrow we leave for the same conference in France with folks who work all over Europe, Russia, and a few other areas nearby. It'll be great to connect with these folks again. We have a great area over here.

It is neat to look back and see how far we've come this year. Learning a new language, trying to get used to a new culture, being far away from what is familiar and comfortable... Thankfully, this is much more comfortable now and more and more familiar too. We are thankful to be where we know the Lord wants us to be.

Well, thanks for remembering this momentous occasion with me!

All posts need a pictures so here's one of us in downtown Lisbon the week after we arrived...