Life without Taj! or Life since Taj!

My parents getting out of church

 Well, this is the first day after 18 weeks that I feel normal enough to do normal people stuff, I have also run out of my morning sickness medication (which makes me sleep all day), I don’t need it anyway. My last post was on November when we lost our dear kitty Taj, and a lot of things have happened since then. Before that, in October, my mom was in a horrible situation, some of you know that my parents did not go to school and have always had to struggle in order to provide for me and my siblings. In April of last year they were told by the bank that they needed to pay certain amount to keep their home, and of course being a family that have always lived pay check by pay check it was a shocking and impossible amount for them to obtain without going into terrible debt. The week before conference I was talking to my mother on the phone and she was crying, she said that had lost all hope and she did not know where to turn. I had invited my parent to church but they were never interested and I always try to give them their space, I try not to be pushy but teaching by example. That day I felt so strong the need to decide something for her for the very first time in my life, I told her that the following day I would have somebody pick her up and take her to my church for general conference. She was so sad and concerned that she did not say anything. I made phone calls and sent emails and Facebook messages as quickly as I could and manage to find a sister who would go get my mom and take her to church. I was so scared and worried, but I told her that the only way I could help her was by sharing what the gospel brings to my life. We had prayed so hard for that moment to come! And that Saturday night we knelt down and asked Heavenly Father to touch their hearts (My dad went with my mom to support her, I really think she forced him though). Elder Hales delivered what my mother and father were hoping for. After that and thanks to our precious angels as they like to call them, my parents were able to keep their home. They still struggle since my dad lost his job in December, but they keep investigating the church and trying to deal with their problems differently. Things are hard for them, but I cannot be happier. I just hope they soon make the decision to join the church, I keep praying, hoping, and being an example for them.

Golden Key Honour Society's Member of the Year

 During the Fall semester I made a commitment to myself that I would use any free time to give service. When I started studying I felt horrible that nobody would give me a scholarship no matter how high my GPA was because I did not spend enough time at school activities, and after receiving a scholarship for academic excellence I decided that then was time to do something more. Spending all night studying makes you a good student, but there is more that you can do, not only to gain experience but to help other. I spent A LOT of hours helping in youth conferences, book drives, translating manuals for the church into Spanish (19 of them are now part of the Teachings of the Prophets manual in Spanish), I also spent hours in the mediation center for parent and teens as an Spanish interpreter among other activities, all this while keeping my 4.0 GPA. I made myself know in the Spanish department at UVU and was invited to be the official interpreter for a talk that was going to be given by the First Lady of Honduras, I ended up not doing it because the people who were coming with her was not comfortable with the interpreter being a student, but at least I know what I am capable of. Anyway, because of all this service I was given the “Golden Key Member of the Year Scholarship”, which is a big deal since members of this society are the top 15% of their classes.

Mike works for UGL Services in the Clark Atlanta University account 

 In December we also had to make a decision about Mike’s first job after graduating from BYU. This was one of the biggest tests for me. Thank Goodness he got a lot of offers; we could have gone to New Mexico, Washington D.C., Nebraska, Atlanta, or even Hawaii. He felt that the best opportunity was in Washington D.C. and I knew that I was going to be miserable because I am not used to the cold at all (I sleep with an electric blanket all year long!), but I knew that I needed to support my husband, so I told him I did not want to go there but that I would if he thought it was the best for our family. I remember myself crying myself to sleep because I thought I would be so far, so cold, and so alone, and then it all changed. I was a missing something very important for women that month and had not even realized because I was so caught up with finals and job decisions, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. Before I told Mike I told him I was willing to go wherever he decided to go and that I would do it happily, I knew I wasn’t going to be alone and that I was going to be busy to even think about it. At the end we decided to take the job in Atlanta because he wants to get a master’s degree at Georgia Tech, because the benefits were the best of all offers, and because he loves me enough to choose a warm place for me to be. And he is having fun being one of the few white people in his office. I have had the hardest 18 weeks of my life, I have lost more than 10 pounds and I have been in urgent care once for dehydration, but at the same time I have blessed with a husband that loves me and takes care of me, we live in a beautiful place, we live two blocks from our chapel AND the Atlanta GA Temple, I wake up every morning and I see squirrels and all kinds of birds, and most importantly our baby is healthy and strong I am feeling normal again. I tried to handle online classes but as hard as it is for me I had to take a break and take it easy, classes are very stressful when you have to do it in a second language and not even seeing your professor.

My parents Luis and Queta, my brother Erick and my sister Ligia

 I feel good, since the day I came to this country I have had high expectations for myself. I realize that in order to change the stereotype in which Mexicans (and Latinos in general) have fallen I have to be an over achiever. I have felt love and hatred from people that I would never expected to make nasty remarks about my people, one day a Pepsi guy refused to do what I told him to do and told my boss that I was only a Mexican and that he would not work with me, my boss then told him he had to report to me every time he went to the school. Or when somebody said that Mexicans were scary looking, or when people give their opinion about how horrible Mexican music is. I take it personally because when I hear or read things like that I think of my honest, loving parents, I think of my brother who is working his way to school, I think of my sister who is a loving sister, wife and daughter who doesn’t have to work but does it to help my parents, and I think of my ancestors and my posterity. I want people to think twice before they say or write hurtful thinks about Mexicans because even though I know that there are a lot of them making horrible choices in this country that doesn’t speak for all of us. I use to think that Americans were blond people who liked guns and beer. I used to think that every American I saw was a criminal escaping justice or a Spring Breaker going to Mexico to get drunk at 18, and that all changed when I met my dear husband. I have learn that what I see is not all and my hope is that my children might always cherish their heritage, I want them to know that their mom always tried to be a better mother, sister, daughter and wife. I am not perfect, but I know that through the gospel one day I will be. I guess I am sharing this because all the thing I do I do thinking that it will make my family, my country and my people proud, and ultimately and hopefully is going to make people who know me think twice before trying to define how Mexicans are.

By the way, DON'T SHOP, ADOPT! ;)

 I miss everyone, my family in Mexico and my family in Utah, I miss Dave and Sherrie, Mike’s brothers and sisters, and I absolutely miss our nephews and nieces, but I know is time for us to be on our own and start our little family. I also miss everybody’s pets. I grew up with a mom that encouraged us to help animals; I never had a problem bringing a cat or a dog home, we all love animals deeply and until now I have always been around animals, call me crazy but when nobody is listening I love speaking to them like they were people, especially when I am sad, I know they understand, and unlike people they don’t care who you are, what you are wearing, or what you’ve done, they just love and I love that. I have had the hardest time finding our first dog, first of all we live in an apartment and they have breed and weight regulations, I didn’t know chow chows are considered “aggressive” that’s ridiculous, then we have gone to several shelters and every time I came out crying because it kills me the way they have to live, they are scared and they don’t know what is going on, then I get mad because most of them are owner surrenders. So I can only take one home and it kills me to think that there are millions that have to stay in cold, stinky and noisy shelters. I guess I just don’t know how to choose one since I love each and every one (I know I sound crazy) Anyway, that is what’s going on here in Georgia, I am 18 weeks pregnant, we are supposed to know the sex of our baby in two weeks but my appointment is at the end of March so we will have to wait until the 30th, at the beginning I wanted a girl, I still do, then I started having dreams in which my baby always appears to be a boy, right now I don’t really care, I am just grateful that even though I had such a horrible first trimester the baby is doing just fine, I just want a healthy baby that gets to be as good as his or her wonderful daddy.

Baby Anthony at 12 weeks!!

 Lots of love from Georgia!!