Costa Rica

For those who don’t know, Mike and I are in Costa Rica!! We’ve been planning this trip for almost a year, and it’s finally here. We have internet for 24 hours, because Mike needed to do his timesheet online for work, so I’m using the opportunity to update you all.

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I’ve been jotting down notes in a mini moleskine journal as we’ve moved along, so I’m going to just type up those thoughts. No pics right now – can’t find the camera’s upload cable…

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1.23.10 We flew from DC to Atlanta

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A tropical retreat sits on my tray table, the lime wedge nestled between the glistening ice cubes swimming in a cran-apple juice cocktail. The plan is cold, but I thirstily gulp down my beverage and finish it off with a long, satisfied “Ahh…”

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We’re at cruising altitude, having floated up through misty white clouds up to the blue space that stretches out over a bright white blanket. You can’t look at the white canopy without getting spots in your vision. The sun is directly overhead, spotlighting this steel bird as it drifts across the vast sea of pure white.

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I can feel the dizzying pull of a gradual descent. It is disorienting, and I’ve never liked it. My body feels weighty as its mass is forced downward against a pressurized altitude. In this moment, gravity seems both backward and strong as it feels unnatural to be pushed down to earth, yet the strength with which we move is undeniable and irresistable. Back down to earth where we belong, I will miss the empty, bright, stunning heavens we exist in up here. Back down to earth where we are held by gravity and weight, with vision only as high as the clouds, where the underside of the canopy drapes itself above our earth and heads.

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We will fly again tomorrow, rising through the canopy again and down into a tropical paradise. Vacation has begun.

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1.24.10 We flew from Atlanta to Costa Rica

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We’re here in hot Costa Rica where the airport is one, big, covered patio with overhead fans spinning blades that are ten feet long. The breeze whips through, doing only enough to reveal that you are, indeed, sweating, and it’s glorious. Tropical plants line the perimeter and immigration and customs lines crawl along. I now have a stamp in my passport! I also smuggled a banana into the country. Oops. I’m waiting now, outside again, while Mike waits in line to claim the rental car he reserved for us. The wind is pretty steady, my pants are rolled up, my hair pulled into a messy ponytail. It’s January, and I can’t wait to change into a bathing suit and jump into the clear blue water.

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Costa Ricans, so far, seem friendly if not frenzied. Frenzied and slow, if that’s possible. After making it through customs, we entered another patio area that Mike likened to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lots of yelling, in multiple languages. I was ready to use my rusty Spanish: “Donde esta Avis? Esta aqui?” but didn’t get the chance. We waited for the shuttle (after waiting through the slowest customs line – we tracked them) and are now waiting some more. The Avis building is protected by a gate and a man with a gun. I can’t imagine why that’s necessary…

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This next section is a fleshed-out version of quickie notes I jotted down as we drove through the winding streets to the hotel. The drive took about an hour and a half, past crumbling shacks and dry fields. I’ve bolded all the stuff I listed – the rest is my recollection of the sights 1 day later…

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Not 5 minutes into the drive, we were startled by a cow grazing by the side of the road. No fence to hold him. He was a starving cow, if his tight skin across his ribs was any indication. This is Costa Rica’s dry season, so this was only the first of many emaciated animals we saw amidst dry, dusty, brown fields. The next animals we saw were two oxen pulling a cart. A man led them in front, a fishing pole tossed over his shoulder. In a world with electricity, internet, and motor vehicles, this was a strange sight indeed! Our drive took us past hundreds of rundown shacks where families sat in dilapidated lawn chairs outside. I suppose the air is less stuffy on their porches than inside their houses, because every single house that look inhabited displayed its tenants out front. We got used to this sight quickly, though we felt like we were in a one-car parade as darkly tanned faces turned to watch us drive by. We were surprised, however, to see 4 men playing cards at a table in a ditch. I have no idea what draw the ditch has, but I bet they have a good reason for it. They were surrounded by roosters, chickens, and more emaciated cows and horses. Many houses had fences with barbed wire, or taller cage-like fences all around them. This didn’t shock me, but when we passed a house surrounded by a concrete wall with shards of glass sticking out of the top of the wall, I did a double take. Mike explained to me that this is very common in Brazil, and is an effective security strategy for those who can’t afford better fencing. They stick the sharp glass into the concrete as it sets, and it remains there to keep bad guys out. It does not look very homey. We finally found a radio station with English songs, and stuck to it, despite its wide range of dated and questionable music choices. Another ingenious fence strategy: tall cactus as a fence around meadow land. The cactus must have been at least 12 feet tall. Finally, we passed a place with an English sign! The words? “Pot Farm.” Oh…

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1.25.10 (This morning, as I sat on our balcony overlooking the pool/ocean). Written in my journal.

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Yesterday Mike and I watched the sun set over the ocean. I’ve never seen that before, having never been to the west coast or the Pacific. I may have seen a similar sight over the Gulf of Mexico, but somehow this was different. We are in Costa Rica. Today is our first full day.

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Last night we wandered around the property trying out hammocks, dipping our toes in the winding pool, and walking on the beach. My feet felt Pacific seawater for the very first time. Then we ate dinner outside at the poolside restaurant called “Azul.” Our table was 2 feet from a small pool frequented only by couples getting drinks from the bar. It was twilight and only one couple made use of that area. After dinner, we walked 10 feet to the main pool and enjoyed a few minutes there before I got cold and we headed back to our hotel room for a high class dessert of… little debbie brownies. 🙂

Big News

Friends,

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I have not blogged in oh-so-long. My last major blog, Bizzy Bees, was so long ago, and I’ll admit I’ve been avoiding you/it/the interweb. 🙂 I have a very good reason, though. You see, I’ve been keeping a very big secret about something very small. Something so small, in fact, that it’s only about the size of a lime right now. And keeping a secret while blogging is, well, sort of a contradiction in terms. I just couldn’t bring myself to blog, because the main thing on my mind has been this secret. The Bizzy Bees blog was the only one I could hammer out, and it left out the one thing that was causing us the most feelings of busyness, overwhelmed-ness, joy, and total fatigue.

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I might as well stop beating around the bush… I’m pregnant!!

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We found out on November 20th, right before a wedding that Mike and I were both in, right before Thanksgiving, which we hosted, right before Mike’s birthday, right before we moved. Oh, and right before we left for a 2-week-long vacation after only 6 days in our new home. Needless to say, the last 2 1/2 months have been crrrrrrazy!

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At first, it totally didn’t seem real. I took 4 pregnancy tests. The first 2 were negative, and the third involved me waking Mike up at 5am on our day off to ask if he saw a line on the test. “Am I imagining it? Is that real??” It was so faint, I ran and got my glasses and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Mike groaned and begged to stay in bed, but I nagged him awake. He trudged over, squinted at the test, declared an absolutely positively ambiguous decision: “I dunno,” and went back to bed. Later that day I begged him to buy, while he was out running errands, a dummy-proof test that says the words “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant” on it. Well, I took the test and the word “Not” was conspicuously missing, and our whirlwind began. I called my Doctor and set up an appointment. They told me I could trust the test implicitly: “You are definitely pregnant,” they said. We called our families and told them, and several of the females on the Garment side tested out my ear’s ability to withstand high frequency, high decibal shrieks. Results: I’ll need a hearing aid within a year.

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As time wore on, my symptoms appeared gradually but mildly. A little nausea here, a little there… nothing some cold water and crackers couldn’t fix. Other symptoms cropped up, too, but mostly I was just fatigued beyond belief. I went to bed at 7:30 many nights. Amidst this, we were packing to move, and I would pack a box or two every night and then fall into bed. Despite these symptoms, it still didn’t feel real. I would have moments where I thought “I’m crazy! This can’t be…” and think I must have tricked myself into believing it. I read in one of the pregnancy books that this is a VERY commmon complaint of first-time moms. The “unreal factor” plagues them for weeks, despite some women having really awful symptoms.

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I’ve been tracking my experience to share with you here when the news became “public.” I am now about 12 weeks along. Here’s what that time has been like:

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Nov 29, 2009

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We drove down to meet the newlyweds and their family and friends for brunch in Quantico. On the way, we discussed nicknames for the baby. We didn’t want to use the term “it,” but we won’t know the sex until early March. I was teasing Mike about his tendency to flop around in bed like a fish when he can’t sleep. I called him “Floppy,” and we both thought that name sounded so cute, that Baby Icardi must be called Floppy. So there you have it.

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Dec 9, 2009

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Today I went to my first prenatal appointment. I was so excited, feeling like my pregnancy would finally feel REAL! I needed to hear a Doctor say “Congratulations – You’re pregnant!” I got to the appointment late because I went to the wrong “Dr. Yoon”‘s office first, but I was still excited. They took me in right away, and I settled happily into an office chair, journal in hand, ready for all my pregnancy-related concerns, questions, doubts, and fears to be resolved. Well, that didn’t really happen.

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Mike is out of town this week on a business trip, so I was facing this alone. I wanted him to be there, and that desire grew as the appointment wore on. Not once did a doctor or nurse say “Congratulations” or confirm that I am, in fact, pregnant! They didn’t even give me a pregnancy test – just took MY word for it!

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I’ll spare you inappropriate details, but by the end of the appointment, I was near tears. When I got home, I gave in and cried, feeling like my first prenatal appointment, which should have been so special, was full of scary moments, rude nurses, and sour faces. Not only that, but this pregnancy still felt like a big trick that I was playing on myself and others. I decided that if my next appointment wasn’t better, I would switch doctors. This appointment was with a student nurse who I would never have to see again. So… I held out hope.

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Dec 17, 2009

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Ultrasound day! The student nurse/doctor’s office sent me for an ultrasound to “date” the pregnancy. I didn’t care why I was going – only that it would finally show that I really do have a baby inside of me! Mike was able to get away from work to join me for our first time meeting little Floppy face to, well, stomach… On the days leading up to the ultrasound, and on the drive there, I worried that they would find nothing there and my fears would be realized. Mike kept reassuring me, but I fretted anyway.

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To keep a long and somewhat too-much-information-y story short, let me just say this to new moms: when they tell you to fill your bladder for the ultrasound, they don’t mean “drown yourself.” The doctor was VERY impressed with how full my bladder was, given the fact that it blocked any view of some pretty important stuff! I took care of that problem, and then we got to see Floppy! Head, body, arm nubs, and heartbeat. We couldn’t HEAR the heartbeat, but a monitor picked it up and showed the rhythm on the screen. I cried, and said “So there really IS a baby in there!” The doctor laughed and said yes.

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Jan 6, 2010

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My next appointment was with my regular OB/GYN doctor, whom I LOVED last time I went for a regular checkup. I was a little apprehensive that I had built her up in my mind, and I was dreading the visit. I thought it might be as bad as the last, and I just didn’t have it in me to handle it. But I had NOT built her up in my mind. Dr. Yoon is as sweet, attentive, and knowledgable as I remembered! She answered all my questions, engaged me in conversation, shared wisdom with me from her own personal experience, laughed with me, and made me feel very comfortable. What a relief! Especially since Mike couldn’t come, I was very glad to feel “safe” and taken care of. Dr. Yoon pulled out this handheld “doppler” thingy, which is like a mini-ultrasound machine that emits sound, but no picture. And guess what – this time, I got to HEAR the heart beat. It wooshed along at about 150 beats per minute. Perfect, Dr. Yoon declared. She also said that she hadn’t been sure we would hear the heartbeat, btu because we could, that meant my chances of miscarriage are decreased by 30%.

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The only other thing to note from that visit: the doctor confirmed that I only gained one pound since December 9th. That made me feel good, since I had told people at work about the pregnancy, and they informed me that they could “tell” I was pregnant because of my stomach. or my thighs… no, I’m not kidding.

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TODAY

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I’ll keep y’all updated. As my stomach grows, I’ll try to post pictures. I’ll also let you all know the sex of the baby once we find out (and we WILL find out as soon as scientifically possible!). Please pray for the health and safety of this baby (and me!) and for Floppy to grow up loving God even more than his/her parents do!

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LOVE.