Merry Christmas!

This was our first Christmas with my family since we've been married ... our first was spent up north with Mike's family ... our second was spend in Singapore with Mike's other family ... and finally, this was the year to spend with mine! I must say the timing was perfect because it would have been difficult to be away from home being soooo pregnant! I was really excited to be able to be with my side of the family -- even JP flew in from NY! However, getting to this Christmas Eve celebration was quite tiring because we were finalizing our move to Tita Bot's place. After tonight, we'd be nomads =) ...

Since it was going to be our first Christmas with my family, my mom asked me and Jay to come up with something special to celebrate. After brainstorming, I came up with the theme of BLESSINGS. Each person was to create a box and put 3 things that symbolized 3 different blessings he/she received that year. We would each take turns opening our "gift" in front of each other and explain what each item represented. I figured it would be a great way to reflect together as a family on all the wonderful gifts God has given us this year. I know I definitely had so much to be thankful for ... it was almost too hard to just pick 3! The 3 I came up with was: 1)My baby -- the fact that I received the gift of motherhood this year was such an overwhelming thing for me. I was honored that God felt I was ready and able to raise a child. I chose the symbol of a baby booty to represent Zoe. 2) My family -- the support that Michael and I have received this year (and every year) has been tremendous. From providing a place to stay while we figured out where we would live, to always assuring us that no matter what happened, we'd be ok. The love from our family has been our major constant in our lives and for that, I will forever be grateful. The symbol I chose for my family was a star (i.e. North Star) 3) My husband -- what would I do without my husband? He is always trying to make sure me and Zoe are taken care of and that our lives will be comfortable. He works hard and is always trying to find new ways to put our family in a good place. I chose a calculator for him -- not because he's good in math, but because he's always trying to find ways to add, subtract or multiply things that would equal a good life. It was so interesting to hear what other people had to say. Even though we all know each other, it was great to be able to see another side of one another and to hear just what that person had been through that particular year. There was a lot of crying ... a lot of laughing ... a lot of beautiful memories. I was so happy our little exercise turned out great and hopefully it can be a tradition that's carried on for a long time!

We then went to mass at the Cathedral and was blessed with another beautiful homily by Father Francis. After mass, back to the house for more food and gift opening. We also had our Secret Santa gift exchange and the funniest thing happened -- Jay, Mike and Jeric all got the same exact Marc Ecko hoodie! It was sooooo funny!

I have to say it was one of the best Christmases we've had in a long time and I know Zoe could feel the love and happiness all around. I can't believe next Christmas we'll have a little girl running around asking to open up presents!!!

"We're Expecting" Homily at the Cathedral!

Our good friend Msgr. Kevin asked Michael and I to do something very special for the Cathedral ... he asked to us to be part of his homily! The gospel reading was about when Mary and Joseph first annouced that they were "expecting" ... he thought what better way to preach about how wonderful it feels to be expecting than to hear it from two people that really were expecting! He wanted us to speak for a few minutes on how we felt when we first found out we were pregnant, how we told our families and what role God will play in our new family. We were so honored and excited (and a little bit nervous) to be able to evangelize for God in this special way ...

We spoke at both the 8 am and 10 am masses and it went really well! A lot of people came up to us afterward to thank us for our pro-life message and to wish little Zoe well! How blessed we are to be able to introduce Zoe to the Cathedral community while still in the womb! We are doubly blessed because we now have the entire Cathedral community praying for us! This will be especially helpful to calm any fears and anxiety we have re the c-section and fibroid. God is truly sooooo good to us!

Here's the videos:

CHANGES!

They say the only thing constant in life is change. Perhaps that has never been more true in our life than this very month ... As we prepare to have a baby in about a month, we are also preparing to move out of our condo and into my aunt and uncle's place. We were planning on staying there indefinitely so that we can have help with the baby and also not have to rush to find a new place. We were sure we weren't going to move back into our condo in Pasadena so we thought staying at my aunt and uncle's downstairs unit was the best option for now. So we've been physically and mentally packing to leave the west side. I've been trying to do what I could given my size but the bulk of the work still fell on Michael ... So that was Plan A ...

Plan B came out of nowhere this week. Michael got offered an amazing opportunity from one of his former clients at KPMG. They actually found him on Facebook since his KPMG info was no longer valid. They offered him the position of corporate controller! At first, Michael turned it down because it was too far (Carpenteria) and he had just started his new job with Singer just 6 months ago. When he initially told me about it, he brushed it off as a good opportunity, but wrong timing. However, they came back 2 more times -- each time "sweetening the deal" a little bit more. It got to the point where I told him we should really consider this opportunity. It was knocking on his door for a reason (a persistent knocker at that) so maybe God wanted us to pursue this path. As we talked more about it, we compromised on perhaps moving to Oxnard or Camarillo so as not to be too far from family and friends and our life in LA. Another good thing about this opportunity was that it would allow me to stay at home with the baby instead of going back to work. I never really let myself think about how great it would be to do that, but after talking with Michael, we came to a conclusion that there was no greater blessing than being able to stay at home with Zoe. I know it sounds funny, but I didn't really jump at the thought of not having to go back to work. I love my job and wasn't sure if I'd be one of those women who after 3 months of maternity leave would be dying to go back to normal "adult stuff" ...but Michael said the sweetest thing to me as we were discussing the possibility of me staying home with the baby ... he said more than anything he wants Zoe to be exactly like me and that he was so happy that she would be able to be raised by me on a daily basis ... how could I say no after that, right? But I still found myself getting pretty emotional during our talks (pregnancy hormones?) because I just felt so overwhelmed by all the changes. Having a baby is already a huge change and we decide to move not once but twice and also throw in all the adjustments that we would need to make in our potential new life. I felt like everything was happening way too fast ... so I prayed .... and I prayed ... and I prayed ... and at the end of my praying, I was at peace. I wanted nothing more than for Michael to have this wonderful opportunity to advance in his career. He's been so wanting to switch to the private sector and the fact that he would be a corporate controller before the age of 30 was just amazing. I didn't want to deny him this experience. I knew that no matter what, we would make it work. We were resilient (sometimes I forget that) and I trusted that God knew what he was doing.

So for now, the plan is still for us to move in with my aunt and uncle. I would stay there from Christmas until a few months after the baby was born. Michael would start his new job in Camarillo and would either commute back and forth to Eagle Rock or stay with his parents in Woodland Hills on the weekdays. Once I was fully healed and ready, me and Zoe would move to Oxnard or Camarillo to be with Michael. We would still go to mass at the Cathedral on Sundays and still be involved in our usual stuff.

I know it sounds like a crazy plan, but we trust God. Who knows were He's really leading our little family ... although I feel like nomads, I find comfort in knowing that the Holy Family were also nomads and they just continued to trust God no matter what ...