Fourth entry of my Musings!!
It has occurred to me that in my previous post I shared with you about the birth of my daughter and how I said that “all of a sudden I felt a cramp” and it hit me that I was implying that my labor lasted about an hour or less…… Nooooo, that was not the case. I obviously had been having labor pains but ignored them because it didn’t bother me much. So, there you have it. I didn’t want you to think that I was an anomaly, I just didn’t suffer long with labor pain and also happen to have very high pain tolerance.
I’m beginning to enjoy this, a lot, even though I’m not very savvy about technology and keep bugging my kids for orientation as to how to do this or that. All I know is how to turn the computer on and go to the site; same thing about the car, just know how to put gas in the tank and viola!!
For some reason I can fathom, right now I’m nervous. Could it be that my nervousness is because I’m not sure if this is being seen and or read; I know, some friend have read it and some have left comments, but any one else? Helloooooo!!!
Back on track. When the time came around that I was going to spend my first Christmas in this country, I was very nostalgic missing my family, friends, foods (most of all my mom’s delicious tamales) the dances, and all the joy and laughter, as a result, I used to cry a lot. Back in the country of my birth, Christmas is a time to share with family, friends and neighbors. In my home town we enjoyed the town’s fair when we could ride the ferris wheel and other rides. My girl friends and I would walk around arm in arm enjoying the bingo and loteria games; to this day, I close my eyes and I can smell the delicious aromas of the local dishes being cooked such as rice and beans with coconut milk; pollo guisado (stewed chicken); pierna horneada (baked pork leg); pan de coco (bread made with coconut milk); pineapple pies; and the Kack-ic, a spiced turkey soup, yum!! That first Christmas was one of the hardest for me: No midnight mass; no dance; no rice and beans; no pierna horneada; no kack-ic; no staying up all night going from house to house visiting neighbors and friends, but worst of all, no hugs from my parents and siblings. I not even had the comfort of hearing their voices because at that time it was almost prohibited to make a phone call, it cost almost $5 a minute to make a call!! Yes, I felt very nostalgic and lonely. Up to this day, nothing has ever made me forget those idyllic days of my care free youth!
When the new year came along and I was about to be here for a year, my English speaking and understanding had improved and I was able to carry out conversations. Of course, since I’m a Spanish speaking person, I had, and still have, an accent but I, to this day, tell people that I don’t hear an accent that it must be in their ears.
We didn’t own the place where we lived but stayed there three years; one day my husband came home and told me that we were moving as he was changing jobs. When the day came for us to move, it was a little hectic because by then I had two more kids. Our new home was some 50 miles north and this being a northern state, it was much colder. I’m not going to claim that I had an ideal marriage or that it was easy going, no it wasn’t. I haven’t told you that I had a May/December marriage and as a result, my husband was very jealous and I wasn’t allowed to visit neighbors nor was I able to go anywhere by myself. My days were spent caring for my children and doing all the chores a woman and mother does in her home, but by then I had learned to cook which was a little triumph. In this new place we had half an acre of land and we were able to plant vegetables and a flower garden. It felt so good to go out into the vegetable garden to harvest fresh green beans, carrots, corn, lettuce and other things; there’s nothing better to eat than fresh vegetables. It was summer and I was preparing to make a cake to celebrate my second son’s birthday and it was Friday the 13th; I went out to the garden to water and cut some corn. I was nearly 7 months pregnant and as the ground was wet, I slipped and fell down, got up and went inside to cook dinner and feed my children. I felt uncomfortable and went to the bathroom and what I saw scared the life out of me. There was something coming out of me and it was not my baby. At that moment, my husband happened to walk in and I called him; he took one look at me, put the kids in the car, bundle me in and drove me to the hospital. I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who I was not able to hold even for a minute as he was immediately placed in an incubator. The doctors were amazed that he was alive because what was coming out of me was the after birth -my baby came after and the cord around his neck- My sweet boy was taken to another hospital that had better equipment to care for my new baby; my husband would go see him but I did not see him again until almost two months after he was born. The day my husband brought my baby home I felt like I was in heaven. I was learning to become a strong woman!
Talk to you later and ’till next time!