The countdown is on...

Here is a picture of Lale and Juan - my husband's nephew who also left for Honduras today.

Taken right before they went through the security checkpoint.

Well as I write this, my husband is somewhere in Honduras between San Pedro Sula and Tocoa. Actually he is between La Ceiba and Tocoa. He was supposed to call when he got to his dads house, but they stopped by an aunts house in La Ceiba, so I don't know when he is going to call.

Its been an odd day for me. Last time when he went to Honduras, we weren't married, and there were some other things going on and when he left, we weren't sure what was going to happen. I was six months pregnant with Isa, and it was really very hard for me to deal after he had left. The first time he left we had been together almost two years. Two years of having him by my side day and night - I didn't know what to do when he was gone. After he left, for the first two months that he was gone I couldnt eat without getting sick, I couldn't sleep - I was a mess. The entire 10 months that he was gone, I do not think a day passed that I didn't cry. And the funny thing is, three months after he left, I flew to Honduras and we got married. But while that put things into perspective - as to who I was in his life, and where I stood, it didn't make it any easy to live my day to day without him. Pitiful I know.

At the end of August, when he bought his ticket, I thought for sure I would spend so much time crying. And I didn't. I was pretty much calm about the whole thing. The tears really didn't start until yesterday. But even then it was only for a moment or two. Even at the airport, I didn't cry except when it was time to say goodbye. And the tears lasted for just a few minutes. I drove all the way home, exhausted - I got up at 6AM on Monday, and didn't get home until almost 6AM this morning. And I fell right asleep. So I figured that I was doing pretty well. Well I am not doing as well as I thought I was. Off and on today I have been crying. And it happens over the silliest things. I walked by the dresser and cried because I *knew* it was empty. Mickey asked me if I missed Papi, and I cried. So she tells me its ok, once school is out we are all going to Honduras and not to cry. Which makes me cry even more, then she will go and grab a book or a magazine and wave it in front of my face so that it can help me stop crying. Such a little momma, LOL. Its been like that all day long. I know once the kids go to bed, its going to be worse because I won't have them here to occupy my mind.

Part 2 - its now 7:30PM and I just spoke to him. He FINALLY made it to Tocoa. He was telling me that the plane was held up in El Salvador for about 45 minutes, and then they made all sorts of pit stops between San Pedro and Tocoa. So when I called to see if he was there yet - Mickey was getting ready to go to bed, and wanted to say goodnight - I talked to him for all of two minutes as he had just walked in the house less than 5 minutes ago. And I knew he wanted to spend time with Sendi and Gisela. It's been three and a half years since he had seen them. I hope to speak with him on Saturday or Sunday to be able to talk to him some more. Hopefully I wont be such a crying mess by then. ;)

I don't know whats going on with the coloring on this picture - I brought the camera this morning, but didn't take any pictures.

So while I in the bathroom, my brother in law took a couple of pictures without me knowing.

As of today there are only 257 days until I am in Honduras - back where I belong, in my husbands arms. Hopefully the days will go by as fast as this pregnancy has gone.

Port to Port - getting the car there on time...

After going to bed late the night before, I had to get up early to get to U-Haul to pick up the dolly. Once I got there, I freaked out a little bit because I told the guy why I was there, and he told me he had to see if he could give me one because none of his dollies were working. WHAT?? They had better be working, because I refuse to explain to my husband why his car isn't going to the port today. As well as explaining to the grizzly bear that is my step-father why he took the day off to tow the car and now the car wasn't going anywhere.

Luckily though, they got them to work. We finally got the car on the road and headed off to Delaware. It actually went much much smoother than I thought it would. I only had to stop once on the way to go to the bathroom, LOL. Which for me is an accomplishment. Once we get to the port, it took a while to find the actual company, but that was due to roads not having signs (I took it as a warm up for finding places in Honduras - since it is rare to have street signs, LOL) but we eventually found it. No biggie.

The shocking part though was when I pulled up to the spot where you drop the car off. It looked like a junkyard. I had never seen so many cars that were inoperable. It shocked me. And 99% of them were going to be shipped to Central America. Maybe everyone else knows this, but I would never had thought of sending cars that were that bad off. (The picture above is one of the better looking cars on the lot.) I guess I never would have thought to send cars to Central America that were undrivable. I never thought it would be worth the money I guess is the better way to send them. But looking at the yard, I am going to have to say that I was WRONG. I really wish I had brought my camera though - not just my cell - I was that amazed with all of the broken down cars, I really wanted to take alot of pictures.

It was funny thought that after they inspected the car and gave me the paperwork, I went off to the office, and as soon as I walked in theybegan to speak to me in English, so I answered in English. After a little while, I accidently began speaking Spanish - without even thinking about it, and the lady was shocked. But what was funny was how quickly her attitude toward me changed. She wasn't really rude to me before - more indifferent I guess you would say. But once she realized I spoke Spanish, I became her best friend, LOL.

All in all it was an easy day - we left by 8:15AM and were back at home at exactly 1:00PM. It went much easier than I was expecting.

packing the car...

Well yesterday was the day that I went to drop the car off at the port. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the car, but for some reason it didn't even cross my mind. Call it pregnancy brain I guess, LOL. The car, a 98 Mazda 626, was PACKED. And by packed I mean extremely packed. My husband was irritated that I refused to drive the car over 2 hours away to the port - but thats a different story all together.

We bought this car because with everything that he wanted to send to Honduras, it would have cost well over $1200 - and it would have taken over a month. We found the car for $950, packed everything up in the car, and it only cost us $740 to send. AND he has a car to drive until I get there with the van.

I don't know if you remember, but in a previous post, my husband and Andre had fought with a huge box - and had finally got it taped up inside the car to be filled with stuff. The box, while originally square ended up being more of a circular shape. I tried to tell him the stuff wouldn't fit, but he wouldn't listen. He swore he would MAKE it all fit. Eventually after trying to fit square boxes into a round hole (the box that was in the car) and realizing it didn't work he decided *on his own, with no help from me* that it would be better NOT to put the box in the back seat. LOL.

Each weekend he was off from the time we bought the car until this past weekend he would go to the junkyard and go treasure hunting. In all his treasure hunting he brought home 4 different rear view mirrors, 5 different sized rims and tires, various and multiple (meaning more than 500) dashboard lights, a face to a stereo that he found - but not the actual stereo that it goes to, and alot of other fun things. All stuff to take to Honduras because you never know, he may need it there.

Well Wednesday he took off so that he could go shopping at Walmart to get more stuff to send with the car. We ended up going to 4 different Walmarts getting everything that he wanted. So we got home around 10PM and he went to the car and took EVERYTHING out and re-packed the car. Or tried to. He never was very good at puzzles. Finally at 1:30AM I went out and in 25 minutes had it repacked and ready to go.

Preperation H and coconuts - what do they have in common?

When I thought about motherhood, I thought about the fun you can have playing with the kids, thought about watching them learn, and tons of other things. I never thought I would be saying things along the lines of...

• we don't eat paper
• pictures are not to be stored nor hidden in your mouth
• do not lick your sisters hair
• Preperation H is NOT for the mosquito bites on your foot - even if it does say its for itching and burning
• mustard is not conditioner
• we do not hang from the ceiling fans
• the correct term is testicles, not coconuts
• no the sentence "my brother really pests me off" is not using the word correctly (this was vocabulary homework where you had to write an appropriate sentence using the vocab words)
• take the string off your baby sister's neck - even though she crawls, she is not a dog
• why are there rotting limes in your closet?

And this is just to list a few. I swear God sent me my children not only to test my patience, but also to provide comic relief.

The Consulate - and starting the process of dual citizenship

Well today was my visit to the Honduras consulate. Just picture it - an 8 months pregnant woman, her husband who hates to wait, a 4 yr old, a 3 yr old, a 2 yr old and a 1 yr old. Put us all into a 12'x12' room with 30+ other people - add a wait time of almost 5 hours and you have my day in a nutshell. Oh yeah and throw in a bit of Johan and Jolani being videotaped by Central America TV for an upcoming show. (just video of the "gringo catrachos" as the guy said - no questions or anything, LOL) If you haven't guessed, a fun day was had by all.

We get there, and we got to stand on the steps outside of the consulate where there has got to be the gum of every person who has walked by stuck on the wall and ground. I know this because I must have said "Johan/Mickey/Isa" (you choose the child) "do not touch the nasty gum" or some version of the same thing at least 500 times in the 10 minutes we were on the steps. I also said "We do not stick out fingers/sisters hair/Jolani's sippy cup into the pile of gum that is stuck in that hole" quite a few times as well.

When we finally get inside the door and get upstairs we sit down - and take up 4 of the 12 chairs that are in this 12'x12' space. I then make my first of many trips to the bathroom. Why they don't have a bathroom out in the main waiting area is beyond me - but you would think as long as they make you wait for everything they would have at least one bathroom out there. Nope not at all. I was excited because no sooner was I gone, that they brought the application to my husband to fill out, so I figured that today was going to go quickly. We filled out the application, he went and turned them in, and then we sat and waited. And watched the room fill up with people. And more people, and more people. Then some more people came in as well. My four were having fun smiling at people and just being good. They colored in the books that I brought for them and played nicely. My husband was called back after about 15 minutes, and he waited in the back for a good 20 - 30 minutes before he came out to get the birth certificates from me. I went back with him, and the kids and sat there and we waited some more. There was a hold up because my passport has my married name on it, and the kids birth certificates has my maiden name on it. (even though I pointed out to him it clearly states - Mothers last name before first marriage - they didn't understand why my last name is now different.) So we had some issues with that. But that was taken care of and we were again sent out to the main waiting room to wait. By now we no longer had seats to sit in, and the temperature in the room was well above 85, with no fans, no AC in the main waiting room, and it was filled with 30+ people. Finally we got a seat, and we waited, and waited and waited. I passed the time telling my kids that it was not ok to eat the gum off the windowsill/bottom of the chair/floorboard/floors/walls, and people watching.

While people watching this older asian guy came in begging for change, he apparently couldn't talk, as he was making guestures that he was hungry and wanted money. One guy - who was very obviously well fed looked at him and said that they were both in the same boat, that he was hungry too, and I had to laugh. The older asian guy made a motion with his hands that the Honduran guy was fat so he could deal with being hungry while the asian guy was skinny and please give him some money.

I also noticed that 90% of the women that visited the consulate today don't have a clue what size they really are. But my question is do these people look in the mirror and think they look good, or do they not realize that there clothes are 3 to 4 sizes to small? Or is this a culture thing? I ask because my sister in law was the same way before she got pregnant. And before anyone gets in an uproar - I am just making an observation, not making fun or anything else.

Around noon the kids were crying and hot and cranky and hungry as it was past their lunch time, and it was now their naptime. My husband was in the back doing who knows what, while I was in the waiting room with the 1 yr old fighting sleep on my left leg, my 2 yr old hot and sweaty and heavy like a sack of potatoes sleeping on my right leg. My 3 and 4 yr old, also hot and sweaty - tired of sitting quietly decided they were going to fight and tattle. Finally at almost 1:30PM my husband walks out and says lets go. I don't think I was ever so glad to see him in my life, LOL.

However, once this baby is born I get to do it all over again. And then once I get their birth certificates from Honduras, I get to go back yet again to get their passports. Oh I cannot wait!

For those who are about to try to get dual citizenship for your children, and aren't sure what you need to do or what it is you need to bring - here is the list.

• two passport sized pictures
• birth certificate of the child
• passport of the non Honduran parent
• passport or cedula of the Honduran parent *if the honduran parent isn't available, a notarized, verified by a lawyer, letter of authorization can be subsituted in place of the Honduran parent. The letter must say that permission is given to the other parent to apply for nationilization for the child*

You will turn all this information in along with an application, and after the consulate signs the paperwork and whatever else they do to the paperwork back there, the paperwork is sent to Honduras (to Teguc) so that the child can be registered there. Once the child is registered in Honduras the child's Honduras birth certificate must be sent back to the parent(s) in the US. Then the parent if they so desire, can call and make an appointment to get a passport at the consulate. To get the passport they will need

• the Honduras birth certificate
• passport of the non Honduran parent
• passport or cedula of the Honduran parent *if the Honduran paren't isnt available, a notarized, verified by a lawyer, letter of authorization can be substituted in place of the Honduran parent. The letter must say that permission is given to the other parent to get a passport for the child*

Next up - getting the car to the port.