Ready, Set...

It has been amazing to see God provide for the Jaseam family. I almost started to worry that Dema would not have a bed for the first couple of days because we could not find something affordable. Not only does she have a bed now but clothes, toys, and bedding. Last night I started to think about Wiam trying to nurse Mohammed without a rocking chair. Two hours later someone brough a rocking chair over to our house. Today Jeeni and I looked at garage sales for a small TV for her room because the Jaseam's will keep her TV but no luck. My friend Dawn stopped by after work to see if we needed at 13" TV. Amazing!

We are totally prepared for this family and it is with great anticipate that we look forward to their arrival on July 1st.

The 5 Month Mark!

Wow - the summer is in full swing as we round the corner on our 5th month of waiting. Sometimes now when I see people (the ones I only see every month or so), I think "the next time I see this person I will get to show them a picture of my daughter." That thought gets me exciting. You know, the kind of excited where you are so excited you might pee your pants but totally freaked out and you might need to throw up. I love it...the anticipation of our baby girl is the one of best thing ever.

Our household has lots to do the next couple of hours. Jeeni is making the big move upstairs to Noah's room today. I don't think she is too happy about this but at least she will still have her own bathroom. I found some cute Nemo sheets for Noah’s big boy bed now Jeeni’s big girl bed to help make the move fun for her. I am looking for a small TV with a DVD player to increase the overall appeal of the space. And we finally turned the AC on…the top floor was kick’ in an average temp of 85 degrees in the late afternoon. So with nemo sheets, a bathroom, climate control and some entertainment I think Jeeni might continue to hang around.

Noah and I are going to set up Jeeni's old room for the Jaseam family tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to creating a fun nursery area for Dema and Mohammed. My Nana mailed some really cute quilts and I have some great toys/stuff from local garage sales. I will post pictures tomorrow with the results.

(My little designer!)

After moving Noah and I are going to a local Halal meat market. It should be an interesting experience. I am excited to see what different cuts of meat are available and if "blessed" meat really does taste better ;)




And then very early Saturday morning we are heading out for Colorado. My sister is starting to have contractions but I told her to hold out another 36 hours. Hopefully, we make it in time. The only questions that now remains is whether it's a girl or a boy....I can't wait to find out!

More on Privilege

I have been thinking this week about what it means to be born in the United States, to be born white, to be born financially secure. This post and this post helped me better contextualize the breath and depth of my privilage, but I am left with some questions like what have I "acheived" through hard work and determination versus what is more likely a product of my privilage...ok maybe it is not just those two extremes but what if it is?

Here are two examples from my life that could have turned out really different given a different set rules:

- I am dyslexia which caused me to struggle in elementary school. By the time I was in 6th grade my measured reading level was that of a 2nd grader. My family was able to home school me for 7th grade. I attended weekly reading lessons with the best reading coach in our area. I received special training to learn how to overcome my learning disability. After those 12 months, I was complete caught up to my peer group and ready to achieve some great things. Really - a dyslexic, repeater of First Grade, slow reader, horrible speller graduated in the top forth of her class at West Point. How is this possible? Hard work - yes, but is there more to this story - absolutely. Was I able to over come this road block because I had resources, I had privilege?

-My current job is another example. I have a really great job that is both mentally stimulating and provides for great work/life balance. How did a land this gig is a question that often crosses my mind. Here's the story: I was getting out of the Army in a few weeks and needed to find a job. I hired a recruiter to help me land something good. (Yes, that fact that I had a recuriter looking for a job for me is example enough of my privilage). On one of my cross country interviewing trips, I had a layover in Chicago. My recruiter called me last minute to see if I wanted to pop in for an interview while I was waiting for my next flight. The interview went great. I was hired. I have no formal business training, I have no marketing training, I had no non-military work experience. I did graduate from West Point and the guy interviewing also graduated from West Point. Funny how things work out...or is it?

My dear friend, Ramon, was born in Mexico. He was raised only by his mother who tried to give him the best life possible. They had very little money for food let alone after school extracirricular activities. Ramon is bright, hard working, honest and dedicated to helping those in need. He is actually smarter than me and definitly harder working. Ramon illegally immigrated to the United States to build a better life and he has done just that. But with limited access to the world that I so freely occupy some things are just out of reach like jobs, education, travel, exposure etc. Is Ramon less "deserving" than me? Is Ramon less capable? No, absolutely not!

-The Jaseam family called me today at work. Ramez was so excited to share the news that he has a visa to travel to the United States. I could almost taste the joy in his voice. Wow, being given the "right" to live in the US is a really, really, really BIG deal. This is a not very frequently thought about birth right for me - talk about privilage.

This is not to say that privilage is something that I should be ashamed of or try to hide. What it does mean is that I need to recognize my place of privilage and take action against injustice. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).

July First

Things that will happen on July 1st -

Noah and I on a week long vacation to Colorado. We are really excited to get away for a few days and hang out in the Rockies. It will be nice to eat good food and play all day. Joanna, our beloved au pair, is getting married or having the formal ceremony that weekend. It should be a fun event. I can't wait!

My sister might have her 2nd child - we might get to be there for the birth! I think it would be great to be apart of a live birth. I have never seen a birth human or other, well on youtube yes but not in real life and not from my sister's body. Everyone says it is amazing to see the miracle of life.

My husband and I will celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary. I almost killed him this year but after some solid marriage counseling I think we are good for another 8 years ;). More on this in another post.

The Jaseam Family arrives from Iraq - that's right this thing is really happening. They will arrive at JFK at 5:30pm on May 30th and connect to O'Hare early in the morning on July 1st. Really just another American Dream coming true...or it is. I can't wait to see immigration/refugee policies up-close-and-personal over the next couple of months. I am sure I will have a few things to say, but for now we are just really excited for the Iraqi family of 4 to realize their dream of a new life in America. The need is still great to get everything ready for the Jaseam family's arrive. We are trying to raise enough money to pay for their groceries for the first 3 months while they look for jobs. If you are interested in helping please send me an email.

I'm looking for some other activities...anybody have any suggestions?

Coco's in charge

The au pair is on vacation this week. In case you don't know I am really, really big into routine. The au pair's vacation usually means a big departure from the normal schedule and some major craziness. Not this time...only fun, fun and more fun. Coco is in town! His flight was supposed to arrive late Sunday night but bad weather delayed the flight. I found a 7:00am Monday morning babysitter at 10pm on Sunday night but it cost me $15/hour...are you kidding me?? When did it become so expensive to keep your kid safe (or do we just think they are safe for $15/hr)?

This is the first time my Dad has taken full control of Noah, or Noah has taken full control of him. It has been an interesting week. These two boys are having some serious fun. I can says it might be the best week of Noah's life. Two root-beers a days and almost no vegatables. Swimming, wrestling, biking and more wrestling is what I think the "schedule" amount too.

Paperwork - Check!

We FINALLY received our I-171H from USCIS. This was the last piece of documentation to complete our dossier. It is nice to know that if we were to receive our referral we could officially accept. It took 4 months for USCIS to process our request...funny how two weeks after we filed a complaint with our Congresswomen the I-171H was in our mailbox. I am beginning to believe it "take an act of congress" to get things moving in the Department of HS. At least I know that the process works.