New Adventures

I'm back!!!!!!! Sorry it has taken me so long to post. The weeks and days have just run into one another and before you know it, 2 months have passed. In this time, my baby girl has been baptized. We were able to make the trip up to Massachusetts so that she could be baptized in the same church as I and my brother and sister. She was 3 and a half months and my mom asked when she was going to be baptized. I couldn't believe that 3 months had gone by. So I started making calls to churches here in Virginia. It was awful, we had to register, become active parishioner, 3 month waiting period here, 6 months there. Isn't it about the innocent baby or just punishment for the parents' procrastination? Then I was thinking, why do I want her baptized in a random local parish here in VA that I have never attended and that we would have be back to again. It then occurred to me that the baptism had to be done in Massachusetts, there was no way getting around it. And an added bonus- it is a convenient location for both families to attend. A lady who answered the phone at St. Mary's (my first choice) instructed me to write a letter to my local parish to be released and I wrote another letter to Fr. Joyce at Sacred Heart. He literally called me back 2 days later. The US Postal Service means business. He called my mother inquiring about my phone number. I was a little embarrassed by this because I wanted to call him first. We set it up for the following Sunday, baptisms are performed on the first Sunday of every month. So we had another impromptu event in which to invite the family. Everything worked out, it was a nice ceremony and a reception followed at 42 Glory. Lily was the most behaved, though she did have a tiny moment, which quickly ended as it had started at the sight of her bottle. Cousins from Florida that I haven't seen in 6 or 7 years were up visiting so that made it even more special. For the 4th, we brought Lily into DC to see the fireworks. It was a particularly hot day, not as bad as the one spent on the banks of the Potomac in '99, but we were able to find a convenient parking spot next to the Native American Museum, my sister got the quarter, and we sat in the shade on the grass in front of the Capital until the sun started to set. Lily had her 6 month check up this week. 4 more shots, 2 in each thigh. Ouch. After her initial red faced, blood curdling screeching cry, I just talked to her. It was like she understood what I was saying and she calmed down within a couple of minutes. I was calm this time too. The first time she received her inoculations, I cried with her. The second time, I teared. Nothing compared to the time in the hospital when she required an ultrasound to inspect her sacral dimple. She immediately screamed, I cried right along with her. She was scared and I couldn't help her and that was the worst feeling that I have ever felt. 6 months... Hardly believable. It was the beginning of this month last year that I found out that I was 3 months pregnant with her. After that initial ultrasound to determine the extent of my pregnancy, she was this tiny human being, waving at us in one of the pictures. "Here I am mommy and daddy! I can't wait to meet you!" She was merely 12 weeks old, already amazing, already beautiful. When we brought her home on that cold day in January, all she could do was stare at you or cry. When we changed her diaper, she barely moved. Now you can barely get the diaper on before she's flipping over. She's crawling now too, well a sort of speed scooting along on the floor, her little knees red from determination. I'll lay on the floor while she plays with her toys and she'll crawl over to me, trying to pull herself up. When I leave the room for some reason, she tries to follow. She keeps practicing her words, every week it seems to be a new consonant or vowel, as she tries to articulate what happened during her day at Fatma's. What she liked, what she didn't like, what they read, what songs they sang. We've taken her swimming a few times. She is a fish, she loves it. She holds her head up, kicking her feet and waving her arms to stay afloat. She's the cutest little thing. Her face just lights up when she is in the water. Well the winds of change are blowing, stronger than before when I last wrote about them. I felt them coming and now I know why. We still haven't found out where the next duty station will be but we do know it will be by November. I've decided, well I am in the beginning thought process of changing careers, not like I had one to start with. It has become increasingly frustrating at work. I'm not fulfilled, bored, seemingly wasting away. I worked in Fraud a year before I learned everything that I could, switched to Narcotics where surprisingly new things arise every once in a while, but not as frequently as I want. I was accepted into an automated litigation seminar that wanted to take for 2 years. It's 4 days in Columbia, SC. I need challenges, not the kind of challenges the office provides for me, but intellectual challenges. My friend Stacy visited from Arizona earlier this week and the seed that was planted years ago in my head, was given a little something to sprout, by her words of encouragement, which is something that I rarely hear. I'm always told what not to do, or talked out of something that I want or think that I want.
Years ago, the summer after I graduated from college, I was trying to figure out what to do with my Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in Psychology. At that time I was reading books on alternative medicine and holistic health but had no money or not the best grades, so I thought at the time, to apply to graduate school. I created my resume on monster.com, a head hunter promptly called me and started setting up interviews for positions in research labs. I loved lab work in college, organic chemistry was my favorite but I lacked the ability or maybe the patience at the time to grasp higher levels of calculus and physics. Anyway, my first interview came around and I was sent off to a lab somewhere outside of Boston, where I dreamt of living back in my freshman year at St. Joe's. Well the interview was a flop, an oral final exam of sorts, where the interviewer asked me questions verbatim from my college chemistry textbooks. I was so taken aback, totally unprepared and left bewildered. I prepared myself for questions like, "What one word would you use to describe yourself?" My next interview in Wooburn was much more promising. It was a pharmaceutical research lab, I met the woman that I was going to replace, she was 8 months pregnant and was about to pop, we talked about commutes and where I was going to live. They offered me the position a day later, but I had no money to move and my dad said that I didn't have to move right away, he worked at Adams Cheshire Regional School District and could help me get a teaching position. And I could coach softball, it would be great. Well I was working at the Red Lion Inn at the time, around the clock and geez, 2 years went by and a new idea came to my head. Criminal profiling. I wanted to be an FBI agent. Well I made the move, took the test, started working at the US Attorney's Office, everything seemed to fit and then here I am now. Well during Stacy's visit, my sister also came over, she will be teaching in Randolph, MA this fall, I was inspired. Science teachers are in demand, my specialty. I'm excited about this new venture, thrilled to get back into academia. I've been doing research on certifications, alternative license because I already a degree, but now I have to figure out what state we will be relocated. Variables, variables, variables. I want this to work out so badly, it's almost 4:30 and I'm still awake. It's a perfect fit for me. I want to make a difference, children are the foundation of this country and they need all the attention and resources that they can get if this country is going to succeed in the world, I seek new adventures and challenges, fulfillment. Why I waited so long, well, I needed to accomplish other things first. Having a baby puts life in perspective, I have a clear vision now of goals, small and big, but am able now to organize myself in a way to accomplish them. (fingers are crossed, lots of prayers) So here we go, again...