Some days are like this:

Can you hear the bells ringing?

While the Lady enjoyes her first weeks of life mainly sleeping and nursing we are facing the not so pleasant sides of getting a child in this country when only one member of the family has an income and the other one is still struggeling with language, papers and offices. You wouldn't believe how much paperwork needs to be done right now. Most of the stuff I can't even translate but there are insurance issues, child suppport, maternity leave support and sooo much more. I get tired just looking at the heap on my desk.
Maya also recieved her very first official letter, her own tax number! What a wonderful first letter to get in your life isn't it?! I love this country...

Another thing that was supposed to be a very good one and turned out to be rather nasty, is the fact that Nathan got his resident permit in February. Actually a very, very helpful step but for us at the moment it only makes a difference in him having to pay for his own insurance which was taken care of by the asylum office before. We have an insurance duty in Germany, so we can't choose but have to pay almost 300 Euro per month since February which we just found out about now. Yeah!

In order to avoid those costs as soon as possible we decided to get married, soon. I have always dreamed of such a romantic way of gettig married... but when we are married my insurance has to take him for free so that is almost romantic, right?!
Not that it would be particularly easy or cheap to get married in Germany as a binational couple...  They only accept German certificates so everything needs to be translated (for a lot of money). And we would need a bachelor certificate from Uganda, which we have to hand in here and which then gets send back to the German embassy in Uganda (on our costs) and checked there to be right or wrong. To cut an even longer story short: getting married in Germany is not possible for us. Not if we still want it to be done this year anyway. So, we do what most other binational couples in Germany do, we will get married in Denmark.

The whole procedure is rather absurd because instead of the bachelor certificate the Danish only need a simple paper, written by the German authorities stating that we are not married. Do you get the absurdity of it? The Danish accept a German paper which the Germans don't accept themself. But the marriage sealed with that paper in Denmark is then again accepted by the Germans. Sooooo weird!!! But I am not complaining too loud as long as we get the chance to get married at all. The Danish also accept all papers in German and English, so no translations needed. The only thing they want in some of the parishes is that you stay three nights or that you bring your own witnesses. So we rather spend some money on a small family holiday in Denmark than wasting it for German paperworks. And as soon as we figure out the transportation (we don't own a car so we have to find someone willing to drive us) we will we off. 

For the trip across the border, Maya will need a passport so we had the pleasure of taking passport pictures today, which was fun and toke forever. And at the tender age of three weeks she already looks like someone from a "Wanted" poster...

Oh yes, there are so many wonderful ways to spend the first weeks with your new baby...

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We did it!

 

May I proudly present to you Maya Lou Helene, born March 28th, at 10:12pm with 4370 Gramm and 56 cm. I hope to write up my birth story soon but for now let me tell you. We had a blast! A 2 1/2 hour home birth, no tearing and the assistant midwife who just made it in time for crowing...

She was ripe, this girl of mine and she knew exactly when that would be.

 

(both pictures taken by my sister with iphone)

 







Practicing Patience - Yarn along

I am not exactly known for my patience ususally. The more it surprises me to find myself rather calm and peaceful these last days. Due Date has passed without any exhiting news. Friends and families keep checking, but me, I just try to be still and listen to my body and my child. I feel so certain they will let me know when they are ready for this birth. I am just praying doctors and midwifes will give us the time we need and that I stay strong enough to trust my own feelings as long as possible.

A friend of mine has sent me this picture yesterday by the artist Itaiana Battoni. It was shown via the Mother Health International Faceboook page and said:

"The concept of a 'due' date is something that is very abstract in many cultures. If, like in Uganda, you count a pregnancy by the moons, you end up having a 'due month' and baby comes when she is perfectly ripe without causing mama lots of anxiety."

My children being half Ugandans I found this picture and wisdom so comforting and just the perfect thing to be given on my due date.

The days of the due month are special for sure. Even though it is my second child, each day is spent knowing it could be the last one of my life as I have known it. Something new is coming, someone else who will mix up everything. So there are special moments in every day that I live more aware and present somehow:
This morning, after I came from a doctors appointment I very spontaneously went for a (very short) walk into our nearby forest. There was still ice on the pond, the air crisp and chilly but the sky was blue and sunbeams stroke  my face. Almost invisible still, there was the first hint of green around the bushes. But the actual truth was told by all those birds: spring is just around the corner! It was one huge concert and I told my child how wonderful this earth is and that I want to show her all its beauty. What a magical half an hour time a spend there.

Last night I suddenly felt like baking. Something I had not done in quite a while. There was flour, milk and yeast in the house, so I decided on some buns. While the dough rose I thought I should make some special buns, some "due date buns" maybe. So I added some amaranth cerial to the dough with sesame and nuts, something that would keep me going the next days. In my blessing way book I found some simple symbols related to birth and shaped the buns like them. There is the Native American "Wheel of Life" (the round bun with the cross), the Maori "Koru" (the spiral) which symbolizes new beginnings and the Egyptian "Key of Life" that symbolizes birth.

I finished all the planned baby projects, knitting and sewing wise and most of the things I wanted to do around the house so I picked up some old sock project that has been sitting around for far too long. We'll see how far I get this time... 

My sister has gifted me to a skein of lovely handspun ocean colored single merino and I am still contemplating, what I should use it for. Any ideas anyone? It is very soft yarn but I am not so sure it will work for a baby project because it seems unwashable without felting to me. I am not sure.

There are many books on my night desk these days. One I have devoured (no photo) by recommendation of Lori is Spiritual Midwifery. Such a bible for birthing really. And of course I could not resist to get the 1000 Days journal by Nikki McClaire for my baby. I hope I will really manage to keep it up for her. Then there is a Doula book and one on my ever so fascinating topic of gender and a few others, I pick a page here and a passage there. Sweet days of due month...

I am joing Ginny for Yarn Along today.

{this moment} - Tasting sunshine

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.