Growing up...I was born in Nashville, TN on November 24, 1987. I have an older sister and a younger brother. We are all very close in age so growing up was chaotic! Some things I remember from my childhood: Movie Night on Fridays with my dad, Mom bringing home sausage biscuits for breakfast when she got off work, digging holes in the back yard and making mud pies, building "forts" outside with dry pine needles, climbing the huge Sycamore out front, violin lessons, my puppies Abby and Molly, eating homemade play-dough, American Girl Dolls, being extremely competitive and reading a ton!
College life...After graduation I received a full scholarship to Oklahoma Christian University. I began studying English and Chemistry with a plan to go to pharmacy school. I changed my major to a Liberal Studies major in order to get all the credits in for pharmacy school and still graduate on time (or early.) After a crazy experience working at a pharmacy, I decided to drop that plan! I kept the major though and graduated in 2 and a half years, a year and a half early - I was so ready to just be out of school! Since I knew I loved language, I decided to go to graduate school to study Linguistics. I was accepted to OSU for the TOEFL program, but things changed once again. I met Marcos the summer before I graduated, and plans changed...
Married life...Marcos, being Honduran, planned on returning to Honduras the year after he graduated. We got engaged and tried to decide what to do next. The plan was to visit Honduras, get married in the fall, and move down there together after that. Once again, plans changed! After our engagement, I found out I was pregnant! As Christians, it was very difficult confessing to our families and the church what we had done. However, God was taking care of us and carried us through it. We went forward at our church and decided to move the wedding up. We were married April 14, 2009 at a friend's house with a small group of friends and family.
We lived in the apartment connected to his mother's house for about a month I think. Then we decided it was way too small, especially with a baby on the way, and found a house for rent a few blocks away. We moved into the new house in July, when our stuff came in. The size was perfect, and we had a big yard too, to plant flowers and have some dogs. I got to know the city, met tons of friends and relatives, travelled to the major cities and took a beach vacation to Trujillo with our best friends, and prepared for the birth of our daughter.
Baby Joy... Leyla Rebekah was born October 29, 2009, in Juticalpa, the capital of Olancho, about 30 minutes from our home in Catacamas. She was born in a small clinic equipped with an OR because it was the only place were we could have a private room and bring family in. Plus the hospital was scary. I was induced because the day before my blood pressure went up and since I was so close to my due date, my doctor decided to induce instead of taking any chances. My mom had just arrived in the country 3 days before! I was induced around 9 in the morning and Leyla was born at 9:38 by c-section. It was crazy: I wanted an epidural and was given one around 4 cm but it NEVER TOOK. The contractions were coming so fast and so hard I barely had time to breathe in between. He decided to take it out and try again, and then it FINALLY took, just when I was starting to get nauseous. Shortly after that I felt the need to push. They hadn't measured me since I was at 4 cm, so when she looked...I was at 9!! My epidural didn't take until 9 cm!! I remember thinking, if this pain is the pain you feel at 4 cm, I can't believe how someone could stand the pain at 10! Little did I know I was already there. But, Leyla's heartrate was declining with each contraction so my doctor decided to do a c-section. I was disappointed - especially having been through all the pain already and gotten so close - but of course my baby's safety came first. And everything turned out beautifully, Leyla was born perfectly healthy and beautiful, at 6.5 lbs and 19 inches long.
Life so far...Now Leyla is almost a year old! It's hard to believe how fast time has flown by. I am teaching English at a bilingual private school here and Marcos is working in the mountains planting mahogany, coffee, and cocoa. Pretty soon school will be over and hopefully I will begin working with my husband, helping him out with the accounting and administrative work. We are very excited about the future! The mahogany and coffee business is very promising and we can't wait to see what it brings us. It's risky too, but we trust God that he will bless our work and we will reap the benefits in a few years. It is a great business, one that is providing thousands of people in the mountains with jobs and helping also to reforest the depleted National Forest of Honduras. I know God will bless it :) I can't wait to see what happens!
