Esperar

Wonderful news from two friends who we met in our “Maybe Baby” class last winter. They just had their first attempt at artificial insemination and found out the other day that they are indeed with child! This is very exciting news and they are now the second of our friends to try artificial insemination (AI) and come up pregnant the first time. Yup-- Kikki and Melly are following in Lydia's footsteps and will soon be dealing with hormones and other fun and natural sensations, moods and feelings! Anyway, congrats to all three mama’s to be! Of course Susanne and I are still in the waiting phase, so when we first heard of Kikki and Melly’s great fortune in getting pregnant right away as Lydia had, we couldn’t help but wonder if this somehow reduced our chances of also getting happy news later this month. BUT, since these are all separate events, our odds are no better or worse than they were before.

Still…if we get good news we may have to name the little one “Jackpot” right? ;-) (Kidding honey! I meant "Yatzee!" ;-)

As I mentioned we are in our waiting phase and I was just thinking about the verb wait. In Spanish, the verb is “esperar”. In addition to meaning "to wait" it also means "to hope"—and also to "expect". In fact when a woman is pregnant, in Spanish she is said to be “esperando”. I guess it means she is “expecting” like we’d say in English, but I think “hoping” and “waiting” are mixed in there too. I worked as a health volunteer in Peace Corps in Guatemala and also with some pregnant women who were Cuban migrants in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba (in the 1990s.) Anyway, I always thought it was really neat how they described giving birth to a child as to “dar la luz” which means to “give the light”. I like that. Give the light. Have a great day y’all! -Monica