Photo by Lisa Hoang, Windwardskies Photography
Another sneak peek from our photo shoot

This November will mark our 15th anniversary. The new addition to our little family makes me ponder how it will affect our relationship. I would hope that this shared experience would make us stronger and closer, but I know that the opposite could also be true. I have seen how children innately know how to manipulate and divide parents from a very young age, and if we’re not careful, this could easily create a chasm between us. (I’m not saying that children are little devils, but we all know that kids are smart and know how to get their way.)

Hubby and I have been through so much together, especially in recent years. From his one-year deployment to Iraq, to our homebuying experience, the infertility/in vitro fertilization ordeal, and now pregnancy and parenthood. Each of these experiences helped to strengthen our relationship, proving once again that if we stand together, hand-in-hand, we can face life’s difficulties. We make a great team, Hubby and I. We have certainly grown a great deal since we first met in 1991.

Through it all, Hubby has been my constant source of love, support, and comfort. Even as I was going through surgeries, treatments, daily injections, and the emotional rollercoaster of in virto, I was always comforted to know that Hubby loved me with an unconditional love. One of the toughest things to deal with in terms of infertility is the thought of being a failure. After all, one of the most natural and anticipated events of marriage is starting a family. When that doesn’t happen, it’s easy to start blaming yourself. For me, dealing with Father’s Day year after year was much harder than facing Mother’s Day. I just felt awful knowing that Hubby would make such an awesome father — and I couldn’t provide him that opportunity. Hubby was always quick to assure me that even if we never have children, that he would love me the same and that he was just grateful to be able to spend his life with me — with or without children.

When the Lord blessed us with this successful in vitro attempt, we couldn’t have been happier. It is the beginning of another chapter in our lives.

Despite the challenges and the waiting, I am glad that Hubby and I were able to enjoy our time as a couple for so long before having our baby. I believe God’s timing is perfect, and that 14 years was just the right amount of time we needed to prepare us to receive this blessing. When we got married, I was only 20. We had said that we wanted to take our time before starting a family so that we could adjust to married life before having to adjust to parenthood — we just didn’t realize it would be so long. But, looking back, I don’t regret a single moment of our time together as a couple.

Every time I visit my site, I gaze at the baby countdown widget in the sidebar. Today shows 55 days to go, which doesn’t seem like much time at all. As the reality of impending parenthood descends upon me, it fill me with wonder and apprehension all at the same time. This baby is the result of countless prayers, evidence that miracles do happen. I also wonder if I am worthy of such a blessing and the responsibility that goes along with it. If you really stop to think about it, parenthood entails the care and shaping of a person. What I do (or don’t do) directly affects this baby for better or worse. It is mind-boggling.

I know that having a baby changes everything. I am confident that this, too, will change us into better people.

Not sure why, but around this time (11 pm), I start getting the munchies. It’s driving me crazy. I think I need to buy some caffeine-free diet soda to stave off the hunger at these odd hours so I don’t go nuts and eat something I shouldn’t.

The other night, I drank a Coke Zero close to bedtime. That was a mistake. It kept me up until 1:00 am and I was completely hanging the next day. Not good. Not good at all.

For now, I guess I’ll drink a glass of water and imagine it’s something yummy,

Have you been watching the new TLC series, “Take Home Nanny”?

As parenthood approaches quickly, Hubby and I are watching and taking notes.

The kicking-and-screaming tantrums, blood curdling outbursts, and completely unruly behavior of these children are terrifying to say the least. In the show, Nanny Emma has three days with the family to observe and teach parents practical tips to get their household and children under control.

It seems unbelievable that a complete turnaround can be accomplished in three short days.

Every time I watch the show, I find myself rubbing my tummy and praying that my baby won’t be one of those kids.

I stumbled upon this blog today: A Year of Crockpotting

It features a recipe a day, all designed for your slow cooker. She makes some pretty interesting things in her crockpot that I never knew you could. Stuff like chex mix and chocolate mousse! I thought crockpots were only good for stews and soups.

Personally, I don’t own a crockpot, but I’ve heard many good things about how convenient and simple it is and how tasty-delicious the results are. Now that Baby Champuru is on the way, I’m thinking more about quick, easy, and convenient ways to feed the family. Crockpot cooking seems like the perfect solution for a sleep deprived mommy.

I also did a quick search on Amazon.com and found that they have a nice selection of crockpot recipe books. Now if I could find a crockpot book of recipes for the Asian/local palate, I’d be totally sold.

Do you have a crockpot? Do you use it often? Any recommendations on the type/size of crockpot I should get? Can you share a favorite slowcooker recipe with me?

I figured I should take a photo of my nails, since they probably won’t be sticking around for too much longer.

Last week, Mahealani treated me to a manicure in preparation for my maternity photo shoot. I knew there would be a lot of hands-on-the-belly shots, so I knew my mannish hands required a major overhaul.

Admittedly, getting manicures with a girl friend is fun and it’s neat to see your hands get completely transformed in an hour. Although more aesthetically pleasing than my uber-short nails, having acrylic nails has its own set of problems. Typing, for example, is a huge challenge with these talons. Opening soda cans and pressing the teeny buttons on my Palm Treo is next to impossible. Caring for a newborn with these nails would be absolutely frightening. Can you imagine what might get stuck under my nails after a poopy diaper change? egads!

I’ll need to have them removed soon — maybe in a couple of weeks, especially since my nails are growing at a rapid rate due to pregnancy hormones. It’s only been nine days and you can see that they already look grown out at the base of my nails, which is why I figured I better take a photo of them while it still looks semi-decent.

Knowing that time is short before the arrival of Baby Champuru, Hubby has been pestering me to treat myself to a pedicure. Maybe we’ll fit it in this time, along with the removal of my fake nails. To my girlie friends, let’s make it a girl’s day out! It might be my last opportunity for a pampering before motherhood takes over my life.

It was Okinawan night at the Jikoen Hongwanji on July 25, 2008. That’s right, 100% Uchinanchu! Historically, Jikoen only featured Okinawan dancing at their obon and required dancers to wear a full kimono (no hapi coats). In recent years, they introduced Japanese dances into the program and loosened up their dress code. On Friday, they went back to their roots and dedicated the entire evening to Okinawan songs and dances once again. They even held a kachashi contest at the end of the night.

The bon dance was a mini-reunion of sorts, giving me a chance to see friends from the Okinawan performing arts community. Since I’ve been on hiatus from Okinawan dance, I rarely have an opportunity to see them, so it was nice to reconnect with them at Jikoen.

I had a few people approach me at the bon dance to say “hello,” since they recognized me from my website and/or videos on YouTube. I love it how the Internet makes the world so much smaller.

Photos from the evening can be found in my Obon 2008 Flickr set.

Photo by Lisa Hoang, Windwardskies Photography

On Saturday, Hubby and I had the pleasure of doing a maternity photo shoot with the awesomely talented Lisa Hoang of Windwardskies Photography. I’ve been admiring her work for years, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to have her capture this special time in our lives.

In all likelihood, Baby Champuru will be an only child. She is our miracle baby, the product of many prayers and the grace of God. We had to go through in vitro fertilization to conceive her and the process is not only an emotional rollercoaster, but it is also extremely costly — with no guarantees. We are so grateful that the Lord blessed us with this baby and having a beautiful set of photographs to look back on will be a keepsake that we cherish forever.

Being a photog myself, albeit still quite an amateur at that, I am much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. However, Lisa has such an encouraging spirit that simply puts you at ease. In my opinion, a photographer can be extremely talented in a technical sense, but it’s wasted if he/she can’t bring out the emotions and expressions of the subjects. It’s the friendly factor that you either have or you don’t. Lisa definitely has it. She made the session fun and enjoyable and I’m sure it will show in the photos that result.

Before we know it, it’ll be time for her to do our newborn photo shoot! OH MY!

If you’re looking for a photographer, be sure to contact Lisa Hoang. She is definitely one of the best photographers on the island.