One more for you!

Two posts in one day!

The end of the school year is here! And I am so excited! Although, I have been off work (teaching), David has still been hard at work until last week. If you've ever taught, you know that the end of the school year is a crazy time. David has been super busy writing tests (which isn't easy), grading those tests, cleaning up his classroom, and much more. I am really happy that he has a break now! Teachers need the summer to rest and be refreshed!

Last Friday was NCA's graduation. 14 seniors are done at NCA and about to start college. Although we have only been here a year, we have grown close to a lot of these kids - especially David. This group of seniors are a real cool group of kids. They love the Lord a lot and are growing in maturity. We feel really blessed to be able to teach them and help them grow.


This is David, George and Darwin.



Here is David, Chris, and Gerison.

Terrible Multi-Tasker

That's what I am, a terrible multi-tasker. I know that girls are supposed to be good at doing 12 things at once. But somehow, I missed out on that one. Being a mom and blogging was just too much for me - to many tasks! So basically, I am apologizing for the lack of posts! But fear not, I'm learning how to do more than one thing at once.

(Seriously though, I really have never been good at multi-tasking. In college I was a real good student, but rarely did anything else but study. I can't walk and talk on the phone, I can't listen to music and have a good conversation. I can only do one thing at time. Sad, I know.)

So, I've only been doing one thing these days. And that is being Beckett's mom and all that entails. We nurse, we "play", and we sleep. In that order, every 3 hours. Although that sounds boring, I've really enjoyed spending time with him and loving him and caring for him. He's a fun boy!

Here are some pictures...



After our bath.


In order for us to be able to take Beckett back to the states, we have to get him 2 passports - a Nica one and a U.S. one. It takes a lot of paperwork, going to the embassy, going to 5 different Nica offices, getting an exit visa, and taking passport pictures!



This is "angry" Beckett. Not really, but he makes some funny faces. This picture was an attempt for his U.S. passport picture. It didn't make the cut.



And here's the final one. Getting a baby to keep still, have his eyes open, and look at a camera is hard work. I should get an award for this.


And this is just a cute picture of our boy sleeping. Isn't he the best?!?

Beckett's Here!

I'm sure most of you know, but if not Beckett Dean Russell was born on Saturday, May 2nd at 8:00! He is absolutely wonderful and we are so so so very thankful for him!



A little bit of his story...

On Thursday, I went to the doctor for a more in depth ultrasound. They did all sorts of measurements, calculations and checking. When the measured my amniotic fluid, it was rather low. They also discovered that the baby was a little bit breach - not completely, but he was not in the right place. Also they were worried about his respiratory movements. So with all these factors, they highly recommended we have a c-section. To say I was devastated, is an understatement. I really really wanted to have a natural delivery. I had read so many books about it and felt really prepared. So we called Sami (our labor and delivery nurse friend) for some perspective and advice. We called all the doctors again to make sure, they really thought this was best and we prayed. After much, much crying and praying and thinking we came to the decision that we had to trust our doctors and the Lord in this. We also decided that having a healthy, safe baby is what is most important to us.



So, we went in early Saturday morning for the c-section. Many, many friends said they were praying for us and I really do feel like the Lord was with us. It's a little unnerving to have an operation, especially one you didn't really think you were going to have, especially when everyone around you is giving you directions in Spanish (I don't know tons of medical terms in Spanish!). But throughout it all, I felt a sense of peace - which had to be from the Lord. I am so thankful for those prayers!

And the end result was the same! A beautiful baby BOY!



Which we were shocked about! EVERYONE, everyone (except Tracy, Michelle Horton, and Steve Whitson) said we were having a girl! But he is exactly what we want! and we love him so much!

David's Side Job

If you know David, you know that he lllooovvveeesss basketball. He loves playing, he loves watching it, he loves Fantasy basketball. He loves everything about it.
This semester, he's been able to be apart of coaching basketball - which is something he has never done before. I think it's a really cool opportunity for him! He gets to teach something he loves and also build good relationships with a lot of the students at NCA. These pictures are from their last game- which unfortunately they lost. They came a long way though!

Coaching on the sidelines



Time out huddle



NCA is the blue team. They're blocking out!



Playing defense.

Baby's Room

My photography skills are definitely not the best, but here are some pictures of the baby's room! Again, this probably means little to most of you, but thinking of things to blog about is hard sometimes! I think about the baby a lot, so that's what you get - blogs about the baby!



This is the crib and curtains! Don't I have the best friends in the world?!?! They threw a shower for us when we were home for Christmas and got me all this super cute bedding! I love them!!



This is the changing table. I still need to get a changing pad, but am way excited to have this! We found it a grocery store here - of all places! It was the cheapest one I could find. (Some random things here are really expensive!)



And this is our rocking chair and storage unit! Hopefully it will work for keeping stuff in! On the rocking chair is a fun blanket my mom made for the baby!! She's the best!

38 weeks

I am at 38 weeks now! I really can hardly believe it! In less than 2 weeks ( if all goes according to plan), we'll have a baby! I know I've said it before, but it is so surreal!! We are excited to meet our little one!

So, I'm basically hearing girl from most everyone. We go back and forth - sometimes I picture having our little girl and other times I refer to my belly as "Little Guy". We'd be happy with either! :) It's funny because the Nicaraguans tend to think we're having a girl too. They tell me I'm very "hermosa", which means beautiful, but also big! And if you get hermosa, then you are definitely having a girl! We'll see!

[Side note: I had one of the cleaning ladies at our school say to me (all in Spanish), "You are very hermosa! You used to be delgada (skinny), but now you are hermosa (big and beautiful!!) They definitely don't beat around the bush!!]

Randomness

It's been a while, so here's a little update of what the Nicaragua Russells have been up to.
Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), so we had the week off - basically the equivalent to Spring Break. We started our time off by heading to the beach! It was wonderful!! We were able to rest and relax! We also were able to watch some of the March Madness Final Four games! You don't realize how much that meant to us! We love NCAA basketball and love watching March Madness. I'm not going to lie - this is the second year that I have won my bracket. I'm good - isn't that right Jeremy??




(not the greatest pic, but just so you can see our faces!)

When we got back, we jumped right into getting the baby room set up! One fun thing we got was ceiling fans! Pretty consistently, it has been about 90 degrees in our house! Clearly that's a little toasty, so in order to help not catch on fire, we got fans! Hopefully it will keep the baby's room cooler!!


(the cute curtains are from Michelle H.!!)

Speaking of the baby! I have a little over 2 weeks til my due date!!! I went to the doctor on Monday and all is well! I got to meet with our pediatrician and he is very, very cool as well (and speaks fairly good English!)! It is amazing to me to think that we will have a baby soon! I know our lives will change drastically! I go back and forth on being nervous/scared about the labor and delivery process. It's a big deal to have a baby, especially here in Nicaragua! So, I would love all and any prayers to have a calm, trusting heart. (And also I'm praying for a quick, not so, so, so painful delivery - I don't know if that's a selfish prayer, but I'm still praying for it!)

One last thing, just because I'm curious! What do think BOY or GIRL??? Leave a comment!