Danny's Blessing Day

It was the kind of day you want to wrap up and tuck away in a special drawer so you can pull it out to enjoy again later. Danilo gave the blessing in Spanish. Danny's grandma (Nona) had his outfit specially made by a close friend. I was able to share with the congregation the reason why we named him as we did. My Grandpa Achter expressed how meaningful it was to him that I had spoken about his father (Herman Erich). We hosted a major event in our backyard for the first time with family after church. I am so thankful to our families and our ward family who extended their love and congratulations to us on this special day.

Note to self: get a picture of all four members of the Collado family together next time. :)

Subject: Update on a Former Student

Dear Mr. Costa,

While I know you weren't the principal of Coral Gables High School when my husband graduated in 1996, I hoped you wouldn't mind reading the following.

I was a 5th grade teacher until my daughter was born. I had a Spanish minor to go along with my teaching major, and as a result had all of the ESL students (we call it English Second Language here, I don't know if it is the same there) in my classroom. I remember feeling especially for the students who were placed in my classroom knowing absolutely no English. As we would move ahead with long division or write a persuasive essay or illustrate a section of literature we had just read, I remember wondering how those cute kids would ever catch up with their peers. I did my best to incorporate the teaching strategies I had learned for teaching students who are learning English and just hoped for a bright future for each of them.

It wasn't until I had left the classroom that one day it occurred to me that when my husband came to the United States as a 13-year-old in 1990, his age gave him a little more of a disadvantage than even my 5th grade ESL students. So I asked him about it. He remembers arriving in Miami and being thrown into classes where he had no idea what was going on. Someone picked up on it eventually and placed him in a class at his middle school especially for English language learners. Little by little because of his placement in this class and his interaction with other students, he learned English. 

This Friday my husband will graduate from Weber State University in Utah for the second time. He graduated a year and a half ago as an x-ray technician and went on to specialize as an MRI technician for which he will receive a bachelor's degree. He works in departments at two different hospitals. He is a loyal, responsible, and hard-working husband and father and I just thought it would be significant to let someone from his high school know that he did indeed catch up and has made something wonderful of himself.

Thanks for your time and have a good day.

Sincerely,

Brittney Collado

P.S. The picture is of us and our daughter and my brother's recent Eagle Court of Honor.

Cumpleaños Feliz Deseamos a Tí, Mami

Dilema and baby Danilo in his birthplace Italy, 1977

Hoy celebramos el cumpleaños de una mujer bien importante y especial en la vida de mi familia. Ella es la mamá de mi esposo, la nona de mi hija, y mi suegrita, una mujer llena de amor, de fortaleza, y que vive cada día para honrar su Padre Celestial.

El nombre de mi suegra es Dilema. Ella siempre se ríe un poco cuando habla de su nombre. “Porque mi mamá me nombró ‘problem’, yo no sé,” me dijo cuando hablamos por la primera vez acerca de este tema. Pero al pensar mucho de mi suegra Dilema esta semana en que ella cumple 60 años, llegué a una conclusión. Mi suegra ha enfrentado muchos pasos y dilemas muy difíciles en su vida. Mi suegrita y yo hemos pasado muchas horas sentadas en la mesa en la cocina y me ha contado poco a poco la historia de su vida. Muchas de las historias pasaron cuando ella fue una mamá soltera, haciendo lo mejor posible para sus hijos en Chile, en Miami, y diferentes partes de Utah. Ella me cuenta historias de aventura, de trabajo fuerte, y de pena. Aunque no tenían mucho, mi esposo y mis cuñadas siempre hablan de tiempos felices en su hogar. Mi suegra se enfrenta las partes difíciles de la vida con fe y una sonrisa, y cuando los tiempos son bastante difíciles que una sonrisa seria inapropiada, sigue solita con su fe. Eso es algo que yo conozco por mi propia experiencia, viendo la forma en que ella se cuida a mi suegrito, un buen hombre afectado mucho por el Parkinson’s disease.

Ha sido un placer llegar a ser la nuera de esta mujer y hacerle parte de mi vida y mi corazón. Yo puedo sentir su gran amor para mí cuando me abraza y cuando hablamos corazón a corazón. Fue muy linda ver la transformación que fue cuando nació Gracie y empezó a ser una abuelita por la primera vez. Me alegro mucho que podía ser parte de esa gran bendición.

¡Feliz cumpleaños Mami!

Today we are celebrating the birthday of someone very important and special in the life of my family. She is the mother of my husband, the “nona” of my daughter, and my sweet mother-in-law. A woman full of love, strength, and who lives every day to honor her Heavenly Father.

My mother-in-law’s name is Dilema. She always laughs a little when she talks about her name. “Why my mom named me ‘problem’, I don’t know!” she told me when we talked about it the very first time. But after thinking a lot about my mother-in-law Dilema as she turns 60 this week, I arrived at a conclusion. My mother-in-law has confronted many difficult times and dilemmas in her life. She and I have spent many hours at her kitchen table as she has told me little by little the story of her life. Many of the stories took place when she was a single mom doing the best she could for her children while they lived in Chile, Miami, and different parts of Utah. She tells me stories of adventure, of hard work, and of heartbreak. Even though they never had much as children, my husband and my sisters-in-law always talk of happy times in their home. My mother-in-law confronts the difficult times in life with faith and a smile, and when times are difficult enough that a smile would be inappropriate, she presses forward with her faith alone. This is something I know from my own experience, seeing the way in which she cares for my father-in-law, a good man affected greatly by Parkinson’s disease.

It has been a pleasure becoming the daughter-in-law of this woman and to make her part of my life and heart. I can feel her love for me when she embraces me and when we talk heart-to-heart.

It was really wonderful to see the transformation that took place when Gracie was born and she began at that moment to be a grandmother for the very first time. It made me happy to be apart of that blessing in her life.

Happy birthday Mami!

Unexpected

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself standing in front of the Salsa club at Danilo's university. He'd been asked to come do a demonstration. I just remember thinking, wow, this is not something I would've expected to be doing say, ten years ago. Ten years ago I didn't know more than a lick of Spanish. Ten years ago my dance experience didn't extend past the Boot Scootin' Boogie. I guess I'm just thankful that I'm not the only author in my life, because I don't think I would've written Salsa dancing in on my own. The video below isn't super recent. It was taken on our honeymoon. Please take that into account when you notice the silly googly look on my face. I was pretty excited to be married to Danilo (nothing's changed, I've just toned down the googly look). The dancing's a little clumsy for that reason, too, but I think it gives you a pretty good taste of what we like to do. Please also know you don't have to watch all five minutes and twenty four seconds. I wasn't able to edit it down like I would've liked. I'll stop making disclaimers. Just enjoy!

The Tentative Plan

Before we were even married, Danilo talked about having our children grow up speaking both Spanish and English. It sounded great to me at the time. As our family is beginning to materialize before our eyes, I have become ever so less excited about the idea. If you give me a minute to explain, hopefully I will come off not sounding so selfish. Danilo's original proposal was to speak pure Spanish in the home because they would get exposed to English everywhere else they went. I had my reservations about that because though I love the Spanish language, it's not my first language and not the one I fall into speaking naturally. While raising my children, I don't want to have to hope that I'm conveying the right message. When I'm putting my baby to sleep, I want the words I speak to her to be genuinely mine. So we compromised when we found out a baby was on the way to me speaking English when I'm at home with the baby, speaking Spanish as a family when Danilo got home, and Danilo always speaking Spanish. While it was a compromise, I still wasn't embracing the idea. I think when you begin raising a family, at least in my experience, I have craved going back to my roots. I want my children to have similar experiences to what I had growing up, and speaking a different language when we're all together is so foreign from the experience I had as a child. Yet at the same time we will be joining two cultures, and because I love both Danilo and his Chilean background, and because he had a childhood that was different from mine, I realize it's important that we represent both. So the idea occurred to me the other day to balance both by having weeks. We can have a Spanish week where I get good Spanish practice as the whole family speaks Spanish. We talk in Spanish, say our blessing on the food in Spanish, eat dinner in Spanish, say our family prayers in Spanish, have family home evening in Spanish. And when the next Sunday morning comes along, it's English week, and we do it all over again in English. I took the idea up with Danilo, told him why it was important to me, and he was agreeable. The idea might still receive a little tweaking, but it feels pretty good.

Cute Enough to Eat

These stinking cute puppies are at my favorite stage right now. They belong to Danilo's family and are a Shitzu-Maltese mix. They're for sale!! And they're bilingual! Well...they come from a bilingual home. :)

Bendita La Luz

I just added this song to our playlist because I have always loved it. Latin music strikes a chord somewhere inside me that is so satisfying. It reminds me of wonderful things, like dancing with my Danilo. Since our first three dates involved latin dancing and I was pretty well head over heels by that point, you could say latin music had a hand in our falling in love. When I was first learning Spanish, my friend Marlene gave me some CDs to listen to. As I began to understand the words, I grew to have an appreciation for the beautiful way you can say things in Spanish. This song is no exception. The words touch me deeply because they echo feelings I have for my sweet husband. So as you log on to our blog and the raspy latino voice starts singing with an acoustic guitar, know that this is what he is saying, and see if it gives you goosebumps, too!

Blessed be the place, and the reason for being there
Blessed be the coincidence
Blessed be the clock that put us there at the same time
Blessed be your presence

Blessed be God for having our ways cross
And for removing me from the loneliness that had been my destiny.

Blessed be the light
Blessed be the light of your glance that reaches my soul.

(Bendito el lugar, y el motivo de estar ahí,
Bendita la coincidencia,

Bendito el reloj, que nos puso puntual ahí,
Bendita sea tu, presencia.

Bendito Dios por encontrarnos, en el camino,
Y de quitarme esta soledad, de mi destino.

Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada,
Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada,
Desde el alma.)

The main idea is, he is grateful for all the events that came together so that their paths would cross. A lot of the emotion gets lost in the translation. Just trust me that these are beautiful words!

I have a husband named Danilo

In case you haven't met my husband, I'd like to a minute to introduce you! For some reason, I really fell in love with Spanish while I was in college. I jumped into a beginner's Spanish class and advanced each semester until I had a minor. I met my sweet friend Marlene from Chile during this time. We had a lot of fun together and she knew as much English as I knew Spanish. I know spending time with her helped me a lot. When all was said and done, I was fairly fluent in Spanish and didn't really know why I'd done it!! I began attending a Spanish branch in the area to keep up the language and after several invitations, I finally began attending their young single adult activities. It was at a fireside where Danilo approached me and asked me where I'd learned Spanish. Had I served a mission? he asked. I was flattered and after a few phone conversations and a Saturday night latin dancing date, I was pretty well whooped. Danilo was born in Italy. His parents were Chilean and returned to Chile when he was eight months old. He lived there until he was 13 and then his family moved to Miami. He spent his jr. high and high school years there and moved to Salt Lake at 19. He worked and played and decided something was missing, and that's how he ended up on a mission to Orlando at age 26. I came into the picture five months after he got home and I've been grateful we bumped into each other ever since. He speaks fluent English with a darn cute accent.