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. :)

My Son is Born!

We were originally given a due date of July 3rd for our baby boy. When I started visiting the doctor's office weekly during the last month, it was pretty clear with each visit that the baby was on his way. He scheduled an induction date for June 27th. I had things planned out nicely for how that day would go. Cynthia and her kids came in to town and I was glad they could help time pass and Grace was thrilled to have her cousins here. Grace had swimming lessons that would wrap up the week before. I would get a couple last things put together for the baby's room and get a pedicure. The Saturday before, Danilo's mom had a baby shower planned for us that she had put all kinds of time and effort into. After that shower, Danilo and I had tickets to an event in Sandy and we were going to make a date night out of it by going to dinner, too. Well, that Friday evening (before the baby shower), I started having fairly strong, fairly consistent contractions. Danilo and I were watching a movie. I didn't really know how to read contractions because my water had broken with Grace. I just didn't know how to know if I should go to the hospital. So Danilo and I prayed together, that we would be alert to know if we needed to get to the hospital. I decided to try to sleep, and if I was able to sleep, we would stay home. I slept really well through the night and the contractions subsided. The next morning I was getting some things done around the house and my contractions kicked up again, strong and consistent. Danilo told me to maybe go lie down. He liked the thought of a planned delivery on the following Thursday and I was really starting to make him nervous. I rested til it was time to go to the baby shower. Danilo and I mapped out a plan for in case I went into labor at the event in Sandy... we could make it to Intermountain Medical Center if I couldn't make it back. Talking like that, I started to think it might be a good idea to call off the date night. I decided to bring my hospital bag to the shower... just in case. As we sat there and guests started to trickle in, I joked with them that I thought I might be going in to labor. Mom sat next to me and we started to time them. They were consistently close together and started to hurt ever so slightly more. I started to wonder what I was waiting for. The shower was LOVELY, and if I had a sore throat or a headache, I would have just suffered through. But this was labor. I called Danilo who was in the house with his mom helping her and told him we needed to go. He rose to the task even though our nice Thursday delivery plan was falling apart.

decorations from the shower brought up to my hospital room; yes that is a baby face carved in cantaloupe! :)

 My mom and Hailey and a couple others snapped some pictures of Danilo and me running off from the shower to the hospital. I hugged and kissed my Gracie girl and told her we were pretty sure Dad and I were going to the hospital so I could have her baby brother and that she would be there after he came. We headed to the Emergency Room just like we had with Grace. We sat at a desk for 10 or 15 minutes to get checked in. They gave me a wristband and everything and then Danilo wheeled me off in a wheelchair. A nurse met me and gave me instructions to change into a gown and get in a bed where I would be hooked up to monitors and all. When you're causing all that fuss, you can't help but think, man, I'm really going to feel ridiculous if I didn't make the right call here.

last picture as a family of three!

But within 15 or 20 minutes, the nurse said they had talked to the doctor and he had told them to keep me. We were having a baby! When the nurse left the room after giving us that information, I asked Danilo to give me a blessing. He did and I don't remember all the words, but I gained calm and strength from it which I was very grateful for. Gracie's deliver was a pretty horrendous experience (she was worth it), and if this delivery registered even close to the pain and fear I felt during Gracie's delivery, our family was going to consist of two children. I was very thankful for the power of the priesthood and that blessing. I think one of the tender mercies that came from it was that the nurse who originally met me went home when her shift ended, and the nurse who saw me through the rest of labor and delivery {Natalie} was so wonderful. So with it. I really feel like when I told her what my worries and fears were, she internalized it all and did everything she could to reduce my anxiety and solve problems. The issue with Gracie's delivery was that my epidural wore off and it was too late by that time to do anything about it. So all the pain of labor and delivery came rushing in and I was not prepared mentally to deal with it. This time, I was given a might dose just as the doctor arrived to make no mistake that the epidural would work through the delivery. It did and giving birth was one of the sweetest experiences of my life as it was with Grace, but minus the trauma. I pushed four or five times and he was here! My initial reaction when I saw him was that he was definitely Grace's brother. There was a very strong resemblance between the two. Because my pain was under control, I was able to enjoy the next several minutes, Danilo cutting the umbilical cord, and the nurses and Danilo estimating his weight. He was 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 22 1/2 inches long. I was much more present with this delivery. I could enjoy the moment and not just cope with the pain. He arrived at 8:15 p.m. Dr. Bitner congratulated me with a hug. They gave him to me once they had cleaned him up and when I got to have him up close, I could see that while he looked like Grace, he was definitely his own person with his own features, his face shape was different, he has dimples. We called our parents to let them know he was here. I was anxious for Grace to meet her little brother. My family said she was getting emotional in the hall waiting to come in and meet him. Not a sad emotional, but an excited emotional. We'd been talking about this moment as a family for months, and it had finally arrived.

I love the pictures that were taken of the four of us in those few minutes after his birth. All our sisters and their husbands came as well as Andrew too. Everyone stayed probably til 10:00. Then they invited me to come to the nursery while Danilo bathed our son. I didn't know moms could do that. My legs didn't work from the epidural so a sweet nurse named Aimee pushed me around in a wheelchair. Grace and Nona watched outside the window. I think Grace didn't get to bed til midnight that night, but I am happy she was there. Danilo stayed that first night in my hospital room on a a hide-a-bed. I'm glad he was there. I had a really wonderful hospital stay. The nurses were so kind and attentive.

We had lots of family in and out the two days we were there including both sets of my grandparents. It was really nice. So... after months and months of debate, what did we name our sweet boy? Danilo Erich Collado. Danilo for obvious reasons. I think we will probably call him Danny most of the time to help with any confusing between father and son. Erich is the middle name of my Grandpa Achter's father.

He is the kind of person who gave most everything he had to be baptized a member of the Church. I have always admired him for his courage and faithfulness and it feels important to honor him this way. So... how do I explain how I feel about this little boy? He has completely won my heart. I have nervously anticipated becoming the mother of a son, feeling like I know quite a bit about raising girls and nothing about boys. But I am entirely smitten. I am so thankful for the powerfully sweet spirit he has brought with him and into our home and feel like Heaven is very near. I know the experience has been similarly meaningful for Danilo as well and Gracie loves and is so proud of her brother. I am so thankful for powerful, sweet, life-changing experiences like this. I pray for the strength and grace each day to be a good mom to my children and raise them in a way that is pleasing to my Heavenly Father.

We were on a Les Mis kick at our house for a whole month

after this

and this

my brother Andrew (top center) after a Friday night performance of Les Miserables at his high school

Danilo may have walked around the house singing things like, "And now I'm off to brush my teeeeeth"...to the tune of I Dreamed a Dream.

I get so swallowed up not only in the music of Les Miserables, but in the story. Of the worth of the human soul in God's eyes that is displayed in so many of the characters and hope amidst complete and utter despair. It is a story so masterfully told and it changes my life in some way every time I see it.

“Is there not in every human soul [as in Jean val Jean] a primitive spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world and immortal in the next, which can be developed by goodness, kindled, lit up, and made to radiate, and which evil can never entirely extinguish?”

-Victor Hugo

The whole experience may have rubbed off a little on Gracie, too.

4th Saturday of Seven

In 7th grade, my world as I knew it came to a screeching halt. After 10+ years in a neighborhood where all the kids had assumed the privilege of running between each others yards and where kick-the-can tournaments had been held for countless summers, my dad announced that we were building a new home. The main reason was because the little gray home we had built in 1987 was bursting at the seams since my little brother had been born. I shed many tears during the process, some warranted, some, slightly dramatic, but none so much as the night we pulled away from the gray house with the beautiful bay window for the last time.

Our new home was beautiful. It was larger and more expensive than the first, and it was surrounded by other larger and more expensive homes. The idea hadn't phased me much, but at the dinner table, all of us in the family who were old enough would report being told by a coworker or a classmate or two, "Good luck on snob hill."

Such statements caused me to approach our new neighborhood with some apprehension. However, it truly all dissolved when we received the warmest of welcomes at our arrival. There were in this neighborhood, as in the first, good neighbors. In the eight years I lived there until I married, I can name many people from that area who had a hand in shaping me for the better during impressionable growing up years. Hard times hit our family and people from that neighborhood rallied around us during dark hours. I was also moved to see the way some of the families in that area used the wealth they had acquired in their medical practices and law firms and small businesses to quietly but generously bless the lives of others.

I am not saying my experience will be the case in every upscale neighborhood, but I am saying that in many instances, wealth does not equal arrogance. In many instances, individuals who possess wealth also possess the virtues of hard work, persistence, the determination to forge through difficult times, and ultimately the ability to be successful. And many remember to help others.

This is the case with Mitt Romney.

There have been several attempts during this campaign to associate Mitt Romney's success in the business arena with greed and to try to disconnect him from the American people, when actually, he is a true representation of an individual pursuing and attaining the American dream. These attempts to create a gap between the rich and the poor are unnerving and unAmerican. 

This is what Ann Romney had to say about it:

 "It amazes me to see his history of success actually being attacked. 

Are those really the values that made our country great? 

As [moms].. do we want to raise our children to be afraid of success?

Do we send our children out in the world with the advice, 'Try to do... okay?'"

Read the whole speech here.
Watch it here.

I am voting for Mitt Romney because he is a successful businessman. He was the CEO of a business consulting firm that took struggling companies and turned them around. And they were successful at it. That means he understands what is good for businesses. And he understands how to take things that are in trouble and turn them around.

Is it time to vote YET?

At the height of his success at the firm he was asked to take over the 2002 Winter Olympics, without compensation, and he left. And he decided he wouldn't go back after three years and try to pick up the reins again. He would leave it to those who had stayed behind.   

Yes, wealth can corrupt men and women.  But I have seen through the example of my neighbors what it can do in the hands of good people. I love how Ann Romney describes their experience of choosing to share what they have with others, "It's given us the deep satisfaction of being able to help others in ways that we could never have imagined."

I repeat, to take people who have used their knowledge and resources and through ingenuity and hard work have made better lives for themselves, their families, and others, and cast them as villains in the story of America is unAmerican. I am voting for Mitt Romney because he is a successful businessman who understands how to take organizations that are in trouble and get them thriving again. 
 
I will continue to share a reason I am voting for Mitt Rommey each Saturday until the election. If you don't agree with me, that's okay. I have friends who are very dear to me who don't see politics the way I do. But if you feel good about it, please use your reach to share these posts through email, Facebook, and Pinterest.

How will you make a difference in this election?

This is Mr. Collado after registering to vote this week. While I ran around my little gray house playing kick-the-can, he was living in one-bedroom apartments with his mom and sisters. He often expresses gratitude for the opportunities America has provided him, and what it has provided his mom who worked so hard to keep them fed and clothed. Today he has a bachelor's degree, works as an MRI technologist, and we purchased our first home a year ago. Needless to say, I am very proud of him.

P.S. There is a presidential debate this Tuesday. Watch it. More information here.

A Month Ago Today was a Really Happy Day

So we dressed up really nice

because my sister was marrying

the love of her life.

Lots of special people came to town,
Colin's family from Indiana, Aunt Paula from California, and

Kelli (Arizona), Rakel (Sweden) and Joe (Missouri) to name a few.

and we may have thrown the most successful

Utah Mormon wedding dance party known to...Utah

(oh, you thought you were here to

shake some hands, grab some cheesecake

and run? Get your hands in the air!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sOYvVtB43k

And so ended the summer that I went from

no brothers-in-law to three.

I am so thankful for these people.

Introducing My First Ever Brother-In-Law

... and his darling new wife. Jordan and I go WAY back. There's this Primary song about the baptism of Jesus that tells how he was baptized "in the river Jordan's flow." I remember learning the song in church one Sunday and not grasping the larger picture, but imagining a bunch of Jordan Pearts flowing in a river. We grew up in the same neighborhood til we moved when I was 13, but we still attended the same jr. high and high schools. While we never ate lunch at the same table or ran around with the same crowd, I always remember respecting him from a distance. He seemed like the kind of guy who didn't need to experiment with some of the garbage those stages of life can offer. He seemed to have it together.

He had Chelsea from day one. Their wedding day was among one of the sweetest days of my life. Days like that are the very substance of life because of moments like this

and all the quiet ones happening in your heart reassuring you that these people and these times are what matter the very most.

¡Lo hicimos! We did it! We did it! Yay!

70

Wait for it...

SURPRISE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

My darling grandma turns 70 today and last night her kids and grandkids squeezed ourselves into her kitchen to surprise her when she got home from a fall leaf drive with Grandpa. We took turns expressing our love and appreciation for Grandma's faithfulness and dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ, for providing a warm beautiful setting in her home, for her delicious baking, and patience during piano lessons. I want to elaborate a bit on what I said when it was my turn. I have always loved how ladylike my grandma is. She is a beautiful woman inside and out and I have always admired how she takes care of and carries herself. I have had a love/hate relationship with my height over the years. I'm not ridiculously tall, but taller than average, and I'm usually okay with it until somebody points it out (once I was at a dance with the Spanish branch and Danilo hadn't arrived yet, so my mother-in-law encouraged a 14-year-old kid to dance with me. His eyes scaled from my toes to the top of my head and he shook his head. "Muy grande," he said, walking off. Maybe I should have grabbed him and taught him a quick lesson on the top ten things you should not say to a girl, but I didn't end up doing him the favor). I know height is kind of like straight or curly hair, you tend to wish you had the other no matter which one you've got. One day though, I realized one of the reasons my grandma is so ladylike to me is because of the way she carries her height, confidently with no apology, the way it should be. And so did her mom, my great-grandma who I adored as well. The day I realized that, I decided I was going to embrace my height and never go back. Happy birthday to a lovely woman who I am so thankful to be able to enjoy in my life.