Rafael - Living live a day at a time

In order to bring her billirubin down to a normal level she needs to be taking blue light bath with this googles. Looks like getting a tan right?

A lot of babies get Jaundice which happens when there's too much billirubin in their blood which their young liver cannot get rid of.
In order to avoid complications she needed to use this blue suit!

It's only her 2nd day alive and I can't resist that face, Can you?

Here's Daniela's first picture, taken while we were in the OR and before even cutting her umbilical cord
WELCOME DANIELA

This was still in the OR after they cleaned up our baby they brought her to my wife so that she could see her for the first time, here's a picture of that moment.

Once we were all together in the recovery room and our little one was getting some food.

Daniela Sofia Gonzalez Garcia was finally born yesterday April 21st at 7:36am, she weighted 3.662 Kg (8 lbs 1 onz) and measured 51 cm (almost 21 inches).
Perla and Daniela are right in excellent conditions both resting and recovering from a long delivery.

It feels great to finally tell you all I AM A FATHER.

Off to sleep at the moment, will post more as soon as I get a chance.

If you want to see more pictures go to http://photos.yahoo.com/rafuchoski and select her folder

For all of you waiting to hear news on my little girl, she hasn't been born yet, today we have an appointment with the doctors in order to get some tests and hopefully it has been only a date misunderstanding between the doctors in Guatemala, Mexico and Florida. Hopefully everything is fine and soon she will be in my arms resting, crying, and doing lots of other stuff.
But as a father to be I have been faced lately more than ever with questioning on how safe and sane is this world to where a new life is being brought. I was reflecting on this topic this morning while driving back from the airport to drop of my parents who left for a week to visit my aunt, and I heard in the news that a 9 year old killed his mother with a gun and then committed suicide.
Do you remember what you where doing and thinking when you were 9 years old? Trying to do some backwards thinking I figure I was in 5th grade, enjoying my time at school, worried about getting all the stickers for the football or cartoon albums, thinking about the ghost stories in my old school, having fun with some other kids after school as I had to wait for the Principal's assistant to give a ride home with 2 more kids, trying to gather as many marbles as I could, but I never heard or thought about doing something like this.

Now the next logical question in my head is What am I doing to improve this world? Coming from the NGO world, coming from a developing country myself all this thoughts of world issues come always back to my mind as I try to struggle and find a good answer on something one mortal like myself could do that really makes a difference and also provides enough financial support to live (which as being a father has increased in importance lately), I have some thoughts in mind which I will share soon with you all, but if any of you have an idea, no matter how crazy it is of an NGO, project, work, or anything send me an email, post a comment or something, and let's talk about it OK?.

One of my colleagues came in this morning telling us how angry she was at her little boy teacher and what she did in order to reprimend him for his bad behaviour.
She said his 2nd grader boy was going trough some personal challenges at home and apparently did somethings at school that were not acceptable to her teacher and the teacher demanded that he wrote a 3 PAGES ESSAY on why he should behave better.
Can you imagine at this stage in your life, after everything you have experienced, everything you have lived and gone trough writing a 3 pages essay on why you should behave better, I have to say it would be quite a challenge but for a 2nd grader it's just MAD.
As a parent to be I have to agree that reflection is needed on the behaviour, the reasons why it is not allowed or good or expected should be explained to the kids, but I don't think writing a 3 pages essay is the right way to go about it, wouldn't you agree?

Last Tuesday was the due date for my little girl "Daniela" to be brought to this world, but it seems like she is telling us that she will come when she is ready not when we want her to!. Anyways still waiting for our little earthquake (as we call her) to be born, will keep you guys posted on it.
On another note can you imagine how many cultural misunderstandings may arise when 2 Venezuelan soon to be grandparents meet with 1 Mexican soon to be grandmother and their 2 children (my wife and me) and they are all living in a 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom apartment waiting for the arrival of the granddaughter, I think I will write a book afterwards, but can't blog too much right now, have ton of stuff to get done and I don't know if I will be able to work tomorrow or if I will be with my wife in the delivery room, anything's possible

Well you guys it's Tuesday, my parents arrived yesterday from Venezuela, my wife's mother arrived today so everyone is in town to wait for the arrival of our newborn.
Don't know about you guys but stress in high in here, so I decided to share with all of you stressed workers a video from a comedy show that will make you guys PEE in your pants, so ENJOY and relax!
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/m/bms269/Movies/richard.wmv

I decided to make some changes to the blog and the first one is the name of it "Parenthood - The ultimate Adventure", the template I will change later on with a little bit more time.
Today is Friday and this will be the last posting before going home for the weekend, at the moment we don't know if on Monday I will be a dad already or if my baby will wait for her grandparents to arrive on Monday and Tuesday, as my wife is starting to have Hicks contractions and is dilated a little bit.
Anyways guys, wish me luck, and as soon as I can I will be posting about the experience and our little baby. Godspeed.

Easter tradition in the US has always been interesting for me as what I could see is that a male rabbit comes and delivers a basket full of eggs, when rabbits do not lay eggs!. And I always wondered what's the connection with the Christian believe of the resurrection of Christ, which is the center of the holidays back in Venezuela. So I decided that since I am here in the states I will do my best to understand this tradition.
I started asking around several colleagues and friends without any luck, and finally decided to do some research in the big knowledge base of the internet and here is hat I came up with:

Eggs were said to be dyed and eaten at the spring festivals in ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Persians of that time gave eggs as gifts at the vernal equinox (the day when the Sun crosses directly over the Earth's equator).
In ancient Egypt, the rabbit was also recognized as a symbol of fertility and renewal. This belief spread to the Greeks and then to the Romans who shared it with the rest of Europe. The Celts and other early European groups celebrated the festival of Eastre (or Eostre), a goddess of the dawn associated with springtime. Her symbol was the rabbit, the most fertile animal and a symbol of new life. Many people think that the modern feast of Easter developed from springtime feasts to honor Eastre, and thus the name Easter.
During the Middle Ages, the rabbit became associated with eggs since they were both symbols of fertility and rebirth in the spring. The Easter Bunny as a holiday symbol delivering candy and eggs is thought to have started around that time in Germany. German writings from the 1500s contain the first mention of the Easter Bunny.
The first food Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s and were baked pastry bunnies with sugar toppings. The custom changed over time and eventually the Easter Bunny began to deposit eggs - in children's shoes!
Australia particularly didn't have any rabbits, so the bilby which is an endangered animal that looks almost like a rabbit took it's place. So in Australia, you'll find chocolate Easter Bilby candy and Easter Bilby cards.

This short research took me to another conclusion, we all celebrate Easter on many different ways, so tell me how do you celebrate it?, and any Australian out there tell me what a Bilby really looks like.