My dad

My dad died this afternoon after a long struggle with lung cancer and strokes. May he rest in peace. We are leaving today.

Touching

Melba had mentioned in a post that people want to touch baby Charlie all the time.

I have to admit that I am dealing with the same problem. People here don't seem to have a concept of personal space. When I am waiting in line at the supermarket for example some people come so close to me that I am getting very uncomfortable. With Lilli it is the same. All the time people come and touch her. Most of them just mean really well and don't know that you shouldn't just touch any child you see. I already joked about putting up a sign on her stroller that says "Don't touch!". I haven't learned how to tell those people to back off, yet.

Particularly when I go with her to the market all those people come and just touch her. Yesterday there was one incident was over the top. Out of nowhere comes this old creepy guy and touches her and kisses her hands. I wanted to move on and told him we needed to go and he just wouldn't stop. I felt very uncomfortable and I don't want to imagine what Lilli felt.

Please, my dear blog friends, tell me how I can tell those people to back off without offending them.

I also get the question "Tu hija?" (your daughter) a lot and when I say proudly "Si. Mi hija!" people shake their heads in disbelieve. I am close to asking people "Why do you want to know? to put them in their place...

Thyroid question

I don't know if I ever mentioned it here, but I had 90% of my thyroid removed due to a benign tumor 11 years ago. Since then I have been taking thyroxine every day. It is no problem in my daily life, but sometimes I wonder whether it effects my fertility.

Once a year I have to have my levels tested. Yesterday I finally went. TSH is 0.61, T3 is 3.09 and T4 is 1.79. I asked Dr. Google about it and it looks like only high TSH levels are causing problems with fertility. But what about low levels? Does anybody have some medical input?

Where does this question come from you might wonder. Dh and I have talked about having a second child. I know it is very early since Lilli isn't a year yet, but since I am already 35 (and we know it goes downhill from here), we should take a decision on what we are doing. We would both love to adopt again, but haven't paid for Lilli's adoption yet. Therefore we are not ready at this point to pursue adoption again. The legal aspect is also kind of complicated. Americans, living in Venezuela, trying to adopt from the US or internationally. Which law applies? I don't know. I only know that we would need to adopt after US law. But what about the law here? Getting a home study done would be another problem...

Another option would be fertility treatments. It is a little cheaper here than in the US, so this might be an option. But I don't know whether I want to get on that kind of rollercoaster again with my own eggs. I am more thinking about trying donor eggs this time. Hubby suggested to try one cycle with my own eggs. He really wants me to be able to have a biological connection to the child. While I would love one, I want to have a sucessfull cycle and pregnancy and given our history I just feel that donor eggs would be a better shot.

A garten eden in the middle of the jungle.

To celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary of our church wedding we went for a night to a nice posada here in the countryside. Posadas are like little hotels, mostly family-owned. We had a great time and really some time to relax. I enjoyed not having to cook and being spoiled by nice home-cooked food.

Here are some of our impressions and some updated Lilli pictures. I can't believe she will be one in two short weeks. Time to plan the birthday party...