It is my 35th birthday today. Five years ago I had a really big party at my parent's house. I had invited friends from all over the country to join us. We started on Friday night with a visit to a restaurant, had a guided tour through the city on Saturday morning and the party in the evening. On Sunday we had a farewell breakfast for everyone.
I was terrified of turning 30. I felt like an old woman and thought back to the days when I was 21. I only I could turn back time I thought back then. The fact that I wasn't married, made me sad.
When I was 16 I always thought by the time I am 25 I will be married with two children. The number 30 had something so threatening in my eyes.
In Northern Germany when you turn 30 as a woman and you aren't married you have to clean doorhandles. So my friends brought these doorhandles mounted on a piece of wood that were "dirty" with toothpaste and let me clean them. They gave me a headpiece and a cleaning lady dress. Whenever I had finished one they put more toothpaste on. It seemed like I was never going to be done. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy thinking back now. I said to DH yesterday: five years ago we were so innocent. Little did we know about what was going to happen. Infertility hadn't kicked our asses back then. My dad didn't have his stroke. He didn't suffer from lung cancer. Life seemed so easy back then. We were happy and didn't worry about the future.
Here we go five years later: I am turning the corner for conception today. Everybody knows that trying to conceive when you are over 35 is more difficult and is considered high risk. Not that conception was ever easy for us, but I always thought at least I am under 35. Now that advantage point is gone. How I feel about it? The pain is still there, but having a child makes it a little more bearable. But if I could turn back time, I might turn it back five years.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Unsolicited Advice
It has finally happened. At a happy hour last week this lady walked up to us and told us that she wanted to give us a recommendation. The shoes Lilli was wearing were bad for her and we should buy orthopedic shoes. She also recommended a brand. I know she didn't mean bad, but I felt like she was telling us we are bad parents for letting our daughter wear the wrong shoes.
For the record: I only had put shoes on her because she sometimes wants to walk (holding on to our hands) and I didn't want her to walk on the dirty floor barefoot. Usually she is not wearing any shoes at all because this is best. Of course I don't want her to get problems with her feet. Buying shoes for her is on the top of my priority list. But please Lady, give me a break... It is none of your business.
On Saturday we were at a birthday party. Lilli got up and walked through the room. Dh and I were just stunned.
We installed her big girl car seat yesterday. It is still facing backwards, but soon we will be able to turn it around. Lilli's long legs are kind of squeezed in right now.
For the record: I only had put shoes on her because she sometimes wants to walk (holding on to our hands) and I didn't want her to walk on the dirty floor barefoot. Usually she is not wearing any shoes at all because this is best. Of course I don't want her to get problems with her feet. Buying shoes for her is on the top of my priority list. But please Lady, give me a break... It is none of your business.
On Saturday we were at a birthday party. Lilli got up and walked through the room. Dh and I were just stunned.
We installed her big girl car seat yesterday. It is still facing backwards, but soon we will be able to turn it around. Lilli's long legs are kind of squeezed in right now.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Not what I thought it would be
I promised to blog about the trip to my family. It was really different from what I had expected it to be. The flight over there was pretty easy because Lilli was sleeping about 5 hours. I didn't really sleep a lot because I was always on the lookout for her jumping out of her baby bassinet. When we finally arrived, my brother picked us up from the airport. He always does it, when we ask him to and I am very grateful to be blessed with such a great brother and Lilli with such a great uncle.
We then drove to my parent's house and I was all excited. I had just seen them for Christmas, but my Dad didn't know it was going to be a surprise present for him for his 70th birthday. When we pulled into the driveway he was sitting outside. I let my brother go first and pulled Lilli out of the car. Finally my Dad noticed us. He was putting his hands in front of his face. He was so happy to see us as we clearly didn't expect our visit. Later that day I went to the city with my brother to buy a highchair for Lilli while my Mom was watching Lilli.
But the surprise and joy of this first day wore off quickly. It turns out that my Dad is very depressive. I mean, who wouldn't be after a stroke and with lung cancer? Nothing can be done the right way. He doesn't like the food my Mom cooks, she puts his clothes in the wrong place, etc. They are basically fighting all day long. Yelling at each other, etc. I think the problem is also that they are together 24 hours/day. My Dad is frustrated and the only person he can take his frustrations out on is my Mom. My Mom has so much work all day long with the house, garden and my Dad, that she is frustrated, too. It is a vicious cycle.
One day I talked to the doctor about getting my Dad on some antidepressants. The doctor came to our house and talked to my Dad and my Dad said that he didn't think it was necessary, but when I told my Dad how angry he is all the time, finally he agreed that it would be o.k. to take something. The doctor told me to get the prescription the next day. So I went down there and it turns out that all the antidepressants he had in mind cause epilepsy. My Dad has had epileptic seizures after his stroke that we finally have under control with medication. So we all thought, it probably wasn't a good idea to put him under the risk of epileptic seizures through the antidepressants. I felt horrible that there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.
Another day, I picked my Dad up from his chemotherapy with Lilli. It was so depressing to go through the practice and see all those people hanging on the IVs receiving their chemotherapies. I brought Lilli on purpose to cheer my Dad (and hopefully some of the other patients up). He was nearly ready. I noticed that his arm was unusually swollen. It turned out that they had given him the chemotherapy in his arm instead of his vein. They even blamed him because he didn't say anything. He told me later that when he felt pain, nobody was around to look after him. Because of his earlier vocal cords cancer (in 2002) he couldn't scream for help. Fortunately he didn't have any complications from this incident.
His aggressions even turned against me a couple of times. And it was very painful because he can be so mean. I realize that he is sick and all, but it was still hard. He threw a handkerchief with snot in it towards me once after he had threatened to beat me with his walking stick. All of this because I wanted to watch some TV while he was reading. My Dad loves to read and everything else is less important than him reading. I had even turned on the volume on a really low level. I was so angry after that behaviour I said some things I shouldn't have said.
The next day he treated me like everything was fine and this incident had never happened.
The other problem was that my Mom is reconstructing parts of the house. So we had to empty out those rooms (her bedroom and her kitchen amongst them) and were basically working every day.
Some friends from out of town had wanted to visit me, but she asked me to cancel the visit.
My Mom didn't really spend a lot of time with Lilli. She took her sometimes in the mornings when I had to shower, but that was basically it. She was working all day long and not really enjoying having her granddaughter around. I felt horrible of having brought Lilli in that difficult environment between my parents. I don't want her to remember her grandparents as fighting all the time. I don't want her to think this is normal.
The last evening when I came back from buying bread (for my Mom) she wasn't around. I had thought she might want to use our last evening to spend some time with Lilli and take her to bed at least. But she was working in her garden. I always feel like her garden is more important than anything else for her. Like us.
On our last morning the day of our flight my Mom gave me 50 Euros for "Shoes for Lilli". I felt really bad. She is spending a couple of hundred of thousands of Euros to reconstruct the house (she is not taking out a mortgage for this, she has the money in the bank) and she is not even offering to pay the gas to the airport. Or part of the flight (since they don't come visit us). Nothing. I have my birthday next Wednesday and she knows that she won't be able to buy me something.
I was really hurt by this especially because she still owed me some money for moving boxes I had bought (15 Euros) anyway. It just makes me sad that she has all that money, but she doesn't want to help us with our expenses while we are struggling to make ends meet. We still haven't paid off our adoption. And we still paid the flight to go to visit them. Because seeing them and spending time with them was more important for us than anything else. More important than books or a garden.
We then drove to my parent's house and I was all excited. I had just seen them for Christmas, but my Dad didn't know it was going to be a surprise present for him for his 70th birthday. When we pulled into the driveway he was sitting outside. I let my brother go first and pulled Lilli out of the car. Finally my Dad noticed us. He was putting his hands in front of his face. He was so happy to see us as we clearly didn't expect our visit. Later that day I went to the city with my brother to buy a highchair for Lilli while my Mom was watching Lilli.
But the surprise and joy of this first day wore off quickly. It turns out that my Dad is very depressive. I mean, who wouldn't be after a stroke and with lung cancer? Nothing can be done the right way. He doesn't like the food my Mom cooks, she puts his clothes in the wrong place, etc. They are basically fighting all day long. Yelling at each other, etc. I think the problem is also that they are together 24 hours/day. My Dad is frustrated and the only person he can take his frustrations out on is my Mom. My Mom has so much work all day long with the house, garden and my Dad, that she is frustrated, too. It is a vicious cycle.
One day I talked to the doctor about getting my Dad on some antidepressants. The doctor came to our house and talked to my Dad and my Dad said that he didn't think it was necessary, but when I told my Dad how angry he is all the time, finally he agreed that it would be o.k. to take something. The doctor told me to get the prescription the next day. So I went down there and it turns out that all the antidepressants he had in mind cause epilepsy. My Dad has had epileptic seizures after his stroke that we finally have under control with medication. So we all thought, it probably wasn't a good idea to put him under the risk of epileptic seizures through the antidepressants. I felt horrible that there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.
Another day, I picked my Dad up from his chemotherapy with Lilli. It was so depressing to go through the practice and see all those people hanging on the IVs receiving their chemotherapies. I brought Lilli on purpose to cheer my Dad (and hopefully some of the other patients up). He was nearly ready. I noticed that his arm was unusually swollen. It turned out that they had given him the chemotherapy in his arm instead of his vein. They even blamed him because he didn't say anything. He told me later that when he felt pain, nobody was around to look after him. Because of his earlier vocal cords cancer (in 2002) he couldn't scream for help. Fortunately he didn't have any complications from this incident.
His aggressions even turned against me a couple of times. And it was very painful because he can be so mean. I realize that he is sick and all, but it was still hard. He threw a handkerchief with snot in it towards me once after he had threatened to beat me with his walking stick. All of this because I wanted to watch some TV while he was reading. My Dad loves to read and everything else is less important than him reading. I had even turned on the volume on a really low level. I was so angry after that behaviour I said some things I shouldn't have said.
The next day he treated me like everything was fine and this incident had never happened.
The other problem was that my Mom is reconstructing parts of the house. So we had to empty out those rooms (her bedroom and her kitchen amongst them) and were basically working every day.
Some friends from out of town had wanted to visit me, but she asked me to cancel the visit.
My Mom didn't really spend a lot of time with Lilli. She took her sometimes in the mornings when I had to shower, but that was basically it. She was working all day long and not really enjoying having her granddaughter around. I felt horrible of having brought Lilli in that difficult environment between my parents. I don't want her to remember her grandparents as fighting all the time. I don't want her to think this is normal.
The last evening when I came back from buying bread (for my Mom) she wasn't around. I had thought she might want to use our last evening to spend some time with Lilli and take her to bed at least. But she was working in her garden. I always feel like her garden is more important than anything else for her. Like us.
On our last morning the day of our flight my Mom gave me 50 Euros for "Shoes for Lilli". I felt really bad. She is spending a couple of hundred of thousands of Euros to reconstruct the house (she is not taking out a mortgage for this, she has the money in the bank) and she is not even offering to pay the gas to the airport. Or part of the flight (since they don't come visit us). Nothing. I have my birthday next Wednesday and she knows that she won't be able to buy me something.
I was really hurt by this especially because she still owed me some money for moving boxes I had bought (15 Euros) anyway. It just makes me sad that she has all that money, but she doesn't want to help us with our expenses while we are struggling to make ends meet. We still haven't paid off our adoption. And we still paid the flight to go to visit them. Because seeing them and spending time with them was more important for us than anything else. More important than books or a garden.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Oh, what a flight...
I don't even know where to start to update you on everything that has been going on with us. Therefore I'll start with Miss Lillian.
She has started crawling the day we left for Europe. Poor daddy didn't get to see it before our trip. However, Lilli has a very strange way of doing it. One leg stays straight while the other one is moving around. But she doesn't seem to be willing to be convinced to do it any other way. It is Lilli's way. She has started saying "Da da!" all day long. I first thought it meant "Daddy", but now everything is Da da. When she wants to go somewhere she is pointing with her finger and says "Da da!" She also is waving like a champ and is blowing kisses (well, actually she is doing everything except the blowing thing). But it is very cute. If I ask her how tall she is, she is raising her arms up in the air and showing me how tall she is. She can also point to "Mommy's nose" and "Mommy's mouth".
She is eating little pieces very nicely by herself. Lilli loves cheese and if there is cheese on her tray, everything else stands back. But she also enjoys pasta and chicken. And most other foods we introduced her to. She has an amazing personality, always in a good mood (except if she is tired) and always looking to get a smile from someone. She is charming everybody.
Even the crew in the airplane during our long 10 hour airplane ride. I guess the stewards would have really liked to take her home. I had a really hard time during the flight. I had gotten sick the day before the flight with a very sore throat and a cold (no, not the swine flu, but rather a really nasty sinusitis) and had to blow my nose all the time. I hadn't slept a lot the two previous nights. Lilli was very active. She wasn't into sleeping so much as there were so many interesting things to see in the airplane. All the people that went to the bathroom were standing right in front of us, waiting and flirting with Lilli who was sitting in her baby bassinet. It was a long fight to get that bassinet, but it helps, especially if you are traveling alone on an international flight (Lufthansa offers them, I don't know about other airlines who do). Strangely instead of blocking the bassinet seats for people with children, they give them away to random travelers which ticks me off every time. This time I waited and waited at the gate until the end of boarding when they finally told the woman in the baby bassinet seat that refused to leave her seat that she would have two seats for herself if she changed. After we boarded I told the man sitting next to me (squeezed in between two more or less noisy and inquisitive babies) that there were free seats in the airplane and he happily left. It was nice to have an additional seat for Lilli as well.
When we finally arrived (have I mentioned that 10 hour flights can be very long when traveling with a baby by yourself?) I was sick and groggy. All I wanted to do was go to bed.
But lovely husband had cooked a wonderful meal in our slow cooker, so we enjoyed the "beer chicken with corn and rice". It was my first mother's day after all. Hubby had bought beautiful flowers and gave me a big box of chocolates and a beautiful silver bracelet. It was - despite the circumstances of my health - a wonderful day. I remember so well the last couple of mother's days where my heart was longing for a child. It was so hard to be at church during those days when they honored the mothers - and to not break out in tears. Most times I didn't succeed. Every year I hoped that it would finally be the last without a baby and this year, miraculously it is. It was the best mother's day of my life so far.
I wonder how Lilli's first mom felt on Sunday. It must have been hard for her for a completely different reason. I recently read that the Saturday before Mother's day is Birthmother's day. Has any one of you adopted moms (sorry, if I haven't caught up with all your blogs) honored your babies birthmother in a special way for that day? Or for mother's day? Or would that just add to their grief?
I will update on my trip another day. Now it's time to catch up with your blogs.
She has started crawling the day we left for Europe. Poor daddy didn't get to see it before our trip. However, Lilli has a very strange way of doing it. One leg stays straight while the other one is moving around. But she doesn't seem to be willing to be convinced to do it any other way. It is Lilli's way. She has started saying "Da da!" all day long. I first thought it meant "Daddy", but now everything is Da da. When she wants to go somewhere she is pointing with her finger and says "Da da!" She also is waving like a champ and is blowing kisses (well, actually she is doing everything except the blowing thing). But it is very cute. If I ask her how tall she is, she is raising her arms up in the air and showing me how tall she is. She can also point to "Mommy's nose" and "Mommy's mouth".
She is eating little pieces very nicely by herself. Lilli loves cheese and if there is cheese on her tray, everything else stands back. But she also enjoys pasta and chicken. And most other foods we introduced her to. She has an amazing personality, always in a good mood (except if she is tired) and always looking to get a smile from someone. She is charming everybody.
Even the crew in the airplane during our long 10 hour airplane ride. I guess the stewards would have really liked to take her home. I had a really hard time during the flight. I had gotten sick the day before the flight with a very sore throat and a cold (no, not the swine flu, but rather a really nasty sinusitis) and had to blow my nose all the time. I hadn't slept a lot the two previous nights. Lilli was very active. She wasn't into sleeping so much as there were so many interesting things to see in the airplane. All the people that went to the bathroom were standing right in front of us, waiting and flirting with Lilli who was sitting in her baby bassinet. It was a long fight to get that bassinet, but it helps, especially if you are traveling alone on an international flight (Lufthansa offers them, I don't know about other airlines who do). Strangely instead of blocking the bassinet seats for people with children, they give them away to random travelers which ticks me off every time. This time I waited and waited at the gate until the end of boarding when they finally told the woman in the baby bassinet seat that refused to leave her seat that she would have two seats for herself if she changed. After we boarded I told the man sitting next to me (squeezed in between two more or less noisy and inquisitive babies) that there were free seats in the airplane and he happily left. It was nice to have an additional seat for Lilli as well.
When we finally arrived (have I mentioned that 10 hour flights can be very long when traveling with a baby by yourself?) I was sick and groggy. All I wanted to do was go to bed.
But lovely husband had cooked a wonderful meal in our slow cooker, so we enjoyed the "beer chicken with corn and rice". It was my first mother's day after all. Hubby had bought beautiful flowers and gave me a big box of chocolates and a beautiful silver bracelet. It was - despite the circumstances of my health - a wonderful day. I remember so well the last couple of mother's days where my heart was longing for a child. It was so hard to be at church during those days when they honored the mothers - and to not break out in tears. Most times I didn't succeed. Every year I hoped that it would finally be the last without a baby and this year, miraculously it is. It was the best mother's day of my life so far.
I wonder how Lilli's first mom felt on Sunday. It must have been hard for her for a completely different reason. I recently read that the Saturday before Mother's day is Birthmother's day. Has any one of you adopted moms (sorry, if I haven't caught up with all your blogs) honored your babies birthmother in a special way for that day? Or for mother's day? Or would that just add to their grief?
I will update on my trip another day. Now it's time to catch up with your blogs.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
9 month doctor visit
Because we are traveling next week, we went to Lilli's 9 months doctor visit this morning. The challenge for this visit was to actually talk to someone on the phone to schedule the visit. I tried first on Tuesday afternoon and all the phone lines were busy non-stop. Then I finally got to talk to someone and she just gave me additional numbers and said that I needed to call there to schedule a well-baby visit. So I called those lines. I was on hold for a very long time. After about 10 minutes I hung up. I tried it several times again, but had no success. Then finally yesterday in the morning I was able to talk to someone (in Spanish which made me kind of proud since it is more difficult on the phone than in person) and schedule a visit for today.
Lilli is now 8.97 kilos light which is 73th percentile for weight and she is 78 cm long which is 99th percentile for length. We know that she will be a tall girl.
The doctor was very nice and took a lot of time with her. He has studied in the US and speaks perfect English. He even gave us his cellphone number for us to call in case of an emergency. He answered his cellphone twice during our appointment. He told us that he wants to see her again next month. While I am excited that I will be able to track her weight gain and her growth more closely, I am very surprised that they are monitoring the children so closely here for the first year. It means three more doctor's visits until she turns one.
Apart from that it was similar to a visit in the US. He asked us whether she was crawling. She is pretty close and moving around a lot on her playmat. She can do a 360 and she can creep a little bit if she really needs to reach a toy. She can put herself in a sitting position from laying on the floor. She can walk holding onto my hands or with the walker. She is also starting to pull herself up on us or furniture.
The doctor told us that she is in excellent health. We were glad to hear that. We must be doing something right.
I feel so blessed with this wonderful, healthy baby. I can't believe that we are already celebrating her 9 month birthday next week. I am very excited to travel next week to Europe. My only concern right now is getting to the airport and getting help with the luggage. Traveling by myself with a baby, some suitcases, and a stroller is a challenging and scary thing. I hope that Lilli will be good on the plane. I pray that I will get a baby crib on the plane.
Lilli is now 8.97 kilos light which is 73th percentile for weight and she is 78 cm long which is 99th percentile for length. We know that she will be a tall girl.
The doctor was very nice and took a lot of time with her. He has studied in the US and speaks perfect English. He even gave us his cellphone number for us to call in case of an emergency. He answered his cellphone twice during our appointment. He told us that he wants to see her again next month. While I am excited that I will be able to track her weight gain and her growth more closely, I am very surprised that they are monitoring the children so closely here for the first year. It means three more doctor's visits until she turns one.
Apart from that it was similar to a visit in the US. He asked us whether she was crawling. She is pretty close and moving around a lot on her playmat. She can do a 360 and she can creep a little bit if she really needs to reach a toy. She can put herself in a sitting position from laying on the floor. She can walk holding onto my hands or with the walker. She is also starting to pull herself up on us or furniture.
The doctor told us that she is in excellent health. We were glad to hear that. We must be doing something right.
I feel so blessed with this wonderful, healthy baby. I can't believe that we are already celebrating her 9 month birthday next week. I am very excited to travel next week to Europe. My only concern right now is getting to the airport and getting help with the luggage. Traveling by myself with a baby, some suitcases, and a stroller is a challenging and scary thing. I hope that Lilli will be good on the plane. I pray that I will get a baby crib on the plane.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Happy Easter and bad news
My sweet Easter bunny.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
What a party!
Yesterday Lilli and I went with some friends to a Easter party. The playgroups here are not really institutionalized. They are much more informal meetings with a mailing list. Because there are not many places to go with young children, people just host the playgroups in their houses. There is one playgroup that is international and this is the one we visited.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
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