a few more wedding pics

Cocinando

I have never been a very good cook.  I have a few things that I used to always make for myself but that’s about it.  Cooking is a very big deal here in the DR.  Cooking for your husband is HOW you take care of your husband.  Every man who gets married gains weight, because now they have a wife who is cooking just for him two big meals a day.  It is such a big part of the culture that if you run into a man who you haven’t seen in a few months and he has noticeably gained weight, the first question that will be asked is if he has gotten married.  Eddy has informed me that the only concerns that his mother had about me when we first started dating was that she was worried because, since I was American , I probably didn’t know how to cook rice.  Since then, even more so after we were engaged, those types of concerns have been ongoing.  And not just from his mom, but also the women that work with us at school, the women at the church, Eddy’s aunts, etc.  They all ask him if I know how to cook, they ask me what I know how to make, and they offer their services to teach me how to cook.  There seems to be a collective effort to keep Eddy from starving.  The married men would also talk to me and joke that they needed to try my cooking before they could approve of our marriage because the other common saying is that you cannot marry a woman until you have tried her cooking.

These comments do not bother me.  After almost two years in the country, I have grown accustomed to the cultural differences and I understand that the comments are never meant to offend me or to be taken personally.  I have also developed a pretty thick skin, and these comments are the least of which I have had to get used to.  However, they do put a certain amount of pressure on me.  I am actually very excited about my new kitchen and that I finally have a fridge that works and an oven.  Although I am learning how to make traditional Dominican meals, I cannot eat Dominican food every single day, so I am enjoying trying new recipes each week in an effort to find American recipes that Eddy likes. One of the major problems in this experiment is that there are many ingredients that I cannot buy here in the DR.  For example one of my favorite dinners is a chicken casserole made with stove top stuffing.  They do not sell boxed stuffing here.  I also wanted to make Eddy rice krispy treats.  No rice krispies.  Not even generic rice krispies.  This is forcing me to go a little outside of my box and make things that I have never made before.

The first thing I tried was meat ball sandwiches.  They were actually a very big hit.  We had four surprise visitors that evening and everyone seemed to like them.  I was very encouraged especially because Eddy never eats beef, only chicken.  Dinner number two was chicken and rice casserole.  I had to play with the recipe a little because I couldn’t find cream of celery or cream of mushroom soup, but I thought it turned out pretty good.  I thought eddy would really like it because it is CHICKEN and RICE.  That’s all he eats.  However, this meal was a big miss.  Although he assured me that it was very well made, he is just not used to that kind of chicken and rice and he would just prefer if I didn’t ever cook it again.  It turns out he wasn’t very hungry that night either because he didn’t eat very much of it.

My chicken parmesan went over a lot better and tonight I am making barbecue (sloppy joes) so we will see how that goes.  I am also hoping to bake some cookies this week and pancakes for breakfast on Saturday (even I had a hard time believing that he has never had pancakes).  Each Saturday we do our grocery shopping.  Last Saturday, I went through my cookbook and made my grocery list.  We took the girls with us for our little outing.  About half way through the store Eddy commented that he had never seen so many weird things together in the same cart.  The girls wholeheartedly agreed.  What are some of these weird things that were in my cart?  Chocolate chips, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, instant coffee, brown sugar, peanut butter, vanilla, flour, ketchup, mustard, spaghetti sauce, parmesan, ground beef, boneless skinless chicken breasts, etc.  It was definitely the most American grocery shopping trip that I had ever made.

I am still working on my Dominican meals.  I have plans to visit a lady from our community Bible study again so that she can continue teaching me how to cook.  So far I have only mastered how to make white rice.  Next week I think I will try to focus on practicing a few other Dominican meals and my cart will be full of “normal” things like rice, black beans, red beans, tomato paste, chicken bouillon cubes, garlic, onions, plantains, and yucca.  

Wedding Pictures

the ceremony

my favorite candid so far

eddy singing

all my brothers and sisters

just a little of the beauty that surrounded us

The Wedding

I shared with you before the wedding, the plans that we had made.  So instead of giving you another description of everything that happened, I think I will share with you my unique perspective during that monumental week of my life and the feelings that I experienced.

In the days leading up to the wedding, I was somewhat stressed.  Ok, I was very stressed.  People were arriving on different days and there seemed to be a lot of problems with people getting here when they were scheduled to.  I blame the Miami airport for this, but I really don’t know who’s at fault.  All of our lists of things to do did not get done before people started to arrive as we had hoped and to top it all off Eddy was sick and getting worse by the day.  Fever, sore throat, body aches, etc.  Our house was full of suitcases and all of my house wares that my family brought down for me.  It was really nice to have my family and friends in Santiago and I was so happy to have them there to stay at my house and spend time with Eddy’s family, but I had a hard time enjoying it.   Even though we were able to do most of the things that we had planned to dos, and even though I was really trying, I could not relax.  My mind was spinning.  I was worried about trying to make my family as comfortable as possible, I was worried about my list of things to do with no time to do them, I was worried about Eddy and the fact that he was not himself because he was sick.  (For those of you who know Eddy personally you will find it amusing that at first my family thought he was quiet.)  My visitors, through all of this, were great, they were gracious when the first day we had no running water all day and the second day when there was no electricity.  They went with the flow and as I think about it now, everything actually did go pretty smoothly.  It was my inability to relax that was the problem.

But then something happened.  My family and Eddy’s family were packed (tightly) into the bus and we were finally on our way to Jarabacoa.  I had given the bus driver a CD of praise and worship songs to play and I was sitting next to my future husband listening to my favorite songs, looking out at the mountains and suddenly became very aware of how loved I was.  For a big part of my life, I let the enemy convince me that I was not loved, in fact, that I was unlovable.  But in that moment, God opened my eyes, and I looked around this bus crammed full of 30 people who love me.  One of whom, loves me so much that he was about to willingly choose to spend the rest of his life with me.  And then I became aware of how much God loves me as well because He is the one who put all of these people in my life and He is the one that brought me and Eddy together and He worked in the hearts of our families and friends and helped them choose to support us in our decision.  That is the other thing that I felt: support.  All of my friends and family that came to wedding were not just there to relax and enjoy the day.  They were put to work.  They were ironing dresses and steaming veils.  They were doing our hair and makeup.  They were tying bows and putting together flower arrangements.  They were taking pictures and videotaping.  They were setting up music equipment and cooking sancocho.  Everyone choose to chip in and help because, they supported us in our marriage and wanted to be a part of our wedding.

On that bus ride to Jarabacoa, I found peace and I guarded that peace because I wanted to hold on to it.  Although the stress came here and there, when the ceremony was held because the flowers were late, when the food was late and people were getting bored, and when the music at the reception was a complete disaster, those are not the things that I remember when I think about that day.  When I think about that day, I remember getting ready in the morning with my sisters and Katie and Marci.  I remember my uncle’s reaction when I came out of my room in my wedding dress.  I remember watching everyone take their seats and Eddy walk his mom and my mom down the aisle.  I remember that the ceremony was perfect.  I remember being full of joy, looking into the eyes of the man I love, saying our vows, promising our lives to each other in front of our family and friends and just as I had hoped, I remember feeling wrapped up in the arms of God surrounded by His creation.  I remember the hug that I got from my brother after the ceremony. I remember the toasts that were given by my sisters and by Katie. I remember my mom going around and taking pictures of all of the Eddy’s family.  I remember Dan telling me about the pictures he got of Eddy’s face when he first saw me.  I remember Katie C. dealing with every issue that came up so that we wouldn’t have to.  I remember George and Dan entertaining us with their fans at the table.  I remember dancing my father daughter dance with my dad.  I remember my first dance with my husband to the song “I will be here” by Steven Curtis Chapman.  I remember purposely throwing the bouquet to Christine because I knew (and she didn’t) that in a few days she would be engaged.   I remember Melissa taking fun pictures of us after the reception.   But most of all, I remember Eddy singing me his song.  It was a classic Spanish song, but I had never heard it.  There are no words to explain what I felt, but it was the perfect song and he looked so handsome and happy as he sang it. 

Un Pacto con Dios

Solamente yo queria

decirte por si no lo sabias

que estoy pensando en ti

en cada momento

siento aquellas tentaciones

idioma de dos corazones

que aprehendieron a amarse

de un modo ideal

lo nuestro no tiene final

un pacto con dios hicimos tu y yo

y nada en el mundo tiene mas valor

asi es este amor que no se rompe ouuu no

no me cansare de repetirtelo

tu vas mas alla de ser mi gran pasion

dejame decirte que

que te quiero

tu naciste siendo bella

mas bella que cualquier estrella

asi eres tu para mi asi eres tu

parecia fantasia que alcanzarte no podia

y aprehendimos a amarnos del modo ideal

lo nuestro no tiene final

un pacto con dios hicimos tu y yo

y nada en el mundo tiene mas valor

asi es este amor que no se rompe ouuu no

no me cansare de repetirtelo

tu vas mas alla de ser mi gran pasion

dejame decirte que

que te quiero

si vivo contigo, si muero contigo

dejame decirte que que te quiero

TE QUIERO

Home

Today was our first full day living in our new place and it was a good day.  A pretty normal, uneventful day, but a good day.  We spent the day without any electricity organizing and cleaning and trying to put the house in order.  We also went to the school and visited for a while.  It was good to see everyone.  We have a few meetings there tomorrow and we will be back full time on Monday.  We went to La Sirena and got some groceries and a new bookcase.  I made Eddy's favorite dinner, we relaxed on the couch for a little while and now we are listening to music while Eddy puts together the bookcase and I blog.  This is actually our second night at home, but last night the electricity was out so we were in the dark.  Tonight I thought I would take advantage and update my blog.  Every once in a while I have to stop to hold something in place for him or hand him something.  I decided to stop giving any input or suggestions as a form of helping pretty early on and now I am just watching in silent amusement and lending a hand when I can.  I am feeling very blessed and very happy.

I am looking forward to building a life here together.  I am looking forward to my new job and responsibilities at the school, to trying new recipes (when I can find the ingredients) until I find at least a few that Eddy likes, to spending lots of time across the street with his cousins and the newest member of the family, Isaac, who was born yesterday, to inviting the girls (Eddy's nieces who I used to live with) over in the evenings because we miss them, to hosting Eddy's mom and aunts when they stop randomly to visit, to skyping with my family and friends, to running down to the house next door that always has really good natural juice for sale, to inviting both my American and Dominican friends over because now we finally have a place of our own... But most of all, I am looking forward to many, many days and evenings like this one; normal, uneventful days building a life together as husband and wife.  God has blessed me and I am so thankful.

almost done

he did use the directions (to hold the nails)

mission accomplished

 Psalm 16:9 "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure"