My Kiddos

I wrote last week about the volunteering I've been doing at an after school program in a low-income community a few miles from where I live, and I posted a picture of one of the darling Kindergarteners.

This week, I brought my camera and took a few pictures of some of the other kids.

I love taking pictures of kids because they don't often have inhibitions in front of a camera, and they don't care what their smile, hair, teeth, etc. look like in the final product. All they want to see is their face appear instantly on the tiny camera screen.

These kids were particularly fun to photograph because they not only lacked inhibition, but they hammed it up! They posed, gave real smiles, gave goofy smiles, and gave goofy faces. If only adults were this easy!

What I'm up to These Days

Four months ago, the looming post law school life had me stressed out.

Four months ago, I was applying for a fellowship to fund a job in an area of law that I actually wasn't that interested in.

Four months ago, I was burned out from three years of studying executory interests, adverse possession, and other tedious topics that were far removed from my desire to pursue justice by advocating for people in poverty.

Four months ago, there was that long phone conversation with my wise parents where I vented my frustrations with law school and the immediate future. They challenged me to pray and by "pray" they meant to tell God exactly what was on my heart, give it all to Him, trust Him to guide me, and then stop thinking about it.

And that's what I did.

If you had told me four months ago that today I would be advocating for undocumented immigrants, teaching an art class to inner-city kids, writing grants for an awesome nonprofit, and incubating my first child, I would have have smirked and responded, "You must know me very well because that sounds like my dreams turned to reality."

Long story short, I didn't receive the fellowship that, on paper, I should have gotten, got a temporary part time job working with an incredible immigration attorney at a large well-reputed nonprofit law firm, and started volunteering extensively with a local community organization... aka started hanging out with awesome kids like this cutie:

Let me give you a few more details about my job and my volunteering:


My volunteering. 

I volunteer two days per week at a faith-based community organization just a few miles from my home. It's literally on the other side of the tracks. I get to mentor/tutor young elementary kids, teach art to K-6 kids, capture the kids' adorableness for the newsletters, and I am just beginning to write grants for the organization in hopes of getting them some major chunks of change to help them do more of the awesome work they do in the city.

The best job I ever had was working at a similar nonprofit on skid row, though my current paying job [see below] is now a strong contender for the "Best Job I've Ever Had" award. I have really enjoyed getting back to working with kids through this local nonprofit.


My job.

My law firm's sixty attorneys and several thousand pro bono attorneys do fantastic social justice work throughout the county of Los Angeles. I work with the Immigrants' Rights Project.

On Tuesdays, I do U Visas. Prior to legislation passing, undocumented immigrants who were victims of crime had to choose between reporting the crime to the police and risking deportation or keeping quiet and staying in the U.S. Today, an undocumented immigrant who is the victim of a crime and who is helpful to the police can apply for the U Visa thereby protecting themselves from deportation and giving them hope for the future.

I love this law because (1) it makes society safer for us all when undocumented immigrants, there are millions in this country, can report crimes and (2) it protects a particularly vulnerable section of our society by giving them legal status, a work permit, and access to justice for the crimes they've experienced. (Relevant side note: I believe undocumented immigrants have a special place in God's heart. If you don't believe me, do a little search on all the times God talks about loving the foreigner and alien among us.)

To give you an idea of who my clients are: Most of them are monolingual Spanish speakers (Yes, I get to speak Spanish!) from Mexico and Central America and the crimes they have experienced are horrific... attempted murder, human trafficking, rape, domestic violence, and sexual assault to name the few I've seen.

On Thursdays, I help staff a clinic for undocumented teens and young adults who qualify for "deferred action" under the DREAM Act legislation that Obama passed this summer. These young people were brought to the U.S. by their parents, most barely remember the country they are from, and they all have dreams of having legal status to be able to work and travel and not fear deportation from the only country they really know. I help these young people apply for the two year legal protection created this past summer. Google it if you want to know more.

It is truly an honor to work with my clients, both the victims of crime and the young people who are so hopeful about their future ever since this new law passed. I love providing them with something tangible (legal status) that will help them as they move forward in life.

Looking back four months ago and looking at where I am now doing work that is so me, I am constantly thanking and praising God for His guidance. I have seen and experienced that He is the Good Shepherd just as He said.

Baby Bump

Our baby is the size of a sweet potato. I feel it squirming and kicking several times a day. I have tons of energy. I am almost back to my normal sleep schedule. I eat a bit more than usual on most days. Every couple of weeks, I seem to go through a growth spurt (I just went through one this weekend) where I am ravenously hungry for a couple of days and my stomach noticeably changes. I lost two pounds during that horrible first trimester nausea, but I've gained both pounds back plus a four more. I can't believe I have 20-30 pounds more to pack on before the end! It seems impossible right now, but I am sure it'll come.

In less than three weeks, we will find out if our little one is a little girl or a little boy. For some reason, I keep imagining it's a boy, but I think that's just because we know lots of little boy babies and toddlers and not many girls. After we find out the sex, we will choose a name. What a responsibility! Michael and I have come up with approximately two dozen horrible names that I will not mention here. Ask me in person.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought that I looked more chubby than pregnant. I then dug up this old picture of me pre-pregnancy. I was shocked by how much my body has changed.

Me trying to look pregnant. Disgusting.

13 weeks:

14 weeks:

16 weeks:

17 weeks:

Today:

Interminable Summer

With October just hours away, most of the country has said "goodbye" to summer. Here in my So Cal desert town, summer seems interminable. Here's the weather forecast for my city:

It got up to 100 degrees today, and the 86 degree temperature to the left is the weather right now at 8:30 pm. Tomorrow, October 1st, it will be a whopping 104 degrees.

The winter in LA brings snow to our mountains, fragrant orange blossoms and  oranges to our orange trees, light rain to wash away the smog and dirt of summer, and day after day of sunny weather in the 60s and 70s. Lord, may it come quickly. 

Pure Joy

Yesterday, there were two moments of pure joy.

At work, as I sat at my desk filling out a form on the computer for a client, a sudden twitching feeling inside my lower abdomen ripped me out of my concentration. I threw my hand to my stomach just as my baby moved inside me again. Over the last few days, I had felt a couple butterfly-like sensations while lying in bed, but they were so faint, I couldn't be sure. But, this was different. I called Michael and we celebrated together. I went back to work, but a couple of minutes later I again felt a few more twitches and movements. It would be a lie to say I was focused on my job for those twenty minutes of pure joy.

After work, I drove across downtown Los Angeles to a small church with green doors situated in the heart of skid row. Four years ago, the same year that Michael and I got engaged and married, I taught behind those green doors at an after school program for  homeless kids. Due to the highly transitory nature of being homeless, most of my students from that year were long gone, hopefully to more stable home situations, but one of my students was back attending the program and invited me to visit. I could hardly look at Tecola because my memory kept telling me she was still a fourth grade girl, not the similar looking teenager who exclaimed, "Ms. Christie!" and came up to me and hugged me. We then lost ourselves in chatting for the the better part of an hour, just laughing and hearing about each others lives. It was pure joy.

Three of my former students at Disneyland.

Adventures in Constructing a Raised Bed

It's been quite a while since I've written about my garden, and since moving to our new place, it's quite different! So let me catch you up with our slightly crazy shenanigans.

Before moving, Michael decided he wanted to do a gigantic raised bed, so we went to a hardware store to purchase the supplies to make it ourselves. Upon exiting the store, we realized that the planks for making the long ends of the raised bed were almost the length of our Corolla. As we discussed how to fit them in our car, another Lowe's patron walked by and commented, "You guys win the award for most unrealistic." Michael and I awkwardly smiled at each other and proved him wrong:

The two long boards filled our car from the dashboard all the way out of the trunk a couple of feet. During our half mile trip home, the two planks of wood managed to turn on our windshield wipers for us, making us laugh even harder than we already were at the ridiculousness of our venture.

We moved and constructed the raised bed. Then, we had to fill our enormous box with dirt. Even if we purchased every bag of dirt at Walmart, we wouldn't have had enough. So, with a quick internet search, I found a nursery that sold dirt in bulk, so we rented a U-Haul pickup and went. Mind you, the cost of the dirt and the truck rental combined was about half the cost of buying bags of dirt!

When we told the woman who worked at the garden center that we wanted two yards of dirt, she laughed at the size of our truck informing us that two yards of dirt would weigh two tons which was well over the load limit for our F-150. We felt about as sheepish as we did in the Lowe's parking lot with two huge planks of wood. So, we quickly halved our order to one yard.

Here's our dirt. It doesn't look like much, but it's a ton. Literally.

Michael then rolled a ton of dirt, one recycling barrel at a time (we're too cheap to buy a wheelbarrow) into our backyard dumping each surprisingly heavy barrel of dirt into our raised bed. It was the hottest day of the summer, peaking at 106 degrees. He finished around 1 or 2pm, so he managed to do this work when it was a mere 103-105 degrees outside.

He didn't let me help because I was (am) pregnant. I didn't mind! So I took pictures. :-)

After all of that work, it turned out that the 1/2 topsoil 1/2 compost mix we purchased was super clayey. We transplanted all of our plants into the new garden bed. A couple died, a couple lived and flowered like crazy without producing any fruit, and a couple of plants have thrived including...

...Thai basil...

(Shorn down.)

...and Thai peppers! How convenient for making Thai food. And that's exactly what we did.

Here's our final basil harvest.

The horrible soil has been super frustrating, but that's just how gardening goes. It's a lot of work. But, for some reason we really enjoy the challenge! Though when we have both an infant and a garden to care for and keep alive, the garden may fall by the wayside for at least a time. We shall see.

Our New Place

Michael's parents recently retired and moved to a city near San Diego. They generously offered to rent us their three bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house for... let's just say a rate that is affordable for a campus minister who fundraises every penny of his benefits/salary and an unemployed law school graduate with a baby on the way.

We moved in almost six weeks ago, and I finally got around to taking some pictures for all of you friends and family who live too far away to see it anytime soon!

Let me walk you through my day.

I wake up and rush to the bathroom.

I relieve myself in the bathtub? No.

We have one of those bathrooms with a tiny toilet room. I feel like a rich person.

Our room.

Walking out the room into the hallway to fill my belly with some first breakfast. (And then second breakfast. And then elevensies. I eat a lot these days!) At the end of the hallway on the left is our housemate's room. You can see her open bathroom door at the end. And at the end of the hallway on the right is our...

Study! a.k.a. extra junk, mismatched furniture, vacuum storage room that we'll clean up and call a "guest room" when we have overnight visitors and a "nursery" when the baby comes.

Going down the stairs to our, in my opinion, gigantic family room. "Hi Michael!" Shout out to his new blog: Jesus-Beats.blogspot.com. Check it out!

At the bottom of the stairs taking a picture of the family room. "Hi Jen!" She's our housemate and she's super chill, fun, and easy to live with. Definitely an ideal housemate! Now we're going through the door at the back right of the room and then turning right to see...

Our mini family room. Also called the TV room. This house is so big we had trouble knowing what to do with the space. I am proud to say that we at least bought no new furniture thanks to Michael's parents who got rid of lots of stuff!

Back it up so you can see our TV room and our table.

Then, turn around so you can finally see our kitchen.

When it's cool enough, I often take my first or second breakfast or elevensies out here to eat at our outside table. And, yes, that's a raised bed! Since buying in bulk was cheaper than buying individual little bags, we rented a truck and hauled literally a ton of dirt to fill the bed.

A super comfy swing! I like to read there in the evenings before it gets dark and the So Cal desert black widows come out to play.

Well, there's our new place!