One More Try

So I did the mommy blogger thing a few years ago - when I only had one kid. When I had the second, I decided I just didn't have time anymore. Now I have three - and need to find the time to keep my sanity. I don't think I have a particularly special point of view and I'm not especially funny...but I do live in this crazy, chaotic city in the throes of an economic crisis - or krisi - as they call it here. And this place offers me so many things to ponder, question with my jaw on the floor. Really, you just wouldn't believe it here. So here is a window to my world.

So 2011 brought a lot of scares, upheavals and moves around the globe for my family. I will post the whole story of our baby, Thalia's journey in the next post, but here's the gist of it. In March 2011, at 20 weeks pregnant at our anatomy ultrasound, our baby was diagnosed with a large cyst on her right lung called a CCAM. The doctors here told us to terminate the pregnancy. After a lot of research, we understood that, while the CCAM was very serious and the baby would have to have surgery to remove the affected lobe of the lung, we were not going to terminate the pregnancy. So two and a half weeks after the diagnosis, I left for Colorado where I would stay to have Thalia and have the surgery. My husband, Y, kept our other two daughters (then just 5 and 3), until mid-May when they joined me. Y returned to Greece for 6 weeks. On July 17th, one week early, Thalia was born, Skyped to Y in Greece. She had minor breathing problems unrelated to the CCAM at birth, but came home from the hospital just a day after me. Then On September 15th, she had a thoroscopic lobectomy, removing the lower lobe of her right lung. One week later, we were back in the hospital with an air leak, a complication from the surgery. Another 10 days in the hospital and another surgery, and we were finally in the clear. Y took our 3 year old, Lena, with him and returned to Athens at the end of September. I stayed in Colorado with Audrey, our five year old and Thalia. We all reunited in Athens on November 7th, 2011. Quite a year.

But here we are, all healthy (most importantly) in 2012. Audrey just turned and Lena will be 4 in a couple of weeks. Thalia is 9 months, and you'd never know by looking at her what she has survived in her short life. I, on the other hand, have developed quickly greying hair and still have 15 lbs of stress/pregnancy/American food weight to lose.

So after that little background, you'll understand the real story I want to tell. Y and Lena picked Audrey, Thalia and I up at the airport. We had been separated for 6 weeks, and Lena was a little bit shy around me when we got home. She warmed up after after a few minutes and started showing me new toys, pictures she'd drawn, etc while I was gone. Still to this day, there is a BC/AD sort of timeline in her mind - when mommy and Audrey were in Colorado and when we were home. She was most excited to show me something she had made at school. She was so proud, holding it behind her back, asking me to close my eyes. I did as I was told, and when she told me to open my eyes, here is what I saw:

A porcupine made from painted clay and LIVE MATCHES. It's cute - you can't say it's not the cutest porcupine you've ever seen. But seriously. A preschool project with unburned matches. And they could have AT THE VERY LEAST had them put the head side into the clay. But, no. This is Greece and this is one of the typically insane things that happen here every day. So these are the things that I have to share. I hope you enjoy them. My mom has been telling me for years to start a blog because nobody would believe what happens here. So here you go.