2004 Christmas letter

Hello Everyone,

Here is part 3 of my 4-year gap in my Holiday letters. This is going pretty well so far. My memories from the last few years aren't totally blank yet. There is always a kind of selective amnesia I guess but who wants to remember those bad things that happened anyway?

2004 started off with me having a brand new job, living with my wife Maria in our new townhome, and driving a Honda Accord although I still have an old bike I used on occasion.

We received some great news in January, Maria was pregnant! I guess Santa brought us more then we had thought. We had actually been trying for 6 months or so and had just gotten a referral to see a fertility specialist so it was a big surprise to us that didn't need that referral after all. Since I was going to be a family man now, it was time to sell the bike and a friend of mine knew someone that wanted my 1986 Honda VFR-700F. It wasn't running well anyway and I hadn't been using it very often, but it was a big change not to have a bike after being on 2-wheels for so long.

The next couple of months were interesting as we learned all about babies and kept getting glimpses of our new addition in the ultrasounds. We were also doing lots of research about what to expect and if there were any remedies for morning sickness during the first trimester. Maria found that chewing on sliced fresh ginger helped the most with her nausea.

In April we traveled to Guatemala to visit Maria's parents and other 2 sisters in Concepcion Las Minas, a 5 hour drive from the airport. Maria hadn't been home in a few years and it was my first time to meet everyone so it was really special. The visit was a little strange for me due to the fact that no one there speaks English and my Spanish is almost nonexistent. That left more time for eating which was a highlight of the trip for me. Tamales, fresh queso and crema, homemade tortillas all cooked over an open flame. Perfection. We stayed here for the first week and spent most of time in the house and a couple of nearby towns.

For the next leg of our journey we drove back to Guatemala City and stayed the night at the Marriott which had the most impressive breakfast buffet that I have ever seen. We caught a flight to Tikal where we stayed 2 nights in the Jungle Lodge inside the park. Maria had never seen the Mayan ruins in Tikal so it was new for both of us. The temples and ruins were amazing to see up close you are pretty much free to just walk around wherever you want to explore on your own. The fact that Star Wars was filmed here also motivated me to include this in our trip. We did have one annoyance to live with and that was a howler monkey in a tree right outside our room screaming ALL night long.

The last 5 days were spent in nearby Belize at the Pelican Beach Resorts on a small island called South Water Caye. The island is part of the second largest coral reef in the world and we went here to relax and snorkel. Maria really liked snorkeling on our honeymoon and with her being pregnant we were thinking that it might be our last chance for a real vacation for quite awhile. The island was really small, you could walk from one side to the other in 10 minutes, and we had a cottage on the beach just a few feet from the water. Other then the beds being really uncomfortable it was really incredible stay and went by entirely too quickly.

We were soon back to reality in Los Angeles and a week or two after getting back I received some bad news. My grandmother on my fathers side was very sick and in the hospital. I went to see her in Kingman, AZ and visited with her shortly but had to leave to make it to work the next day. She passed away soon after and I will miss her greatly. She was a beautiful woman and I will always have special memories of her from my childhood.

Not much happened over the next few months. Maria's belly continued to grow and I made it to almost all of her prenatal appointments. Through the amniocentesis test we found out that everything was normal and that we would be having a girl. At least we knew what color to paint the room now.

There were a couple of big parties in August. First our nephew Jeffrey was baptized and Jose's family put on another grand party again to celebrate. Next, there was a baby shower for Maria at her office then we threw another shower for friends and family ourselves near our house at Griffith Park. By this time Maria was looking very pregnant and definitely had a glow to her.

After nine months of waiting, Camila Ninette Chirrick-Fuentes was born on September 17, 2004. We had went into a normal checkup the day before and the doctors decided to begin inducing labor and Maria was checked in to the hospital. My sister and mother rushed down to meet us and we waited hours and hours. Things seemed to be progressing very slowly then suddenly an alarm went off, the baby had dropped, and we rushed into the delivery room where shortly after we were able to see our daughter for the first time in person. I don't think you can say a new baby is pretty just after being delivered but Camila was truly the most beautiful site to behold in the world.

The next couple of months were an adjustment for everyone. Maria and I learned that you can survive without sleep and Camila learned there was more to the world then just the womb and the strange voices that she used to hear were real people. I had always thought I wouldn't really begin to enjoy a baby until they were big enough to start playing and roughhousing with but I loved being a father from the first day. I don't think you can do anything besides fall in love with them as soon as they reach out to grab your finger with their tiny hands. My favorite thing was giving her a bottle and rocking her to sleep.

In December we invited Maria's family over again for Christmas Eve. This time there were 2 babies to be the center of attention. Jeffrey was getting bigger and able to walk around this year. And Camila liked to see all of the people in the house seemed to like being passed around from person to person. For Christmas day we went over to my sister's house where my parents were visiting and we had a nice visit with everyone. This my dads first chance to see Camila and he seemed to enjoy holding a baby again.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,
Bill