Pardon My French

Looking on the bright side

First of all, let me just say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has left a nice comment or e-mailed me. I need to hear that and it really does help. Y'all are wonderful.

This makes the 4th day in a row that I haven't been ill in the morning. I still feel funky from time to time, but I am starting to actually feel hungry again. There are even times when I'm ready to dance around and sing James Brown. Woo! Yeah! So good! This is a biiig change and I'm relieved, quite frankly. I've held back from posting more about my homesickness and just general misery for the past 3 months, but once I think I can write about it without sounding too sorry for myself or too bitter, I will get it out. It was hard to really separate the geniune things that bothered me from the mood swings and morning sickness. I want to be fair when I whine (although I'm sure it's less entertaining then the insane rants that have come out of my mouth in recent history). That's for later, though. It's not really France itself that was the problem -- it's the fact that I was in a foreign country and had a hard time with my doctor (lack of warmth doesn't even come close to explaining the situation), and probably needed to dig up a support system for myself a little earlier.

Currently, though, the sun is shining and I'm feeling well-nourished and happy enough to be where I'm at. We had a great weekend, including a kick-butt free jazz concert on Saturday night. My husband has been so wonderful to me and I've wanted to be able to find something he'd really like to do. This was perfect because: 1) my husband already knew about this group, 2) they featured an awesome saxophone player, and, most importantly 3) it was free. I cannot get this man to spend money on himself (which I guess I should be grateful for) but it would make me so happy to do more things like this for him. We didn't call enough in advance to have secure tickets, so we showed up one hour before the show began and were first on a very long waiting list.

So, on to the things I have recently accomplished:

I have officially declared my pregnancy to all the government agencies that I am supposed to (as far as I know). I have copies with a date stamp, so in any case we should be fine if/when our file is lost.

I have made my next ultrasound appointment with a doctor that doesn't stress me out, and my next follow-up appointment with the lesser of two stressors. As soon as I can, I am switching over to the hospital staff because I have heard more and more good things about the quality of care there. "I am able to take control of this situation" is my new motto. One great thing I need to remember about France is that I am not locked into any kind of HMO dealie -- I did have to declare my general physician, but aside from that I am free to switch my gyno/ultrasound people. So, that's off my plate and I'm not carrying that around any longer.

I have received my new contract and have notified my employers in plenty of time to find me a replacement. My main boss was very, very nice and supportive and we'll see about the rest. Her support means a lot to me, though.

I have scheduled my first yoga session, which apparently is covered 100% by the national health plan. God bless you, France. I am so not flexible, though, so God help her when she finds out just how bendy I am not.

I can do this. I can have my baby here, no problem.