Our 2006 Newsletter

It is the time of year again when people start writing news letters. This year has been an interesting year for my family. I guess the biggest news is the birth of our daughter, Akesha Lourice Apdian Dias. I knew growing up in a family of fourteen was a big deal, but I didn’t realize what a big deal it really was until I had my own child. I honestly don’t understand how my mom did it. Just the stress alone would kill any normal person. When Demcy was pregnant, she had some test done to see how the baby was doing. It scared us when someone from the Doctor’s office called us and said that there is a possibility that our baby had Down Syndrome. That, of course, turned out not to be the case. Another thing that stressed us out concerning our daughter is the fact that she was born two months premature. It is pretty scary when your baby is born premature because there could be all kinds of complications. Luckily she was born at 32 weeks. My understanding is that if the baby is born earlier than 31 weeks, there could be more complications. She had to spend 5 weeks in NICU. We only received a couple of calls from the Doctor where the Doctor had some concerns, but all the concerns ended up being nothing to worry about. When Akesha came home, we were concerned about her breathing and ended up getting an apnea monitor to monitor her breathing. She is now 8 months old and doing great. I have to say that she is one of the cutest babies in the world. J When I was single, total strangers rarely talked to me about anything, but with a baby, it is amazing how many people would talk to you. If I walk into Longs Drugs without the baby, the cashers would ask about her. Akesha cried when I was at Albertsons, and about 5 people ran up to say the famous words of, “Ah Ah Ah”. She is just starting to know the difference between strangers and her parents. When my family tried to hold her at Thanksgiving, she cried, and when friends from my Air Force unit tried to hold her, she also cried. I thank God for giving us such a wonderful baby and allowing her to make it through her difficult birth.

My work has been interesting. It is nice to have a job that I like. I am working for a consulting firm building web based projects with J2EE technology. I also do work in ASP and ASP.net. This year I have been assigned to two big projects. One project is creating reports in ASP and the other project is building a web based application that will allow managers to build projects. It is actually a complicated project, and I think it will give me some good experience. My company is getting ready to move this month into a new building because we are expanding. My company is hoping to partner with another company in around 18 months.

Another interesting thing that happened to us this year is I filed a complaint against a company to the Better Business Bureau. I have been fighting against this company for a year and I got fed up so I filed a complaint to the BBB. Even though I had a good case, I was a little surprised when I found out that I won. I would highly recommend checking with the BBB before doing business with an unknown company.

We were trying to find interesting thing to do to get involved, and we decided to volunteer at the California State Fair.We worked in a booth giving people information about Sacramento.

Demcy started her driving lessons when Akesha was in the hospital. She needed to start learning to drive incase she needed to take Akesha some place. She finally received her driver’s license last month.

Demcy and I have created a website where we put photos up about our family. If you would like to see our photos and other projects that Demcy and I have worked on, please visit our website at http://www.mylabidabs.com/. Don’t forget to sign our guest book so we know that you were able to visit our website.

Greg

One of the most wonderful times I have had this year is to make a newsletter. It excites me to glimpse at all the events that Greg and I shared, and the story of how we became a family. 

It’s been a year and a half since I got here in America. For that short time, things had happened so quickly. It’s a blast how Greg and I have survived the challenges that we never expected in our lives.

Early in April 2006 we went to the island of ALCATRAZ which is an infamous federal penitentiary prison. Alcatraz became a prison in 1859 in San Francisco and when we visited there, I was 7 months pregnant. A week after that trip I had a weird feeling inside my stomach pushing so hard. I just ignored it not knowing that the baby wanted to come out. 

The next day I couldn’t help it anymore, so we called the doctor to see what is going on and we ended up in the delivery room. It was a shocking moment when they told us that I’m in labor. Greg and I were pretty scared of what might happen to the baby. 

At 11:35 am of April 15^th 2006 our bundle of joy, Akesha Lourice Apdian Dias, was born. She was born 7 weeks early, weighing 3 lbs & 11 oz. It is a miracle from God having our baby with us, and I am glad that Greg’s family and friends were there to support us. 

Akesha stayed at the NICU for 5 weeks, and we visited her every day. I was depressed and upset coming home without the baby and I had trouble going to sleep at night. After 5 weeks of waiting, we were able to bring her home. Our dog was confused of what was going on when we brought the baby home.

While the baby was in the NICU, Greg enrolled me in driving school which kept me occupied from thinking of the baby. So we decided to get a new car. I took a driving test and got a drivers license. 

When Akesha came home, Greg took 2 weeks off from work to spend time with the baby. Greg is a hands on dad, and I am proud of him for helping me to taking care of the baby. We were very scared because Akesha had trouble breathing which is a common problem among premature babies. We had a monitor on her to track her breathing. 

After a couple of months we took the monitor off because she was doing great. We baptized her last June where family and friends attended.

Even with a baby we still have a lot of escapades going on. People say that having a baby is difficult to go places. But for us, we bring the baby everywhere. When she was 3 months old, we brought her to Greg’s Air Force Picnic and Company Picnic. We went with us when we volunteered for a short time with the Air Force at the Blues Festival. During the California State Fair, we also volunteered to work in a booth for the Sacramento Heroes. 

At 4 months we took her to Yosemite National Park and stayed there for 3 days. We also went to Arco Arena to see the famous Circus (Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey). We visited the Sacramento Zoo and enjoyed looking at the animals. She was 6 months old when she took her first plane ride going to Las Vegas. We had a wonderful trip to the famous city and we stayed at the Stratosphere Hotel for 3 days. We drove down to Hoover Dam which is one of the famous modern wonders of the world. It is located between the boundaries of Nevada and Arizona. 

We had a great time in Vegas. The shows and  fancy hotels are spectacular. We had Thanksgiving at Greg’s sister’s house. The day after Thanksgiving we drove to San Francisco for the city tour and we enjoyed riding the Double Decker bus. It was great spending time with Greg’s family and it reminded me of my family in the PI. 

I’ve been keeping in touch with them every month and also with some of my classmates and friends too.  My older brother lives in Manila with his family and my younger brother is in college taking IT Engineering. My parents still have there business and my grandparents are doing fine. We are planning to visit them next year hopefully. They're actually excited and can’t wait to see the baby. I send them baby pictures all the time. 

By the way, I forgot to mention that I go to school at American River College. I am planning to get into the Nursing Program. I have a degree from the Philippines, but I want to try something new. (No more debits and credits.J)

I am thankful to God for having a great and loving husband who fulfills my dreams in life. Having our daughter in our life is amazing and she is the most precious gift that God gave to us.

Demcy

Merry Christmas!