Tag: life

Poetry & Words, Travel/Moving

POETRY & WORDS :: our love story: how long distance became i do

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Some of you will recognize the following story — I penned it just months after 26PM and i were married in 2008, and published it on my old blog (Remember Xanga? That’s how we all rolled back in the day, ha ha!)

Anyway, I rediscovered these words again today, and realized that I never shared our love story on this blog.

So, here it is. The story of a love that spanned the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific. The story of two people who could not remain apart. The story of our lives.

once upon a time, he saw her. after church, playing football in the grass. she was barefoot. this is his first memory, but she did not notice.

she does not remember, except for the time he could not understand something she said and then she refused to speak.

[we were both sixteen. –yellowcard, ocean avenue]

well, seventeen, actually.

[they had lots of common friends. –dennison witmer, 24 turned 25]

the same church. the same ski slopes. the same junior college.

but they did not notice.

[you never even see me. you look right through me. –coldplay, shiver]

she remembers how he flew before he could drive, and how he drew color and life bursting from grey rubble. she told her mother he thought about things, deeply.

he did not know he was present in her mind.

she did not know she thought of him, even when she did.

Continue reading “POETRY & WORDS :: our love story: how long distance became i do” →

Life in Photos

my beautiful tiny girl at seven weeks

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

oaxacaborn - baby girl Aveline Alenka - 7 weeks old

this is my tiny girl at seven weeks old, hanging out with her daddy. isn’t she gorgeous? i’m madly in love with her.

i love staying at home with her. we’re falling into quite a regular little routine here, and it’s been wonderful. with all the changes to our lives within the first few weeks of her life, routine has been a long time coming. but now our lives are swaying in a gentle rhythm, a gentle groove, and i’m savoring every single moment. every thing she does captivates me. i can’t stop praising God for our Aveline, our little wished-for child.

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Life in Photos

leaving on a jet plane

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

hello, readers? is anyone still hanging around? this little blog has been sadly neglected of late. i’ve been living out of my suitcase and only able to post via my iPod. but, tomorrow i’m leaving on a jet plane, back into the arms of my love. i miss him so.

and florida? i know we didn’t get along so well last time. i’m willing to forget all that if you are. here’s to new beginnings.


(please excuse little miss A’s manners. she wasn’t feeling too excited about having her picture taken.)

Life in Photos

some moments feel like this

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

some moments feel like this:

but i am deliriously happy. unbelievably happy. sleepless nights, shirts covered in spit up, eating meals slowly with one hand while balancing baby in the other…

i love our miraculous baby. she is an answer to so many prayers. she is, as her name means, our longed-for child.

and when her little tiny fingers grab on to my shirt, and i bend down and kiss her head and breathe in that sweet aroma, i am pretty sure nothing on earth could be closer to heaven.

Poetry & Words

a different kind of valentine’s day

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

this morning dawned grey and brooding, with thick clouds drawn tightly over the sky, pulling down wind and rain through the tousled treetops.

it had all the ingredients that could have made for a really bad day. monday. exhaustion. valentine’s day. a night of restless, fitful sleep on an air mattress on my in-laws’ living room floor. a fussy baby. all our stuff on a moving truck. husband putting the last few items in his suitcase to leave for florida. me staying behind for two more weeks.

yes, i cried.

but then, my baby smiled at me.

and my husband brought me lilies and roses while i was still in bed.

and God gave me peace.

wonderful, deep, incredible peace.

that doesn’t mean i didn’t cry any more after that. after all, it’s still overwhelming. i still physically don’t feel good, and i am still ridiculously tired (although my recent diagnosis of anemia explains that. hello, iron supplements!)

but i am at peace. i am content. happy. excited about this next chapter. excited to see what God has in store. madly in love with my husband and with my miraculous daughter and with this wild and beautiful life.

Poetry & Words

stacks of boxes, a new iPod, and trust

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

it’s late. i’m too fatigued to have many thoughts. my fingers tap softly across the screen of this brand new iPod. my eyes, tired and scratchy, narrow to read these words. i sit on the black leather couch, surrounded by towering stacks of brown boxes. each is taped and labeled, and each holds a little piece of the personality that made these four walls our own.

i sigh.

aveline lays across my lap, peaceful and trusting, calm in the face of looming change. she is not fretting about where she will live next or how she will manage the next few weeks. she does not wonder if my arms will hold her up. she just IS.

and you know? i want to trust like that.

pure, peaceful, natural trust.

Poetry & Words

we’re moving again

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

the whole United States, it seems, is being swallowed up by ever-falling snow. but here in my favourite comfortable corner of the world–NorCal–it’s warm, sunny, and bright. i could stay here forever, you know. i love it here. the high skies, the dry air, the perfectly majestic california live oaks, the way the sunsets dance purple and yellow, casting long shadows across the white Sierra Nevada peaks…

i could stay here forever.

but i can’t.

you know that pillar of fire? it’s moving now, and we have to follow. it’s been parked here for almost a year and a half (a veritable record, as far as the last 11 years of my life are concerned), but now it’s time to move on.

as hard as this is, i am at peace about it.

Josiah and i have been praying–for the past year and a half–for full-time work. hundreds of resumes later, it was starting to feel like a drought. there was still daily bread and there were still new mercies, but there were no open doors.

and then suddenly, this.

not even two weeks after Aveline was born, Josiah received a job offer from a company he used to work for. it was sudden job offer, with an even more sudden start date.

Aveline Alenka - 2 weeks old - handmade crochet hat - cotton gauze baby swaddling cloth by Living Textiles

and that, my friends, is how this grand adventure called 2011 begins. we’re packing up the house now…wrapping up the insane amount of loose ends…trying to get sleep in between stacking boxes and waking up in the middle of the night with our tiny little daughter.

and in less than two weeks, we’ll be on the road to Orlando with a wee baby and a dog in tow.

as with countless other life events, i’m once again singing along with rich mullins. his music is the soundtrack to my soul. “sometimes i think of Abraham, and how one star he saw was lit for me. he was a stranger in this land, and i am that no less than he.” -rich mullins

so call us crazy. sojourners. gypsies. we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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