So we are leaving for Merida today!! This is where we will be untill we decide to come back to the states. I{m not sure how long it will be till we have internet, but knowing Raul he is sure to make it happen quickly. He seriously loves his computer. Thats ok though, hes still very good to me. Anyways I realized I dont have anyones email address so could someone maybe Jess or Sam send me a list of everyones address. (rcurmina at yahoo.com) I dont really like this blog thing sorry guys but I cant seem to figure it out with the pictures and stuff and I think Id rather just do emails.
So it will take us just about 2 days to get to Merida, Im very excited I cant wait to get there. We should be on the beach playing in the ocean by Saturday. Oh and we found out that to get married here is going to be kind of difficult with all the paperwork and everything so it probably wont be till around easter. But we are going to do it on the beach, and I cant wait to have tons of pictures so I can make you all so very jealous and have to come to the wedding!!!! I love you guys, and miss you.

Estoy en la Ciudad de Mexico!!!

Yes we made it finally. We arrived in Mexico City Friday Feb. 13 after quite an adventure chasing my passport. We stayed in SLC for a few days waiting, every time I tried to get info on the passport they would say "it's in San Francisco and in process." It was so frusturating so on Wednesday we decided to drive to S.F. and get the passport and fly from there. ($900.00) we drove all night Wednesday and in California while going through the mountains they made us buy chains for the car! We didn't even need them! Another 80 bucks. Oh well Raul said it was better to be safe. So we both learned how to put chains on a car at 2am and 18 degrees. Raul is amazing! He wasn't mad or anything just figured it out and got back on the road. Olivia slept most of the way. S.F. was pretty cool it was warm and we walked around alot mostly back and forth from the hotel to the passport office. I got it though, Thursday night and we got back on the road to the airport at 3 a.m. !! The first flight to Pheonix Olivia slept the whole way and woke up right before we landed. We had a 3 hour layover there and finally got to get on the plane to Mexico City. The flight was about 2 and a half hours and Olivia did really good just played and looked out the window with Raul and jumped around. We finally landed and it was about 85 degrees outside!! Yea! The sun! It's been about the same since around 90 degrees at day and 75 at night. Perfect, there is tons of exploring to do the market is literally on the corner and it lines the street for miles! There are tons of people and still I am the only american here. That's ok though I get lots of weird looks but nobody says anything. I can't go out alone here, it's too dangerous mostly because we are in such a huge city. There are tons of things to do and we've spent most of our time walking around and visiting Rauls family and old friends. He is happy but says he misses the states. I don't understand why I love it here. The culture and everything is so new and different. We had these tacos that are so good! The way they make them most americans would probably throw up but I thought it was awesome! Here are some pictures of the market and stuff Raul wont let me take too many, he doesn't want me to look like a tourist. ?? I'm the only thing white!! Of course I look like a tourist! hehehe

Hi guys! Yes I'm actually going to do this I don't know when we will get the internet once we get to Mexico. But, once we do I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post. Well for now I'll just give you a short history of what's happened and what will happen.

I met Raul when I went to work for Meadow Gold in September. I had just moved into my new apartment in Orem and was doing pretty good on my own, just taking care of Olivia and kinda sort of making ends meet, finnally. Life was pretty tough for about a year, every one probably already knows how insane her biological father was and I can't even begin to express the relief and peace that him leaving brought me. However I don't really want to go into that. I am so very gratefull and still don't really know how it happened that I got to spend Olivia's first five months of life at home with her. It was hard I remember not having a penny to my name, but she and I always had plenty of food and a roof over our heads. Thanks to many kind and dear friends and family (and lots of hours on my knees) we made it. Well, like I started to say I had just moved into my new apartment in Orem and thought I had just moved into a Palace! Compared to where I came from it was absolutely beautiful and little did I know that the next few months to come I would see my closest truest desires of my heart unfold and become reality before me.

I started working at Nu-Skin as a pee-on nobody and I hated it, I dreaded going every day, I detested leaving Olivia and my heart broke every time I had to. I was desperately looking for something else I knew I could do better, and could be making alot more money. One day after screaming in my car to myself all the way to work about how much I hated that job. I got a phone call on my break. It was Express, a temporary agency asking if I could go to work for Meadow Gold that same day, and they wanted an answer right away. I made some quick phone calls to make sure Olivia would be taken care of and went to work that night. Well to say the least I feel for the new temps that walk through that door, it's scary. The place is so noisy you have to yell to be heard, and the floors are constantly wet posing a slip-and-fall on your ass hazard. The boss introduced me to Raul (Mauricio at work) and told me I would work with him and he was my boss, Raul did that little gesture where he polishes his nails on his chest like he knows it all and knows it. But it was cute. So I went to work, and over the next week or so Raul and I talked alot. I think he kept hitting on me, I'm not sure it was very subtle. Anyways, one Sunday night he called probably around 9 or so and asked if he could come over and talk. I automatically said no. I didn't know him very well and was worried that he maybe wanted something that I was not about to get into. He said that was fine but then he said something that made me think twice. Maybe it was the tone of his voice or how he said it but, he said "youre the only friend I have and I really just need to talk to someone right now" I changed my mind threw caution to the wind and gave him directions and told him to come over. We talked all night, I'm not going to really go into the details (that's personal) but basically he had that night decided to divorce his wife. His reasons are his but they were definitelly valid and we have never regretted his choice. I have asked myself if I am to blame for him making this choice. However, I know I am not and now that I know a little more history, he was bound to do it sooner or later. In fact had wanted to for years, and that's where I may have helped a little. Because of things that happened after they seperated, if I and his mom had not been here by his side he would have went back to her only to take care of her. But, both of them have seemed to make it through the divorce is final now and a strange twist of fate that we will all be living in Mexico very soon.

Okay so back to heart's desires :) Poor Raul had pretty much been working non-stop for 6 years to try and give his family everything and try to motivate the ex to clean the house or do something. It's really sad but, some people it just doesn't matter how much you give them they still are going to be exactly the same way they've always been. So, his dream was and is a woman who cooks and cleans and takes care of the kids and him and makes sure the home is a home. Basically a simpler version of Proverbs 31. Me, I just wanted a dad for Olivia, don't get me wrong we could make it on our own but my heart desperately wanted a father for her and a husband for me to love and take care of the way I had been taught, the right and only way. . . the way God made it to be. We fit together so perfectly in every way, he's calm and easy to please, a hard worker who loves his kids, and does everything he can to make sure they are taken care of. He's taken Olivia and made her fall in love with him. She won't even say mama, all day long it's dada dada dada. But, that's ok it makes me grin and my heart fill up to know that she has a dada. Me, well I'm happy so it's easy for me to share my love for both of them. I told my mom today as she was stressing again that she was worried I would get to Mexico and hate it and have no way to get back, "Mom, I love him, and am happy, no matter where we are that is not going to change." I suppose it's a mom thing and she's allowed to feel that way. I just hope someday she believes me.

Well back to Meadow Gold not long after Raul and I started hanging out more, he figured out I was a lab tech with tons of experience. He introduced me to the QA manager and about 3 weeks later I was hired making 13.77 an hour and loving that I got to work with Raul. I don't remember exactly when we decided to live togeter I think it was the begining of November somewhere around there but it wasn't really living together cuz his mom was always there. She was visiting from Mexico City and stayed with us untill January 16th. So it's only been a few weeks now that we've been "officialy" living together. We moved into our own apartment on the first of January and we were supposed to be here a year, but circumstances (mostly the ex and $$) has given us the oppurtunity to move to Merida. Yes I'm excited. We leave Feb. 6th, and have way too much to do and not enough time but that's my fault so I'm not complaining. I quit working a week ago to prepare for the move and Raul's last day will be the 5th. That place is going to fall apart without him. I feel bad for the people we will be leaving behind. I'm sure in time they will work it all out though. Okay well I think you are pretty much caught up now, I want to post some cute pics of Olivia and us. Thanks for reading!!