Junu has arrived!!

Of all the new experiences, this one tops them all. I am now a mother of a little baby girl named Junu Paige Percival Gurung. She is the most precious, adorable, little jewel in the world. I have never felt such strong love for anything in the entire world. She is my world, and there is no way to describe all the emotions you feel when you become a mom. This is definitely the biggest change, challenge, and adventure in my life! And since the moment I first heard her cry I felt something inside me change. She is my world, and I would sacrifice everything for her!

Junu entered this world on March 6, 2010 at 2:10pm in the Holy Cross Ramanso Hospital in Mapusa, Goa, India. She was 3.25 kg (about 8 lbs), with a full head of black hair, long fingers and toes, and the most beautiful eyes. Unfortunately I had to have a C-section because June was ready to come out, but my body was not ready for labor. In some ways I feel like I missed out on the whole labor experience, but it was really amazing to be awake (with no pain) and to hear her little cry when she enter the world. I think a very different experience from having to be in enormous pain for hours, pushing, breathing, and delivering a baby the natural way; which is what I was expecting to experience for the past 9 months. I think I am lucky in some ways to have such an easy delivery; even though I was disappointed to have a C-section, especially with the hospital bill being 3 times as much as we were expecting.

Now that I’m a mom life has slowed down enormously! June, Sunil and I are enjoying slow days in our little home in Goa. We wake up early (basically whenever June wakes us up), and we clean, cook delicious meals, do laundry, listen to music, read books, play with the cat, and basically just spend time with June. For the first couple of days she had her days and nights mixed up, but she is getting better everyday, and we all enjoy her long nap during the middle (hottest) part of the day. Life couldn’t be more perfect right now!

I wanted to thank everyone for all of their well wishes and congratulations! I believe that everything went so well with the surgery and that June is such a healthy little girl because of the good energy that we were getting from all of our family and friends near and far. Many of you helped us in ways that I cannot explain, but June and I couldn’t be here without your help, and I want to say thank you! I tell June everyday how many people around the world already love her. She smiles with her little milk drunken smile, and feels the love being sent to her from hundreds of miles away.

I am sorry that I don’t have many pictures to post of June yet. We have had seriously camera issues, and on the day we were discharged from the hospital the first place we went was the camera shop where they were ‘supposed’ to fix my camera, and I gave that poor guy in the camera shop a piece of my mind. Can you imagine me? A very angry new mother who hasn’t been able to take any pictures of her new little angel! Anyway, he gave us a free disposable camera, and is now fixing our digital camera for free. But, that still means I don’t have any pictures to post until we get the disposable developed and our camera back. So, I promise to post a ton of pictures of her as soon as I can! Just be patient. When you see her beautiful face it will be worth the wait.