Close-up

The first two pictures show a close-up of Enna-Marie, with her eyes open wide, and the third picture shows her in Mommy Ping's arms, closely checking out her lola (grandma).

Coming home!

This morning Mommy Ping and I went to the hospital not to visit Menchie, but to pick her up and bring her home. We had to go through a bit of paperwork first, which took quite some time, but eventually we obtained the necessary signatures and documents for Menchie and Enna-Marie's release.

Although we're glad to be home as a family now, we should mention that Menchie and Enna-Marie were taken care of very well by the doctors, midwives and nurses at Rambam hospital, and that we will actually miss seeing them. They were really wonderful, and helped make Menchie and Enna-Marie's stay such a good one. Two thumbs up for them!

Coming home was great! Menchie felt like she had been away for about a month, and it was so nice to finally see Enna-Marie in her new and more permanent environment. At about three o'clock she started to get a little fussy, and we realized it was time for yet another feed. Menchie and Enna-Marie are already a good team when it comes to feeding, they both seemed to have overcome the initial difficulties very quickly!

After feeding it was my turn to burp her, and then on to the first test of fatherhood: changing the diaper! According to Menchie and my mother-in-law, I gloriously passed the first test, and in the meantime I've already had a second chance to practice. Already I feel I am getting better at it :)

This afternoon and early evening Menchie and I took some time to read through all the congratulations messages we had received from our friends over the last few days. It is so nice to read the well-wishes from our friends everywhere, it really makes us feel like Enna-Marie is already part of our global family, even though most of you have yet to meet her.

Here are a few more pictures taken today.

The first three are with some of the nurses working in the nursery and maternity ward who have taken care of Menchie and Enna-Marie so well for the last six days.





















On your marks, get set, GO! Enna-Marie is all dressed up and ready to go home!



















And last but not least a picture of Enna-Marie at home in Haifa!

Friends visiting at the hospital

Here are a few pictures of some friends who have visited us over the past few days...

Ben en George visited us on the second day of Menchie's stay in the hospital.. Ben is from the Philippines and has served at the Bahá'í World Centre for more than 13 years now. George is our Dutch friend from the States who has been here almost two-and-a-half years. George will be leaving soon to get married to Ria, who is also a Filipina :)

Evelin and Santana and baby Rocco Nicolas, who is now four months old, came to visit us the next day. Evelin is from Estonia, and Santana from Mexico. They met here in Haifa, got married, and had beautiful (and already big) baby Rocco!

Jennifer and Shahin visited a few hours later. They are both serving at the Health Centre, and shared some valuable insights about breastfeeding and burping, and as you can see from the pictures they made sure the burping was practiced properly by me :)



Sisay and Victor visited the day after. Victor is all by himself now, since his wife Negeen went to the United States, together with their daughter Aliyah, for a family visit. She will be back in Haifa at the end of January. Sisay is from Ethiopia, and has served at the Bahá'í World Centre since 1998. With us is one of the nurses who took care of Enna-Marie, she's actually Persian.

It was wonderful to have all these friends visit us during the days in hospital. Martijn and May, and Shingo and Amelia and babygirl Shiori also came for a visit, but we don't have a picture of that :(

Day two in the life of Enna-Marie Martha

When I woke up this morning, and looked at the pictures of the first day in the life of beautiful Enna-Marie, my heart was longing to be with her at that time. I think I am now only just beginning to understand what the love of a parent for a child could mean! What a wonderful blessing!!

When we arrived at the hospital, Menchie had just tried to breastfeed Enna-Marie again. She still has a little bit of difficulty latching on, but both mother and Enna are learning quickly :) For most of the day today she slept, and when she was awake she would be either quietly looking about her, or be a bit fussy and cry...

While yesterday her cries were really minor, today she gave us a taste of what her lungs are already capable of!

It seems she is well adjusting to her transition from the womb-world into our world, and her proud father thinks he was able to already discern a faint smile on her face!

Here are a few more pictures and two small movie clips for you to enjoy (less dark than the previous posting)!

Welcome to Enna-Marie Martha Schoot

We are overjoyed to share with you the news of the birth of our daughter Enna-Marie Martha Schoot. She was born into this world at Rambam hospital, Haifa, on Saturday 17 December 2005, at 0.07 hrs via C-section. She weighed in at 3.220 kg and looks very much like her mother!

The first picture shows Maarten with Enna-Marie just twenty minutes after she was delivered. To the right is beautiful Enna-Marie looking about her, already making eye-contact with her overwhelmed and overjoyed father.

The next picture shows the view from the room where Menchie and Enna-Marie are currently staying. It has a view of Mount Carmel, with the Shrine of the Báb and the Arc featuring prominently in the centre. What a blessing! The fourth picture shows Mommy Ping (Menchie's mom) holding Enna-Marie. The fifth and last picture shows Maarten holding Enna-Marie... Happy and in awe!

Last but not least, the first video footage (although a bit dark, we'll make more recordings as the days go by I'm sure) of Enna-Marie. Hope you can see it :)

Home Visit in Hashmona'im

This evening we were visited by two friends who are participating in a study circle on book 4 of the Ruhi Institute, which is about the lives of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. One of the practice components of this book is the visiting of homes of believers to share deepening themes. Niaz and Martijn came over to share a few stories about the time Bahá'u'lláh spent in the dungeon in Tehran, and his subsequent exiles to Baghdad and Constantinople. We also said some prayers together, which was very nice. It was a wonderful opportunity to spend some time together with friends and listen to some inspiring words about the life of Bahá'u'lláh, and we enjoyed opening our home for this purpose.

Sinterklaas, wie kent hem niet?

Zie ginds komt de Stoomboot
Uit Spanje weer aan

Hij brengt ons Sint Nicolaas
Ik zie hem al staan...

This is how a well-known Sinterklaas song starts. Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus, and every year he visits the Netherlands for about three weeks, from Mid-November until the evening of 5 December. He is accompanied by hundreds of black helpers, called 'zwarte pieten', who are generally very athletic, silly, and generous. He usually arrives on a cold and windy, if not rainy, Saturday morning, and spends his time in the Netherlands preparing for the highlight of his trip, "pakjesavond". Pakjesavond, which literally means 'package evening' takes place on the 5th of December, and this is when most children - those who have been good children - get lots of gifts, and some children - those who have been bad - are taken away by zwarte piet, put in a bag, and sent off to Spain.

This year, I suppose on his way back to Spain, Sinterklaas made a little de-tour, and stopped off in the Haifa port where his 'zwarte pieten' quickly brought a few things ashore for Menchie, Maarten and mommy Ping, who is visiting from the Philippines. The following things were found in the package:

Pepernoten: these tiny, hard gingerbread cookies are delicious and once you're getting started on them it is hard to stop. These pepernoten are usually carried in a jute bag over zwarte piet's shoulder, and whenever piet finds an occassion, he would take a handful and throw them all over the place (or just give you a handful). Unfortunately, these delicacies are only available during November and December, as for the remainder of the year Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are baking new 'pepernoten' in their castle in Spain.

Chocoladeletters: Chocolate letters (as I am sure the non-Dutch were quick to figure out) are another feature of Sinterklaas. You generally would only ever get the letter that corresponds with the first letter of your name. To make sure that someone whose name starts with an 'I' would not feel disadvantaged compared to someone whose name starts with a "W", Sinterklaas has made all chocolade letters of equal weight!

Gevuld Speculaas: This cookie with soft almond filling is another delicacy that goes really well with hot chocolate. For the occassion, we purchased some Herschey's Dutch chocolate from the Food Centre :)

Speculaas brokken: Another kind of speculaas, but these things are quite hard instead! Also very delicious :)

Sinterklaas also knows that Menchie is pregnant, and he included in the package a few small sheep-shoes to keep our soon-to-be-born daughter warm during the winter months. :)

Just a few more days now...

The birth of our daughter is now only days away, and Menchie's tummy looks like it can't get much bigger anymore... To continue the experiment with using video on our blog, here's a small video clip of Menchie and baby (still veiled by her tummy though)... accompanied on guitar by mommy Ping!

We hope you will enjoy this ;)

Menchie's Last Day at Work & Visit of Mommy Ping...

Four December was my last day at work. Maarten and I brought a delicious cake for our friends and we had tea-coffee-cake break in the afternoon. It was kind of a mixed feeling I had...sad since I won't be coming to work for awhile, won't see our friends/officemates everyday, of course won't see Maarten all day anymore :-( But very happy that I will be joining the "Department of Motherhood" here at the World Centre. I look forward to spending a lot of time at home with our baby girl, and with the other mothers who have recently given birth.











The next day, 5 December, my mom Ping arrived from the Philippines to visit and be with us in time for our baby's birth. She will stay for 7 weeks (yeheey!). Here are few photos of her...

(mom at the Seat)
(mom with Franco, Rhea, Marcelina and myself in Bahji)
(mom and Menchie). We are having a wonderful time together, it is nice to catch up, and also for Maarten to spend some more time with mom.

She brought lots of delicacies from the Philippines, and so we've been eating very well for the last couple of days :)!

Recent Weddings in Haifa

Here are some photos of us taken at the three weddings we attended in October and November 2005.

Pash & Ulviyya's Wedding, 21 October:

















Faraz & Swee-Chengs' Wedding, 5 November:
















Nica & Francis' Wedding, 18 November:

End of Childbirth Class

Here is the group picture of our childbirth class taken at the last day of the class. We enrolled in this English-speaking class for six sessions with three other couples. From left to right, they are Yoni and Carmel, Ania and Amir, and Amir and Ilana. Our teacher, Mrs. Wendy Blumfield is standing at the far right.

Baby Shower

Saturday the 22nd of October was baby shower day! Since Menchie didn't want it to be an event just for women, it was decided sometime ago that men and children would also be invited to attend, to make it much more of a family event!

(Food) preparations started the evening before the shower, right after Pash and Ulviyya's wedding. Daniel, who works in the kitchen at the Bahá'í World Centre, came to our home, and did an excellent job in preparing some of the yummy food we would be eating the next day. Highlight of the evening was the "how-to-make-springroll/eggroll/lumpia-course" which we really enjoyed, and which is a skill that I am sure will come in handy in the future. After making about 25 springrolls, I've become quite the chef!! (I have said the same thing after Shingo's sushi class, but am definitely in need of a refresher course on that one... So, Shingo, when you read this, you'll know what to do! he he :)))

We had invited well over 40 guests to our house, and surprisingly, they all fit quite well! Barbeque was great, thanks to the great marinade Menchie had made the night before, and thanks to our wonderful b-b-q chefs, Kevin and Santana and all the food and desserts that were brought by our friends were equally delicious!


Highlight of the afternoon was a game we played where we all had to come up with images of what our baby will look like. The trick was to combine features from both of us, which were superimposed upon a baby's face... The results were HILARIOUS! And now we definitely know why we should leave all of this in God's hands :) Click here for some impressions of the event, and make sure you don't miss the wonderful picture at the end, which we have also included here!

It was a wonderful day, with lots of fun and in the end we had fun opening the wonderful gifts from our friends. We feel so blessed to have such a great community of dear ones here with us, specially since neither of us have our families very close by. We thank these friends for being our family...and for spending time with us in this special and memorable shower party!