November ’21 Family News

Ministry

Anja

Band

I was originally scheduled to sing toward the end of the month, but then Ziva was not feeling well so I stayed home to take care of her.

Livestream

The team leader once again scheduled me for the sound only and I was grateful because it made it easier to keep an eye and take care of Yuna, if necessary. The first thing I noticed was that there was a gigantic screen in front of the window from where you could see the stage before. That meant that I had to mix the sound either without being able to see the band, or being on my feet the entire time. I chose the later because I prefer to see the band. However, one time, the service had just started, Yuna woke up and wanted to eat so I had to sit down and feed her while doing the sound at the same time. It worked better than I thought.

Fit 2 Serve

Chris

Lights

This year as last year we plan a Christmas concert. Since we had the possibility to upgrade our lighting system throughout the year, we had much more possibilities to make this event even more special. But more lights also means more work to program them. Gladly our music ministry leader got all the leaders involved to a table where we early started discussing what we can do. These meetings already started in October and now it got more serious on getting everything ready. So I got some more spotlight moving heads, which are perfect for such occasions, because they light up only a certain area and have not much stray light.

Taking Care of the Family

For some time I had in mind that I had to return to my “job” as soon as possible. So I thought after two weeks of enjoying the family I had to be back on schedule. But that did not happen as planned. The adjustment to the new family situation took some time. So I ended up staying home and delegating my team for another two weeks. Now, looking back, I see what the Lord was doing and that it was a necessary time to spend with Anja and the kids and to support them. After all, family should be our first ministry and the Lord made a point on that. However, after that time, most of our light masters were sick and so I found myself serving again in all of our services for another two weeks.

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Family

Paperwork

Registration of Yuna in Switzerland

We knew from when we had Ziva that we needed to register Yuna in Switzerland via Swiss embassy in the land of birth, in Yuna’s case Mexico. Therefore, Anja had reached out to the Swiss embassy in Mexico City prior to the birth to ask which documents they would need for the registration. We thought it would be similar to Ziva’s registration, which we did via Swiss embassy in San Francisco, but it was completely different. For Ziva, we had to hand in all the medical bills, all of the ultrasounds and a apostilled copy of her birth certificate. For Yuna, they wanted an apostilled copy of the birth certificate as well as her Mexican passport.

After Yuna was born, we made sure to get the birth certificate and have it apostilled as soon as possible so we could get going with the Mexican passport. As it turned out though, there are no appointments available to make a passport in the entire state of Baja California. Anja reached out to the Swiss embassy once again, to let them know about our dilemma and, under these circumstances, they told us to only send them the apostilled birth certificate for now so we could get the registration going. We had to promise though to send them a scan of Yuna’s passport as soon as possible.

Permanent Residency in Mexico

Since we have a Mexican daughter now, we could apply for permanent residency in Mexico earlier. You usually be a temporary resident for four years and we have only been in Mexico for about 2.5 years. We went to the INM (immigration office) to ask which paperwork we need to hand in and made an effort to gather it as fast as possible. As usual, Anja wade sure that all the documents were ready and that we had all the copies that we needed. Apart from the standard documents they always as for, they wanted Yuna’s birth certificate and a so called constancia medica. A constancia medica is basically a letter written by a pediatrician, containing also his medical identification, to confirm that the child is indeed the child in question and that it is healthy. On that letter, you stick the picture of the child and the doctor puts his stamp on it to prove that he has indeed seen that child. In our case, the pediatrician was the same that was present when Yuna was born, but that is not a requirement. We are still wondering how this can actually count as proof, but that’s just how it is.

We were happy to find out that the INM had gone through some change and that now, you actually are required to schedule an appointment. Before, you just had to come and wait in line, which would result in super long lines and unknown waiting hours. We scheduled an appointment for both of us adults at the same time, hoping that it would work out, since we only had one birth certificate and one constancia medica. Chris had the idea to ask if Anja could do the entire paperwork with one person and that just come in to sign the documents. The lady at the door said, it was okay, but the lady at the desk refused, so Chris had to come inside as well. However, the ladies that were assigned to us were helpful and looked at the birth certificate and constancia medica together, which was a blessing. Anja had been afraid that they would refuse to do that.

Of course, the birth certificate brought some problems for Anja, since they only put the maiden name of the mother on the birth certificate and not the married name or both, i.e. Anja Zollinger and not Anja Schmid or Anja Schmid-Zollinger. In Mexico, as well as in other Spanish speaking countries, each person has the same name from birth to death, containing their first name(s) as well as the last name of their father first and then the last name of their mother. So Yuna’s full name, at least here in Mexico, is Yuna Samara Schmid Zollinger. However, Anja had to prove that she really was the mother because the name on Yuna’s birth certificate is not the same as on Anja’s official documents. The guy at the information desk told Anja that she had to bring some kind of official document, like a passport, and ID card, a drivers license or similar with her maiden name and a picture of herself. When Anja told him that she had an apostilled international version of their marriage certificate that would explain everything, he said it was not valid because it would not contain a picture.

Luckily, Anja still had a work ID from her time at the PR department of the police of the state of St. Gallen in Switzerland with her maiden name and a picture. And, just in case, Anja also brought said marriage certificate. As it turned out, the marriage certificate was really what they needed. The lady looked at the document and was like, “that explains everything”! Mhm…. So much for “it needs to contain a picture”… After that question was off the table, both ladies went through all of our documents and handed us the letter that confirmed that we were accepted as permanent residents. We only had to make a payment and then return for fingerprints and picture. Once we have our residency cards, we can apply for permanent residency for Ziva.

Parque Morelia

After we were done at the INM, we headed to Parque Morelia that was close by. It’s a huge park with picknick tables, rides and a zoo. Chris went there with Ziva once when they were waiting for me to get done at the INM when they still had the long lines. We found out very soon that Ziva is afraid of birds when a chicken was crossing our paths. Anja knew that Ziva was afraid of crow noises, but this was a whole new level with screaming and hiding behind mommy or daddy. Chris later on tried to help her with her fear by taking her into his arms and then approaching a chicken. It was not as bad anymore.

There were also some ponies that were waiting for some kid to ride on them. Ziva wanted to see them, so Anja asked if she could touch them, which was fine by the guys who took care of them. Ziva went close and touched the ponies, but didn’t show any interest in riding the. However, we let her go on some rides and she was allowed to pick what she wanted to ride in or on. On the first ride, a car ride, Ziva chose a black sports car. On the second one, which was a classic carousel, she chose a horse. She really enjoyed the rides and was crying when we took her off.

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Ziva

Of course, Ziva made further progress with her vocabulary. She added necesito (Spanish for I need), a kikou (an eagle), princess, avo, juice, shoes and a bow (ball). Chris has showed her how she can get herself dressed and she is making progress every day. It is still hard for her to get the pants over her diaper and to get out of her tops or putting on her socks. What she does very well is putting on and taking off her shoes, taking off her socks and, depending how loose they are, taking off her pants. We have also showed her how she can brush her teeth, by allowing her to hold the tooth brush while we are brushing her teeth. A very funny thing that Ziva started to do is imitating daddy. She goes to Chris’ side of the bed, puts the blanket over her head and starts to snore :-D.

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Ziva has been having a cold for quite some time and whenever she gets better or it’s gone, it comes back immediately. We are not sure why it is not going away, but the temperature differences between night and day, plus the fact that there is no heating in the house and she is kicking off her blanket, sure doesn’t make things easier. The snotty nose alone would not be such a problem if we could actually bring her to child care in this state, which is unfortunately not possible. Do you know how hard it is to keep a 2 year old entertained during an entire service at church, especially when you are serving at the same time?

Ziva is a very cute big sister. She is going over to the chair where Yuna sleeps a lot to look at her, she wants to hold her and and asks to hold her, too. When we have Yuna in the stroller, she goes to check on her and wants to push the stroller when we are walking. When Yuna is not in her chair or her bed, Ziva asks, if she can put her doll in. It really seems like she is imitating mommy and daddy. Of course, when we have to take care of Yuna we cannot do as much with Ziva anymore, especially when Yuna has stomach pain. However, Ziva is doing very well trying to keep herself busy. She is even helping us by bringing us the step to put a foot on or wet wipes, if we ask her. Of course, we are trying to give Ziva some extra attention, but we cannot help but feel that she is falling short.

Yuna

Yuna has been growing a lot. Her newborn clothes are too small already. She is a very good sleeper and sleeps from about 9pm to 6am, which is AMAZING! Unfortunately, she is spitting up a lot and she has a lot of stomach pains. Apparently, it is normal for babies to have these symptoms, but it is very tedious for everyone involved. Sometimes, when Yuna’s belly is hurting, we have to keep massaging her belly until she falls asleep, which can take a while. We are using gripe water (water with ginger and fennel) and gas relief drops, depending on the circumstance.

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Yuna also had a cold a while back as well as an eye infection, but she is well now. What remains is a rash on her face that could be baby acne, or maybe caused by a lactose intolerance. Ziva had problems when Anja was eating dairy, so Yuna might have it too. However, we are still trying to figure that out. There was a chart in the pediatrician’s office about babies and the different ways in which babies react to their mother’s eating dairy and Yuna does show some of the possible symptoms. Now Anja needs to stay clear of dairy for a couple of days to see if Yuna is doing better.

Yuna is a very noisy baby who makes a lot of noises. Sometimes, she sounds like a little goat, which is why Anja sometimes calls her cabrita (little goat in Spanish). When she is hungry, she is very talkative. It sounds a bit like “how” and, what Ziva used to say too, “ahu”.

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Prayer requests

• Ziva’s health
• Yuna’s digestive system
• Money for Ziva’s permanent residency
• Appointment and money for Yuna’s Mexican passport