Amara Danica Leckie!

As I write this I am staring at our little girl who is already 6 weeks old! For the past month and a half this is how we spend the larger part of our days, staring at Amara with wonderment and pride. As expected, parenthood is keeping us pretty busy and we continue to enjoy the bliss of it all.

Amara Danica Leckie was born on October 16, 2010. This is the day we found a new boundless kind of love. Earlier in the week, Georgia & Blair arrived in Vienna in anticipation of their first grandchild. They had a few days to settle in and we had this time to spend with them before officially becoming parents. We talked over meals and walks around the city knowing that anytime we would bring a child into the world and not knowing just how amazing it would be. The night before Amara was born we had a Spanish tapas dinner and went to the famous Sachar Hotel for dessert. There was some anticipation when going to sleep that evening because the next day was my "due date." Sometime after midnight I started feeling what I thought were cramps. Knowing that about five percent of babies are born on their actual due date I didn't want to psych myself out. I tried to sleep through them until about 3:00 when they kept me awake. At 6:00 AM I started timing them and I thought they were too frequent to be contractions. Finally around 7:45 I decided to call my midwife Ulli and let Andrew know that I think something is really happening. Ulli told me to meet her at the hospital in an hour. After packing our things, we walked the 3 blocks to the hospital while I took breathing breaks every two minutes or so. Once there, Ulli found that the baby's heart rate was healthy and that my contractions were constant. At that point she found that I was 7 centimeters dilated. To get to the point, she drew me a bath, called my doctor, and I ended up having a natural water birth 3 1/2 hours later.

Upon first glance, I'm still not sure if it was us or our baby that was more wide-eyed. We were staring at a baby, our baby. After finding that she was a girl, we were still trying to absorb that she was ours. Amara was alert, beautiful, and little. I held our baby girl while Andrew cut the umbilical cord. After the birthing part was said and done we spent time alone in the room as a family. Soon after we had proud Baba Jo and Grandpa Blair meet their grandaughter. Together, we took in what we could of this moment. Amara and I laid together as we admired her perfect little head covered with brown hair, her bright slate-blue eyes, her scrawny arms and legs, and her long fingers nails on her tiny hands. She was born ready to greet us and did not cry until she was taken off my chest about 90 minutes later when we were curious to know her stats. Having to do the metric conversions, Amara was 6.1 pounds, 19 inches, and born at 12:20 PM.

Amara is Greek origin meaning eternal. Danica (Dawn-itz-a) is Slavic meaning morning star.  Danica is a family name on Andrew's side and version of Diana in English, being my mother's name. Now we know it's a beautiful name of our beautiful daughter.

In her six weeks outside the womb, Amara has been loved by the family that has come to visit (Baba JoJo, Grandpa Blair, Tita Marissa, Grandma Diana and Mike), and by those we've talk to and see via Skype. We know that we are by no means the only ones excited about her. She has quite the fan club and it's only a matter of days now until we get to bring her home to be held and loved by the rest of the family and loved ones. Here in Vienna Amara enjoys going on walks, dancing, taking baths, going to Christmas markets, and cuddling with her mom and dad. She is such a sweet girl and is growing quickly. She's a good eater (much like her mom and dad) and is reaching almost 9 pounds now.  Soon we will pack her passport and she will take her first plane ride to Seattle. We are excited to spend Christmas at home and spread holiday cheer with our little bundle of joy.

We should now call this Ciara, Andrew & Amara's Adventures. We believe our most incredible journey has just begun.

Lil' Kraig and Uncle Kraig!

So we have to apologize for the hiatus of our blog. We have been a little preoccupied. But here is a start at trying to get you back up to date on what is going on in our world. Unfortunately, we are going to have to leap a little back in time as I would feel as though we left a big chunk of the year out if we didn't mention a couple of very important visitors and our exploits with them.

First our beloved cousin George who had been counseling this past summer in his motherland of Greece took us up on the offer of coming to visit and headed up from Athens, mid August. Shortly before his arrival to Vienna plans changed a little bit. I was invited by my brother Bradley Lynch, to come and spend a stint of time with him in Spain attending a reggae festival near Valencia as a pre-fatherhood celebration. As a result we had to get in touch with George in order to see if this escapade interested him at all. With the help of Katerine and Kristina we were able to track him down and get the situation sorted out. George would be taking the trip to Spain as well.

He arrived to Vienna during a great period of weather and events around town. So we tried our best to show him around town in the short period he now had here. We took him down to the Rathaus summer food festival and to our favorite tourist sights. We enjoyed having him here.

While Ciara was busy setting up her classroom and getting ready for the school year, George and I were off to Spain. After Bradley picked us up at the airport, we spent a little time out and about in Barcelona running errands picking up groceries and supplies for the trip. After eating a tasty sandwich we hunkered down at Brad and Janeth's. This is when I believe the nick name for George became Lil' Kraig. Brad and Kraig aka Greg Plumis are close friends and I feel he wanted to pay homage to the elder cousin, and George was honored by the nickname.

The next day after we packed up we took off for Rototom the Reggae festival near Valencia. The whole experience was very nice. We basically spent the day at the beach and the evening listening to music. The camp grounds were superb and the vibe was nice. The music was also very enjoyable and the food inside the concert was great! Our days at the beach were great as well, basking in the sun and dipping in the Sea. Making the heat seem like something enjoyable rather than something to bare. The experience was something to remember and I hope Lil' Kraig felt the same.

Now that August had passed us by and George had made his way back to Greece, it was time for Kraig to make his pilgrimage to Vienna!

Greg arrived in Wien a week into September. It was great to see him!  He nestled nicely into our guest corner. We spent the first week of his stay exploring the city and allowing him to get some nice shots of Vienna. We exposed him to some of our favorite local eateries. Made sure that he got a taste of Dr. Falafel, and enjoyed a Kasekriener.  Not to mention some Austrian bier!

Over his first weekend we ventured out to the Austrian countryside to try and catch a cow festival. The country folk celebrate the time when the cows are brought down from the mountains into the valleys for winter. We went to the small town of Abtenau a quaint little village with bundles of charm. We found a Guest house called Pension Swann. The keeper of the guesthouse was a sweet lady and the living quarters we nice. Ciara is an angel for sharing a room with two hefty snoring men at 9 months pregnant. Our first morning in town we set off to find the cow festival and come to learn that it was not much of a festival but more of a procession. We made our own little festival out of it though as a group of our friends came from Vienna and met us there. We watched the decorative cows make there way into town. We then decided to enjoy some of the eateries in town, we were able to sit outside as the weather was glorious. We watched a wedding procession and soaked up some sun.


The next day we headed back to Vienna with the hopes of catching some sights on the way back. Our friend Bridgett joined us for the voyage home. We drove through the picturesque Alps through valleys  with mountain lakes. Our first stop was in the beautiful town of Hallstatt. Notable for the oldest salt mine in Europe if not the world. It sits on a lake with breathtaking views of the mountains. After a tour through the town we continued to Vienna with a stop in Gmunden on Taunsee (See at the end meaning lake) for  lunch and then headed back home with enjoyable views of the countryside and a glimpse of the Melk Abby. We capped our day with a bit of a schnapps tasting at Bridget's house.

The remainder of Greg's stay was very enjoyable, we took a day trip to Bratislava and spent the rest of it enjoying Vienna and each others company. It was great to have Greg around we were sad to say goodbye, but we built a lasting memory of his trip to Vienna and with the help of Uncle Kraig's photography skills some amazing images to conjure said Memories.


It was such a blessing to have two Plumis men grace us with visits. Next, an exciting new arrival!!!