10 things

I'm still learning English and haven't studied it formally (oops!), so thank you for your patience. I did study French, Greek (koiné), and some Russian. I dream of learning Hebrew and some Sign language. I got the language bug from my father, who before being a dad was a Classics Jesuit priest on TV.

Sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and kale were great discoveries for me when I came to the US. Now I can't imagine my plate without them.

While working for an NGO I had a delightful exchange with Princess Anne at Oxford University as I shared a project for underprivileged women.

I'm an amateur dancer (Ballet, Modern, Israeli Folk). I began in my forties, and I hope to be dancing, and writing, for as long as I breathe.

I was born in 1973 at midnight sharp with heterochromia. It's rather fun. I wished my vision stayed as sharp as my eye colors, though.

I still play with stuffed animals with my boys (they are now 22, 21, and 17 years old). Dora the hen, Slush the dog, Frederick the mouse, Gousy the beaver, the still unnamed Squirrel under the bed, and many others are part of the family. We dream of real pets, so these plush guys may finally get a vacation.

What I believe is broadly summarized in the Apostle's Creed. I'm honored to be in the company of notable believers such as Galileo Galilei, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, Johann Sebastian Bach, Harriet Tubman, Francis Bacon, Fanny Crosby, Johannes Kepler, Henrietta Leavitt, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, St. Teresa, John Polkinghorne, Marilynne Robinson, Antonio Gaudí, Jennifer Wiseman, Denzel Washington, Mr. Rogers, Maya Angelou, Mortimer Adler, Sojourner Truth, Charles Schulz, James Tour, Corrie ten Boom, Denis Mukwege, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, Katherine Paterson, Peter Kreeft, Rosalind Picard, Arvo Pärt . . . such as Abraham and Deborah and Daniel, Miriam and Stephen and Paul and Priscilla and Lydia, as well as millions of unknown, forgotten, despised, and persecuted believers throughout the world who make up the most imperfect and diverse community in human history, lost by choice and found by love, a divine love we deem worth living and dying for. This faith is the source of inspiration and strength to be what we are and do what we do, to examine and question, make sense of things, and also trust, given our desperate smallness. So everything good in me, everything I can breathe in and breathe out, is a gift from Above. I believe in objective truth, goodness, and beauty, and delight in discovering their clues all over. Like logic and hope, gravity and light, words, art, music, and imagination, from quasars to quarks, and every mystery and wonder in between, on this exquisitely fine-tuned and well-furnished universe. I believe in the intrinsic -Imago Dei- value and worth of human life, which is why books and people who make them and read them, or not, matter.

I'm a fervent compost lady and I'm crazy about trees. I marvel at how the universe and nature work constantly to sustain us. They speak so much love! They hint at glory, bottomless glory!

I've won two cooking contests, one featured on TV.

I have degrees in Psychology (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), French (Université Lumière Lyon II; Sorbonne), Pedagogy/Spanish as a Foreign Language (Universitat de Barcelona); I pursued studies in Theology (C&MA Seminary), take classes at the Israel College of the Bible, and audit at Yale University. Above all, I enjoy my current enrollment in the school of life. I'm too curious not to.