We're home!

We made it!

Thursday

All is well!  Daddy and Henry went to the Embassy this afternoon and were able to pick up your passport with the U.S. visa in it, so we are all set to leave tomorrow.  They also handed Daddy a big manila envelope and told him not to open it but to give it to the Immigration officials at the airport when we land back in the States.  Sort of makes you wonder what would happen if you just peeked in the envelope!  But we were not about to take the chance!!

Poor Daddy is having a bad case of cabin fever, so it is good that he was able to get to the Embassy today.  We absolutely love spending time with you of course, but it is odd because we are mostly just in a hotel room all day long with not a ton of options.  It's a nice hotel room, a suite actually, but it is a hotel room.  We wake up, give you a bottle, get ready, go to breakfast downstairs, walk around a little in the lobby, go back up to our floor, walk the halls a little, play in the room, give you a snack, you take a nap, play some more, go down the dining room and have lunch, walk around some more, go up to the rooftop area, play, let you have another nap, play some more, eat some more, play some more, walk around some more, eat dinner, bathe you, and put you to bed.  We've also visited the play room a few times, and hung out in the lobby in the afternoons with some of the other families that are adopting.  You especially like to sit on Mommy's lap and eye the other babies, especially the cute little girls!

Here's a shot of you in the umbrella stroller doing some of our laps in the hall, and another shot of you and Henry.

Embassy Day

This morning was our appointment at the U.S. Embassy for your visa.  Henry, who works for our attorney and also for the Radisson, picked us up first thing in the morning and took us to the Embassy.  It is a big, plain looking, concrete building, with a huge fence around it, and tons of people waiting in line.  Hundreds of people.  As soon as we saw that, we remembered what Rudy had said about how long it took our attorney to get an appointment.  We totally could see why.  Anyway, U.S. families that are adopting get to go to the front of the line.  It was really strange being able to just walk around all those people.  It didn't feel right, but families that are adopting have priority and are given the first appointments of the day.  So we stood around at the front, Henry held the place in line, and we waited for the doors to open.  After a short wait, we could go inside, go through security, and go to the waiting room.  Henry waited in one of the lines at the cashier's window, and we paid the fee for the visa.  It took maybe an hour for our name to be called.  We walked into the tiniest room you ever saw.  It was like a small closet with a couple of chairs right at the door, a thin desk and another chair on the other side of the desk with a door behind it.  The Embassy official asked us a few questions about when we first saw you, if this was our first trip, etc.  She looked through our papers, gave us a smile, and all was well!  We had to wait a little more, then were given a piece of paper that was some kind of receipt, and could leave.  Hopefully tomorrow afternoon, at 3:00, the visa will be processed and finalized, and we will be able to head home!

The rest of the day, we continued playing with you.  You were all smiles all day today.  Yesterday was somewhat mixed.  You were happy and would be playing, and then all of a sudden you would look up and look around the hotel room, get a sad look in your eyes and give a little cry.  We think you were missing your foster mama!  After a few seconds you would be distracted with a hug or a toy, and all would be well.  That happed several times during the day yesterday.  Of course you would miss the woman that had taken care of you your whole life!

That's one content Mama.

Rice Cereal

We are adjusting to being a family of three!  The hardest part has been having to give you medicine four times a day.  Ugh!  You just start to like us and then bam!  Here come some more drops in your throat and drops in your eyes!  The medicine, or the cold, or both, are making you sleepy, but it works out just fine since Daddy and I can't get enough of snuggling with you!

Last night, we got you to bed quite easily,  due in large part to the cold and the medicine, mostly likely.  Then today we played, held you, gave you your bottle and some rice cereal.

Funny story about that.  It's funnier when Daddy tells it, so you'll have to ask him to act it out for you.  The hotel where we are staying, the Radisson, is great.  Beautiful hotel, excellent food, and wonderful staff.  They even have a family floor, the sixth floor, for those families traveling with small children or those families that are adopting.  The family floor has a beautiful playroom with lots of toys for little kiddoes.  Anyway, when we arrived on Monday, the family floor was fully booked, so we got a room on the 16th floor.  It does give us some amazing views, that if for sure.  Another great thing about the hotel is that it is well-furnished and well-stocked for families with small children and babies.  A wonderful crib for you, a baby bath, formula, and cereal were all there waiting for us.  Only thing is that because there were so many other families with babies there, they were out of rice cereal.  All they had was wheat or mixed grain.  We knew your foster mama had started you on rice cereal, but weren't sure if she had tried any other grains yet, and we really didn't want to take a chance of an allergic reaction when you were already sick and medicated.  So Daddy went down to the hotel gift shop to get rice cereal.  They were out, but the concierge told him about a little store just a couple blocks away that was sure to have it.

He thought, "Ok, I gotta go get the rice cereal."  So he walks out the door and down the block.  Security is a different thing in various countries around the world.  In the next block, where a building was being constructed, stood several guards.  Armed guards.  Guards with big machine guns and very serious looks on their faces.  It's a little unnerving to encounter something like that, especially when you have just arrived in a foreign country and you don't speak the language.  Anyway, Daddy is courageous, so he continues on his way and eventually sees the little store.  He goes in, finds a box of baby cereal, and heads back.

Uh oh.  It's multigrain!

By this time, it was getting too late to try again.  We figured one night without cereal would be ok, and we'd deal with it in the morning.

Mommy went today in the other direction, found another hotel with a gift shop, and got the rice cereal.

To Guatemala

November 14th, 2005.  We will never forget this day -- it is the day we first held you!!

Daddy and I woke up bright and early, I know neither of us slept well the night before out of excitement.  We flew from St. Louis to Guatemala City with a three hour layover in Dallas.

 

We made it to the hotel and waited what seemed like eons for there to finally be a knock at the door, and in you came with your foster mama!  It took all I had not to grab you immediately from her arms.  It seemed like this day would never come, and now here you were:  right in front of me!

You had just developed a bad cold, and the reason you and your foster mama were late getting to the hotel was that she had taken you to the doctor, and then the pharmacy to get medicine, and of course there was bad traffic throughout the city.  Your foster mama obviously loved you and took excellent care of you.  It's just that sometimes babies get sick.  We could tell that she was somewhat embarrassed that you were sick, thinking that we might have thought she wasn't taking good care of you.  We told her in our best broken Spanish that we understood and that it was ok.  I think she understood us.  I hope so, at least.

I'm sure it was terrible for her to walk away from you, the baby she had been taking care of for seven months.  Her love for you was palpable.  She asked us to send photos of you when you were home, which we did, so that she could see for herself that you were well, happy, and completely loved.

 Here's some shots from our hotel room on the 16th floor.

We're tickled pink!!!!

Some more waiting….It seems like every little thing that could go wrong at the very end has gone wrong – well, probably not that bad, but it seems we have been so close for so long that the last couple weeks have been agony.  Our lawyer (or her helper) eventually made to the Embassy, but it turned out the cable which is sent from our local Immigration office to the Embassy was either lost, or never made it or whatever.  And apparently the file doesn’t go forward until the cable is there.  And of course the Embassy personnel don’t go back up the chain to the Immigration folks and ask them to resend the cable – it has to be requested from someone else, like Rudy.  Rudy explained that the Embassy in Guatemala is processing a huge number of adoptions this year, and they are rather overwhelmed.  He mentioned something about them hiring more people, but not fast enough to make any difference for us. Anyway, that is the last of the complaining, because….we finally got the beloved pink slip and an appointment at the Embassy for November 16th!!!  We just made our travel reservations, half paid for from bonus points your Daddy got at work, and we are all set to go.  We travel Monday November 14, leaving St. Louis early in the morning, and should see you that very afternoon.  We fly home, all three of us, on Friday the 18th.  I am so happy to be actually writing those words.  We have been waiting so long now – and you are practically seven months old at this point.  We had hoped to be able to bring you home much earlier, but this is what it is, and at least now it is only another week away.  We are so excited!!!!