Tuesday, March 23, 2010

We're Home Again

We arrived home late Monday night, but we said "bye-bye" to Olivia Sunday evening. Her foster parents came to pick her up about 6:00 and as it turns out their first grandchild was being born when they were with us! Their oldest son and his wife had a baby boy, they were so excited! We felt bad because they were with us instead of being there for the birth.

So Sunday we ventured out to an area of the city we hadn't gone before. We were told of a place only 2 blocks away that we were eager to visit. Yes, we walked to Hiper Paiz, the Central American Walmart! I had heard of the stores before, but had no idea there was one was so close to our hotel! Those of you who know us, know that Walmart is a Charles family staple, we generally try to visit one where ever we go. So this was a treat!

After that the girls spied the big Burger King across the street with the equally big playplace..... so that's where we had lunch.

We then headed back to the hotel and upon entering the mall under the hotel, we noticed a crowd watching this guy dressed up like a silver cowboy. He'd stand motionless like a statue then would interact with the crowd. The girls thought he was really neat. He called them up to shake hands and then posed for a picture with them, they were tickled!

When we got back to the room, I told Olivia that Mama Brenda would be coming later that afternoon and she seemed okay with that. We gave her some Easter candy and a really big stuffed lamb.

We were sad to see her go, but it'll only be 11 weeks until we're back there again. We didn't talk to our attorney at all this time, but Mirna reiterated what they had both told us back in Nov. that the judge will most likely rule in our favor at the hearing in June and things should move relatively "quickly" from then.

Here are the pictures taken on Sunday.














Olivia wearing her school jacket

Saturday, March 20, 2010

A Day At The Zoo

This afternoon we took a cab to La Aurora Zoo with our translator Mirna and her daughter. It's really a lovely zoo. They have many animals we hadn't seen in other zoos before.

The girls had lots of fun, looking at the animals, playing in the fountains and exploring. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 80's.....perfecto!

After the zoo we crossed the street to visit the Handicrafts Market. Lots of neat little shops chocked full of indigenous goodies for folks like us. We, of course did what we could to support the local economy!

All in all, it was a very nice day, ending with dinner at Pollo Campero with Mirna and her daughter.

Olivia will be going back with her foster family late tomorrow afternoon, so we'll be packing a lot more into the time we have left.

Enjoy just a portion of the pictures we took today, (Bryan was very prolific with the camera!)

More tomorrow!
















Friday, March 19, 2010

Guatemala Today

Today there was more mall walking, more shopping, more food that isn't good for us, but most importantly, more time with our girls!

After much pleading by the youngin's, we headed to the pool in the afternoon. I decided to let Bryan do all the water activities while I stayed behind the camera.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the zoo with Mirna, our translator and her daughter.

For now, here are some pictures from today.















Thursday, March 18, 2010

Today's Happenings

Greetings from Guatemala City, our home away from home!

On our first full day here we did the usual visiting of the malls and fast-food places. We did manage to run across a supermarket across the street from the hotel that we had missed in previous visits. Very handy, we'll hit that again, I'm sure.

Emily and Olivia are having a ball together. Right now they're playing a matching game, eating peanut butter crackers and listening to classical piano music on TV. A few minutes ago, Emily was showing Olivia some of her gymnastics moves and helping her do some. They really do get along beautifully! LOTS of giggling!!!

It gets dark around 6:00 p.m. here, so we're pretty much in for the night by 5:00.

I'm enjoying being able to communicate with you all out there while we're here. Ya gotta love technology!

Well here are some pictures from last night and today..... enjoy! More tomorrow!

Adios!