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!

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.

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!

We're Here!

We arrived at 11:40 a.m. Guatemala time (1:40 p.m. Eastern time). Olivia wasn't going to be dropped off until 5:30, so we decided to get some lunch and then come back to the room and take a much needed nap, (went to bed last night at midnight, had to get up at 4:00 a.m. Out of a possible 4 hours of sleep, I managed to get 1!)

Olivia's foster family brought her to the hotel on time. They brought a video of Olivia performing in a program at her school yesterday. Brenda, her foster mom, made her a little chick costume and she sang a song about being a chicken. She did so well and she was so cute! Unfortunately, I don't think we can get a copy of the tape, we'll see.

Not sure what we'll be doing tomorrow, just play it by ear I guess. Hopefully we can post some pictures in the next post.

Till then.....

Buenos noches!

We're Off to Guatemala Again!

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we'll be winging our way to see our little girl! This trip is purely to visit, no obligations this time, that'll be nice! Looking forward to the 80+ degree weather, too!

We're taking our laptop this time, so I'm hoping to be able to update the blog while we're there.....stay tuned!

God bless y'all!

3 Years Ago Today......

After adopting Emily in 2001, we knew we would adopt again..... eventually, but it wasn't until the end of 2006 that we felt God telling us it was time. On February 26th, 2007, after much prayer and research into countries, agencies, and all that comes with adoption, we embarked on this journey to our Guatemalan daughter.

Emily's adoption from China took almost exactly 18 months from start to finish and we thought that was long! We'd learned that with an adoption from Guatemala, the average time frame was about 9 to 12 months, give or take. With that, we were very optimistic that our newest addition would surely be home with us by Christmastime that year or by early 2008 at the latest. As we all know now, God had another plan.

As we mark this third year, even knowing all the paperwork that will have to be done.....again, all the extra fees that will have to be paid.....again, and the many trips to Guatemala that we will be taking this year, we can't help but be thankful for this experience. God has provided this opportunity for our family to grow, but also for our faith to grow. He's teaching us patience, and showing us His grace.

Our hope and prayer is, of course, that Olivia will be home with us by the close of this year. There are still many other children waiting to come home to their families as well. We pray that 2010 will be the year that all of these Guatemalan children will be united with their forever families.

Olivia's First Day of School!

Olivia started pre-school on January 15th. She's attending a Christian school called "Jardin Infantil Las Ovejitas". She goes Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. till 11:50 a.m. Along with the basic pre-school curriculum, she'll also be learning some English there. Then, once a week for two hours, she has an English class outside of school, at the "Academie de Ingles Liason". The Guatemalan school year goes from January thru October. Hopefully by the time school is out for them, (or maybe sooner) she'll be home with us! We shall see.

No news on our case, we really don't expect any until the hearing in June. We have however booked our next trip for March 17-22 and are looking forward to seeing our little "school girl"! She has told her foster family that she can't wait till we come visit again, so she can tell us all the things she's learning in school!

We've actually been emailing with the foster family while trying to get the school situation arranged, so it's nice to finally have some direct contact with them. The translation is a little rough at times, but I think we each get our points across eventually.

They sent us the following pictures of Olivia's first day. Both Brenda (foster mom) and her husband took Olivia to school. They are such sweet, loving people! Olivia is blessed to have them in her life! Enjoy!

Too cute! Must have been a chilly morning...probably about 65 degrees!

Brenda probably saying goodbye to Olivia.