More Nursery Pictures

I finally have curtains up in the nursery. It really changes the look and feel of the room. I was pretty impressed with myself as I found the material and made them myself. They aren't hemmed yet (just pinned up) but I did hang the curtain rod and the curtains are hanging. Of course Bella loves them as she can now play hide & seek in there as well as under my quilt frame.

Peggy & I leave for Guatemala in less than 2 days! Just have to make it through one more day of work and it will be busy as everyone is throwing stuff at me that needs to be done before I leave (they think they can't function without me!)

Happy Birthday Abuelita

I just received a few pictures of Evvy at the birthday party of her foster sister's grandmother. Look at Evvy eyeing that cake! Again these pictures are evidence of how well loved she is.








Isn't she just the cutest little girl! The little girl in pink is her foster aunt's granddaughter.

Cats in the Cradle

Well I survived another week at work. Had to answer the question of "how was your trip" and "why are you back at work already?" about 3000 times. But everyone at work is really very nice and supportive.

I did get good news on Wednesday that it is OK to rebook my trip to visit Evvy. I rebooked Peggy's and my flight last night. We will leave next Thursday and return the following Tuesday. Our itinerary is the same as last time. We plan to go to Antigua to sightsee and shop on Friday and then cuddle and play with Evvy Saturday through Tuesday. Then home Tuesday night and back to work on Wednesday.

A twist to this trip is that one of my friends Julie (and husband Mike) received word that they have received clearance by the Embassy to go pick up their daughter. We are using the same Agency so will be at the same hotel. They think there appointment will be Monday or Tuesday (Nov 6 or 7) so they will arrive on Saturday to have their little one brought to them. So we will be in the same hotel from Saturday til Tuesday when we leave. We have joked that it would be great if we could be down in Guatemala at the same time and now it looks like we will be. I'm very happy for them. They have had a bit of a bumpy process due to things out of everyone's control.

Here are a couple of pictures of my cats checking out the crib. I have been keeping the nursery door closed to keep them out but there have been a couple of times when I have gone in and forgot to close the door. One or the other of the cats will disappear (they usually hang out in the living room with me) and when I go looking for them they are curled up in a corner of the crib. It is pretty cute for now since Evvy isn't there but I will have to be careful to keep the door closed when she is sleeping so they don't jump up and nap with her. There have been tragic stories that I have heard of cats loving too much on babies in cribs.

I'll post more later. Gonna spend the weekend packing (unlike Peggy I didn't finish packing last time other than Evvy's stuff). Peggy never unpacked so she is all ready to go!

Susan

Disappointing News

Well, this hasn't been the joyful weekend that I was anticipating. On Tuesday night, there began to be some rumblings of possible security issues in Guatemala. My source of these initial rumblings was on the adoption.com forums that I frequent. As rumors often get started here, I emailed my agency late Tuesday night to see if they knew of anything that was happening. I received an email and call at 10:00 on Wednesday that said that everything was fine and that there should be no problem with Peggy & I leaving the following day. I kept an eye on the forum during the day and heard nothing from my agency so felt secure that all would be fine for our trip. When I got home about 6:00 Wednesday night, I had a message from my social worker asking me to call her on her cell phone as soon as I received her message. My heart just dropped into my stomache. She said that the agency director had been communicating with the lawyers all day and that they had decided that all visit trips should be suspended for now and that I should not travel down Thursday. I was told that I could travel but they were advising the foster parents to not take the children out. I checked with the airline who said that they would issue a credit and we could use the amount in the next year for a $100 change fee. I decided to wait until Thursday to make a final decision to see if by some twist in fate that it was all just a bad dream and that things would settle down. By Thursday noon, the agency still said no to travelling. I was pretty upset and depressed.

I finally pulled myself together and went over to Peggy's where we had a pity party and worked on our quilt projects. Then we went out to dinner and made Tom (Peggy's husband) keep the kids so he could at least have a couple of hours of child care since he was getting out of 5 days worth.

I was going to go to work on Friday but when I woke up decided I just couldn't face it yet so I stayed home and continued my pity party. Saturday night I was able to go over and meet up with a couple of other women who are in the process of adopting children from Guatemala that I had met on the forum. We ended up talking until about 1:00 am. It was a really nice support group.

So now I am gearing up to go into work tomorrow and face all the questions about why I am there and not in Guatemala with my beautiful daughter.

If you want to read more information about the situation in Guatemala you can visit www.guatadopt.com. This is a very good website talking about the current events in Guatemala as relating to adoptions.

Here is a picture I received from the foster family on Thursday when I emailed them and told them I would not be coming.

Hopefully we will get good news this week that we can reschedule our trip or go pickup her up for good.

Susan

Ponderings of becoming a mother....

One more day of work and then Peggy and I are off to Guatemala to meet Evvy/Evita for the first time. It is still so surreal. I am worrying myself to death about details and about how I feel.

I still really can't imagine how my life is going to change when she finally comes home with me forever. Forever is such a long time. I am such a control freak that I don't like uncertainty and there is so much uncertainty in parenthood. I think of all the details about medical care, shopping, day care, juggling work and my daughter, finances, etc, etc, etc. When I think of those things I get a little overwhelmed. But then I think about cuddling up on the couch with her, watching her smile at me; waking up to her outstretched arms; singing to her; going to the park; taking walks; watching her and her best friend Erica play while Peggy and I sit back and watch them in amazement and awe.

I know I am doing the right thing and that there will be ups and downs. I know that my life will be better and hope and pray that Evvy's life will be better.

I have been very lucky to have email communication with Evvy's foster family so I have an idea of her schedule and routine.

**She likes her bottle warm (many in Guatemala take them cold)
**She takes 3 bottles in the morning; 2 in the afternoon and her last one before bed at 8pm. She takes 5-6 ounces at a time.
**When she takes her night bottle well, she sleeps til 8am otherwise she is up at 5-6! (I am hoping for good night time bottles!)
**She takes 2 naps a day (1st one after her morning bath)
**She loves to be talked to while you play with her. She likes the baby-doll I sent down to talk to her.

I am attaching the following picture with a little hesitation. It is definitely not the cutest, most flattering picture of my girl but, oh well. She is well loved and fed.

I will try to post once or twice while in Guatemala and will definitely post when I get home (after I catch my breath). We fly out Thursday afternoon and home on Tuesday night. Then it is back to work on Wednesday.

Susan

Evvy Smiles! She is in PGN!!

I received a great batch of pictures this week from the agency. I got the first wide awake pictures from the agency. They got her really smiling/laughing.

Yesterday I found out that our case went into PGN (final court in Guatemala) on September 12 the day after the attorney picked up our pre-approval from the Embassy. We probably could have been in a couple of weeks earlier had the embassy actually notified the lawyer that the pre-approval was there when they initially issued it. So we have been in PGN for 3 weeks. Typically you don't get any updates while you are in PGN unless you get "kicked out" for missing/incorrect/bad spelling in the paperwork. So we have been in 3 weeks with no kickouts! It seems the trend is that if you are going to get kicked out it happens in the first 3-6 weeks. Then again there is really no norm in PGN. Some people are only there for 3 weeks and some have been there for more than 6 months. As long as we aren't out in the next 12 days, I will be happy. We can get out in 13 and I will be ecstatic.

Peggy and I are flying out on Oct 19 to go visit Miss Evita. I have been putting stuff in the crib and it is getting a little full. A lot of it is just small gifts for the Foster Family. It is mostly just candy and small mementos from Kansas City and the US (M&Ms, Jelly Bellies, postcards, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, etc).

Tomorrow I am going to go buy an umbrella stroller to take down to the foster family. They requested one to take Evvy on walks. She is pretty heavy and they have been carrying her in a baby carrier (see picture below).

There is a ray of hope still that Miss Evvy will be home for Christmas in Missouri.

Enjoy the pictures.

Evita in the garden courtyard of her Foster Home.















Enough pictures already. I just want to get out of PGN and go home to my mommy!

Happy 4 month birthday Evvy May!

Love,
Mommy

The rest of the pictures

This picture was taken on the day that Evvy was turned over to the Foster Mother on June 14, 2006 (8 days old).






8/4/06 Lots of Teddy Bears (she looks a little scared :)

8/3/06 Asleep on the boppy pillow under her "gym" Playing is such hard work.

8/15/06 Evvy & Julieta (foster mom) in outfit that mommy sent down in care package.

8/25/06 Evvy in her bouncy seat.

Hola desde Guatemala (email from foster family)

This past week was a little trying. I knew that the director of the agency was in Guatemala so I was checking my email all week looking for pictures. Work was crazy and I put in horrible hours (left 8:30, 9:00 and 10:00 Wed-Fri). So Thursday night at work I was waiting for something to update on the computer and flipped over to my personal email. Again there was nothing in my inbox so I was flipping to clean out my junk mail folder and saw a subject line "hola desde Guatemala (Evelin last name)." My first thought was how did someone get ahold of my personal information? Those darn spammers have hacked into my computer. Then I opened the email and received the best gift I could have imagined.

I had sent a package down with the agency director with a card that had my email address in it. I didn't know if they had email or not but one can always hope. Well apparently they do have access and sent me a nice little note and attached 6 beautiful pictures of Miss Evelyn. There were pictures from July, August and September. It is amazing how much she has changed. The email said that Evvy is doing well and went to the doctor this past week. She weighs 14 1/2 pounds! She said that she eats as a 6 month old should be eating (she is only 3 1/2 months). That's my girl. Loves her bottle. She also says that she loves to be talked to.

I can't believe that 3 weeks from yesterday I will be meeting my daughter for the first time. The crib is getting full of things to take down with me (bottles, binkys, clothes, burp clothes, blankets).

Peggy and I went and bought some gifts to take to the foster family. We went to a store that sells Kansas City stuff. We got a box of Andres chocolates which are some of the best; apple butter from a local cidar mill; jelly; gates bbq sauce and peggy insisted on getting a deck of playing cards that has pictures of Kansas City on them.

Last night when I came home I checked my email and was happily surprised to receive another email from the foster family with yet some more pictures. These pictures show how well she is being cared for. They have one of those little play gyms that you lay the baby under and she is propped on a boppy pillow. I have heard so many stories of some children just laying in their crib all day and not getting enough stimulation. I have no worries about the care that Evvy is receiving. I feel so blessed to have her in such a great foster home with people that are caring for her because of the love that they have in their hearts. I sent an email again offering my thanks for the care and love they are giving my daughter and the response back was that I didn't need to thank them, they are doing it because of the love they have for the children.

In the second email I found out that they live in zone 18 of Guatemala City which is where I lived for 5 months during my mission. It really helps me to know the part of the city where she is living and that I lived there too. We both lived in the same part of the city. That is just an odd coincidence.

Well, without further ado, here are many pictures of my sweet Evvy.


Evvy just shy of 1 month old. "If I don't sleep, nobody sleeps" onsey. What a long skinny body.













August 17, 2006 What a sweet close-up shot of those chubby little cheeks. And look grandma, her eyes are open!





8/22/06 OK so she is sleeping yet again :) Look at that new hair coming in. Does it look red to anyone else?



8/25/06 Bathtime!

8/25/06 I am all clean now!

Sept 14, 2006 Pretty in pink! This is one of my favorites.

Well, I can't get the other pictures to upload wo maybe I will try again later or tomorrow. I should get more new pictures from the agency this week if she gets around to sending them.

3 more weeks til I see the real thing!

Susan