She's HOME !!!!!

Well folks...after a year & five months, our newest birdie finally joined our nest!! Warning: my "highlights" are never concise, so grab a snack, a drink & get comfy to read my NOVEL!!!...

First of all, I PROMISED myself I would not stay up past midnight packing the night before we left. Since I was turning off the lights at 11:58pm, I guess I fulfilled that promise...Dad had arrived a couple hours earlier & I got a little distracted...

We flew out on Sunday April 13th in case we ran into bad weather &/or cancelled flights. We were blessed with no problems on any of the legs & got into Guatemala City around 8pm—staying at the Westin Camino Real. We were all pretty pooped so unpacked & turned in early because we had a big day tomorrow!!

Monday morning Abel picked us up & took us to Hannah's Hope. It was fun vaguely recognizing the route to HH, but once we got there I started getting REALLY excited!! As we walked to the house where Emily was, I started to tear up with relief that our time had finally come!! Walking down the stairs, the first kid I see is our little Em looking at us from her crib. She was standing looking through the slats wondering what all the commotion was. I remember gasping & saying "There she is...I see Emily!!!

The next 10-15 minutes were a bit of a blur. I grabbed her out of her crib, hugged her & started laughing/crying. Poor Em didn’t know WHAT to think. Almost immediately Jack said “Can I hold her, can I hold her?” I’m not sure if Craig got a chance to hold her for a while--I think he & my Dad were busy taking pictures & video. After a few minutes I decided I’d better share. Then I realized that our "almost daughter", Emily's buddy Anaya was in the crib right next to Emily’s. I picked her up & started excitedly blathering about how her Mommy & Daddy would be coming for her very soon!!! I had a big “wish” necklace that a bunch of friends created & Anaya LOVED it—she wanted to chew on it & did NOT want to let go. At one point I had both girls in my arms & Craig got some video & took some pictures.

After the initial excitement wore off, Jack & another boy that was there visiting went off to find the playground and to play with all the older children staying at HH. We spent the next 2 1/2 hours just hanging out in the family visiting room or watching all the kids play on the playground. We thought we'd only be staying a short time since that's the experience previous families had had. I remembered thinking "Well, if we're gonna be here for a while, maybe I should video the whole compound, get pictures/video of Amy's son & find all the Special Moms that took care of Emily." I wanted to take pictures for everyone back home & for a special scapbook for Emily. But just as the thought occured to me, Abel found us & said he was ready to take us to a store to get supplies & then take us back to our hotel. After getting 4 cans of forumula, several jars of baby food & a big container of purified water we were almost ready to check out. THEN I discovered a purple teething ring (Go Wildcats!!) & decided it might give my wish necklace a much needed break from Em's newly emerging teeth.

By the time we got back to our room it was early afternoon and everyone was tired & hungry. Poor Em was in shock & a bit terrified. She didn’t move or interact with us very much but clung to me. She fell asleep in my arms while the “boys” went to the pool. Every time I shifted positions, she’d wake up with a start, see me & start sobbing in panic. I’d soothe her & she’d fall asleep only to be jerked awake & start the process over. We tried feeding her some rice cereal & some of the jarred food, but the only thing she wanted was a bottle. We got Em down for the night around 9pm by letting her go to sleep with a full bottle. She was a PRO at holding her bottle from the bottom & it was DEFINITELY a security blanket for her. After about 20 minutes I thought she was asleep so tried to take the bottle out of her mouth & that ‘bout caused a meltdown…I worried I’d be rotting all 2 of her teeth & the 2 “fangs” coming in for her front top teeth, but decided now was not the time to worry about that—we’d adjust away from that once we got her home.

Now here’s the excitement of our trip. About 30 minutes after we got Emily down for the night, my Dad was snoring away on the other bed, Jack was watching a movie on the floor and we were laying on our bed relaxing when it began to sway. At first we thought it was Jack kicking/pushing our bed then Craig suddenly said “It’s an EARTHQUAKE!!!” I thought he was making a very bad joke then realized he was serious. We ran to the window & could see a glass domed solarium below us (we were on the 6th floor) with a reception going on. No one at the reception seemed phased by it & after a few more seconds, the feeling of the whole room swaying went away. I joke now that I didn’t know what terrified me more: the thought of experiencing an earthquake for the 1st time & not knowing what to do OR having to wake Emily up to evacuate!!! The thought actually ran through my mind that if we had to evacuate, I’d make Dad & Craig carry her out in the crib in hopes that she wouldn’t wake up!!!

Since we didn't have any appointments on Tuesday, we had considered doing a day trip to Antigua to experience more of Guatemala outside the hotel walls/neighborhood. But I wasn’t sure how Emily would take it & honestly I was too nervous to test it out. After breakfast—all the hotel staff were INCREDIBLY nice, Chef Lobo even taught me how to say ham, cheese & onion in Spanish & would “test” me each morning when I'd ask for my omlette—we decided to go swimming. Emily wasn’t too keen on the water until Jack came up with the idea to use the baby bathtub the hotel provided as a “boat”. She liked that a lot better. We spent the afternoon with lunch poolside & Emily taking a LOOOONG nap on me. That night we ventured to KaKou Restaurant—it’s only a block from the Westin—where they serve authentic Guatemalan food & the environment was awesome!!

Our Embassy appt. was at 7:15 am on Wednesday so Abel & Ashley picked us up a little before 7. We were #13 in the 7:15 group out of 25-30 families & who knows how many 8:00 families there were. Although the Embassy opens at 7 am no one opened their “windows” for processing until closer to 8. Like one family mentioned, it’s like waiting in line at the DMV for a driver’s license, except they actually ask (WITH A STRAIGHT FACE) “Will you take care of this child when you return to the U.S.?” After about 2 ½ hours we were done & Ashley was flagging down Abel to pick us up. We had them stop by the hotel so Dad & Jack could join us at Hannah's Hope.

Once we got to HH Dr. Castro, the on staff pediatrician, talked to us about Emily’s growth etc. & then explained that she has really small ear canals so would be susceptible to ear infections when she gets a cold. That’s when it confirmed to me what the sticky, green mucus coming out of BOTH her ears were about. He checked out her ears & wrote a prescription for some Amoxicillin, some saline solution for her nose & something else. He did a quick pitch about his family’s coffee growing business & how he’s trying to raise $$ for HH with some of the proceeds—Dad bought 3 bags of the "world's 2nd best tasting coffee".

Next thing you know, everyone is ready to head back to the hotel. I panicked & realized I hadn’t had a chance to get the pictures of Amy's son and didn’t video or take pictures of the whole compound like I wanted. So I made the family cool their heels while I rushed to the baby house for a quick picture--of a sleeping Malachi--it was naptime...One thing I've learned (OK...CONTINUE to learn) is that I am not in control. Although I would have LOVED to have gotten video & more pictures of Hannah's Hope, the important thing is that we have Emily home & we have our memories to share with her. The rest of the day was spent with the boys at the pool & us girls relaxing in the room—each day Emily got more comfortable & was starting to smile & interact with us.

On Thursday we spent most of the day hanging out at the pool (can you tell we like the pool?) until it was time for me to pick up Emily's visa from the Embassy. After saying good-bye to Abel, it really hit me that our journey was almost over. I had to take a few minutes in the room to enjoy the feeling, before I joined the gang still at the pool!! We were now cleared to head home.

Bright & early Friday morning we headed to the airport. The only snag in the whole day was our flight from Guatemala City to Dallas was delayed about an hour. Since American only has one flight out each day, I was thankful it was delayed, not cancelled!! Emily was a TROOPER for the whole trip—we had a bottle ready for the take off but I think she was out before they were even done taxying. Thankfully her ear infections didn’t affect the traveling.

Once we arrived in Dallas, the immigration part was a BREEZE!!! We were the only ones needing to go through that part, so it only took us 20 minutes tops. It was such a non event--almost anti-climatic considering it officially made Emily a U.S. citizen...One of our BIGGEST highlights was getting to meet Amy once we got through immigration. Although we had never even spoken on the phone before that, we had made plans to meet when she found out we were connecting through Dallas. It was GREAT meeting her & a hoot to watch her crawl all over the floor to take some sweet pictures of Emily touching her first “American Soil”!!!

When we arrived in Denver, Craig’s folks were waiting at the airport for us. We invited them to meet us & stay the weekend and it turned out GREAT!! I had been telling everyone that we would “cacoon” for a good month or so but then we decided it was worth the risk. All weekend long she was OK with others holding her & would squawk everyone once in a while when she saw me walk by or heard my voice—that’s when she would realize it had been a while since I had held her & she’d let us know!!

Today marks 2 weeks since we picked Emily up. I'm AMAZED at how far she's come in that short amount of time!! She now crawls all over the place--mostly following Mandi, our dog, from room to room, does LOTS of "raspberries" and is putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. She even followed a Jack ritual--chowing down on Mandi's hard dog food--a SURE sign of teething in our limited scientific opinion!! I'm sure it won't be long before she makes an escape through the doggie door...

On another positive note, little Anaya is finally in her Mommy's arms. Today they flew to Guatemala to stay until the process is over. Here's hoping they can come home very soon. In the meantime, they will have a once in a lifetime experience living in their daughter's birth country!!! Talk about making lemonade when receiving lemons!!!

OK...I better quit. Your eyes are probably getting very bleary from reading all of this...More later!!