good to be home

"Inherent in the concept of home is the concept of wandering." - Martin Heidegger

isn't it funny that someone can be such a homebody and such a traveler at the same time? i thought there was something weird about me until i read that quote at the bottom of an email from a friend once. i love, love, love to see the world and i also find immense joy in returning home and discovering the little comforts i'd forgotten. i wish baby n could be here with us, but i'm praying that our case will speed up. please pray for her and for us and especially for the employees of our embassy in guatemala and in the homeland security department. pray for them to put in a few extra hours to get these cases moving. pray for them to stop treating infant adoptees as potential terrorists. oh! and pray for little a's nose to heal. the stitches were taken out today and we just have to beg him not to pull off the steri-strips again. a huge thanks to our friend here who saw him on a sunday afternoon.

i think that closes this blog. thanks for reading and thanks for all your kind words. i have the best friends in the world!

love, k and the boys

ps-three years ago today we arrived home with d!

you asked for it

pepperoni, corn dogs and machine guns

even though i'm finally home and tucked into my very own bed, i need to post what i would have posted last night had i had the chance. i got sidetracked with packing and never managed to upload pictures or describe our evening.

after surrendering baby girl to the guatemalan mama, we wanted to venture outside the marriott. we hadn't been anywhere since sunday (unless you count c and a's adventure to the hospital). c asked the concierge about nearby shopping. i guess i should have been more clear about what kind of shopping i wanted. we followed her directions and ended up at a mall. i really wasn't looking to shop at the gap in guatemala city. the upside was that there was a pollo campero and we'd been told we had to try it. think of a really greasy bojangle's and you've got a good picture of pollo campero. well, until you factor in that the chicken tasted like pepperoni, the nuggets tasted like corn dogs and there was a guy with a large gun of some sort posted at the door. it seemed to make all the other patrons feel safe. not us. each time a let out one of his signature screams, we shrunk down in our chairs a little more. there's just no way for us to be inconspicuous in guatemala city though. we all became quite jealous of a's blend-almost-anywhere-look. people just assumed he was guatemalan and were stunned by his perfect english.

"does he still speak spanish" was a frequent question. especially at the end of the week when a had begun answering questions in spanish. c said thanks to him yesterday and a said, "de nada." pretty quick, that kid.

okay, i'm going to sort some pictures now and try to post before i pass out.

kidnappers

i feel like my baby has been kidnapped. it's just so miserable. please pray for our case to progress quickly. i can't wait very long before i'll have to execute the mexican kidnapping scheme. i'm thinking rental car, mexico, smuggle into texas... do you really need a social security number?

i just can't believe how much you can love someone in just a week.

there are three things that make this a tiny bit easier. one is d, one is a, and the last is the foster mom. she is fabulous. she is a great mom and i know that n will be happy with her. the foster mom, the dad and the big sister are all very sweet. n is their fifth foster baby so they are pretty good at this.

i took the foster mom out to show her the pool and around the hotel a little while we waited for the attorney's daughter. could not believe it when paramedics ran past me to get another little boy at the pool. will have to head downstairs now to get the scoop from the hotel gossips.

promise to post pictures late tonight so check in the morning.

good night

we are definitely growing on baby n. she can´t stop smiling at laughing at me now. such a doll baby! she was sweet from the start, but smiles and laughs and babbles more everyday. just when she´s getting used to us, we have to go. it´s better this way so we don´t confuse her too terribly. we´re just like grandparents this week. we get to have her for a few days, spoil her and give her back.

all of my babies are asleep in my room now. i can´t wait to get back up there! just wanted to read your comments. i love them!

¡hasta mañana!

shameless begging

as long as i have your attention this week, i'm going to use it to ask for something. please, please consider coming to the gala fundraiser for our agency on may 5. if you click the link to carolina adoption at the bottom of this page, you can find out more about it.

this organization does very, very good work all over the world. the difference they've made in our lives speaks for itself so that's all i'll say.

2 seconds ago

so many pictures!

hope you like them...

a kissed n earlier and told her that he missed her yesterday.

la niña dulce

i promise to come post tons of pictures later today. in the meantime, just wanted to write a quick note to tell you that a is doing really well. he acts like nothing happened. he ripped his steri-strips off when he woke up this morning so i had a moment of panic, but c taped him back up. we´re just trying to keep him calm this morning. d was pretty shaken by it, but is doing ok today. n is having so much fun with her big, crazy brothers. they love pushing her stroller around and showing her to everyone in the hotel.

the whole hotel was abuzz about a yesterday. there must be fifty adoptive families here and everyone had met the monkeys, of course.

so, we are back to enjoying la niña dulce esta mañana. tomorrow is going to be really hard. i think we will be back to visit her again soon. we´ve had such a great time excepting this tiny little incident of a nearly broken nose. just part of the deal with little boys really. might as well get used to it. the really, really sad thing was that he was being really good when it happened. wasn´t running! was just walking along carrying towels with c and didn´t see the step.

pobrecito

i'm sitting here typing and looking at this gorgeous girl who has slept most of the day away. we really wore her out this morning and before i tell you how, take a deep breath. i'm talking to you, nana. deep breath. we were at the pool this morning and a fell and nearly broke his nose. he just came out of surgery and he's fine. has thirteen stitches, but is watching tv and asking for pizza. we had just ordered a pizza when he got hurt.

i think n slept the rest of the day after all the excitement. running with mom and d to the room for c's wallet, passports and such. talking to the paramedics. pacing with mom. it just took it out of her.

i have to say that the marriott staff did a perfect job. they had a first aid kit out there almost immediately. the paramedics couldn't have been more than ten minutes. and they sent someone with c and a to the hospital. it's one of those days when i thank God for c's medical training. he's so calm under pressure. he knows that panic doesn't stop bleeding. he went into surgery with a and said that the pediatric surgeon and anesthesiologist were great. it's also probably the one time that i'm going to be thankful that it is a's third surgery. c knew to expect that a would try to yank out the IV.

well, n is fully awake now and is sitting here "talking" to me. trying to get my attention. i have a little while to lavish some love on her before she's back to sleep and i can give a some super-huge hugs and kisses and anything else the poor little guy wants. don't worry too much about him. we'll take great care of him and if his past surgeries are any indication, he'll be better very quickly.

(did i mention that this adorable little one is sitting here smiling and chatting with me?)

ps - the camera is in c's backpack which went to the hospital so no pictures for you today.

proud big brother

i don't want to call it too soon, but i think we've got another sleeper!!! she went from 8:20 straight through til 6. i'm thinking that is one great foster mom, right? she seems to like the crib, too. can't really ask for more. d was down there with her and he was the sweetest thing. so good and quiet while she slept. (i should explain that our suite is two levels with a sitting room down and bedroom up.) d really likes the pull-out sofa downstairs.

d is across from me right now on some power ranger website. c and baby n are reading over my shoulder. we should probably head out now to get some pool time before the middle of the day. the sun is something else here!

(did i mention that d loves to entertain her, feed her, dress her and hold her? he's soooo sweet.)

so sweet

they were right on time. the five of us were walking into the lobby when the four of them were walking in. that adorably chubby face was looking at us like "who the heck are these jokers and where on earth are they taking me?" we all went up to our suite so we could help her adjust to her surroundings. from left to right: you ought to know the first five, then there's the foster family (daughter and mother) and our attorney's daughter. thanks to e for being the photographer.

i will try to get better pictures of her tomorrow. didn't want to burn her retinas today!

she is sleeping sweetly now. d helped me give her a bottle and then we put her in the crib. she fidgeted for a few minutes and then conked out. i'm sure it won't be a great night of sleep though so i'm off to bed in a minute. knew i better post pics though or face the wrath...

not long now

jb - yes, antigua is so beautiful! the volcano was covered by clouds most of the time, but it finally opened up and we could see most of it. amazing! went a little nuts and bought a gorgeous oil painting at the gallery next to the jade store. couldn't really get into the jade though.

just killing time now in the exec lounge. should probably head back out to the pool. c and e and the monkeys were about to order pizza. i just can't stay in one place right now though. butterflies are gone and now i just want to get my hands on that baby. may the pacing begin!

there are sooo many babies in the hotel. lots of families visiting because of spring break. lots of big brothers and sisters visiting which is nice for the boys.

probably won't post til tomorrow so don't hold your breath, nana!

ps - d is 4.5 today! we celebrated his third gotcha day on friday!!! can you believe it??

okay, okay, here are some pictures

are you happy now?

just kidding. we´re still having a great time. the last picture is from the zoo yesterday morning. not much to say about it. a zoo is a zoo, but the boys had a blast. the other pictures are from antigua on saturday. (jb - no, it was just jose. no saskia and family.)

the hotel is pretty great, by the way. tons of kids and such a nice pool. breakfast is on a pretty terrace and the boys have probably eaten five watermelons in the last three days.

we have about four hours til we meet baby girl. i woke up with some pretty serious butterflies and it´s only getting worse. just so excited and nervous and a little scared that she´ll be ticked off about being left with the crazy americans for a few days.

we`re off to the pool now. the boys really do make the waiting easier.

don't know where to begin

we had a completely uneventful trip down to guatemala yesterday. hooray!

we are having a great time so far. a huge thanks to jb for hooking us up with jose! we had a fabulous trip to antigua today. zero traffic due to the holiday. just sailed right over early this morning and back late this afternoon. gorgeous weather, too. then, got some swimming time in and had pizza by the pool. just lots of fun. i actually keep forgetting that we aren't on vacation. that never happened in russia.

saw lots of chicken buses today and need to answer danny's question. it's chicken bus diaries mainly because i think that chicken buses are hilarious. do you know how many people fit on a chicken bus? always one more! it's really true!!

we are patiently waiting for baby girl's arrival on monday. it's so much easier when we have the boys to distract us. they are having a great time with e and i think she's having fun, too. it cracks me up to look at her face when we see something crazy like policia with machine guns or twenty people in the back of a truck. loco!

oh, and i have to say that those seven years of spanish really paid off. it all came flooding back to me yesterday and i've been chatting everyone up in spanish. the boys are upstairs watching spongebob in spanish so maybe they'll pick some up!

adios for today and happy easter tomorrow,
k

a bale of turtles

as long as i can remember, every family trip began with my father saying, "and we're off...like a flock of turtles." as we pulled out of the driveway after countless trips back into the house for one last thing, he would sarcastically utter that line. what began as sarcasm has become superstition. c and i have to say those words as we leave the driveway or we feel like the trip is cursed from the start.

i googled the saying just now to find out if it was something that other people said. what did i find? well, i found that other people say it, but that they say herd of turtles. i dug a little deeper and found that herd is not the correct term either though. it's a bale of turtles. odd, but still doesn't compare to a gaggle of geese or a pride of lions, right?

so, here's hoping that we won't forget anything mission-critical and that we won't repeat the sippy cup incident of july 2005. yes, that's right. d left a sippy cup of milk out when we were leaving for three weeks in russia. there's nothing quite like coming home to that smell!

land of eternal spring

i just checked the weather report for guatemala, the land of eternal spring. it's going to be hot with daily thunderstorms. oh boy. sounds more like the land of eternal august to me. kind of like my worst nightmare. at least on this trip we get to stay at the hotel with a/c. on the pick-up trip, our attorney requires us to stay at a certain hotel near the embassy. i checked their website and there is no a/c!!! i can do a fair amount of roughing it. i know, you're laughing now because you've never known me to rough it. a holiday inn is as close as i ever want to be to camping. but, really, the one non-negotiable for me is temperature. i had no problem with siberia in january because russians are not shy about using the heat, but central america in the summer with no a/c is quite frightening to me.

on another topic, want to see some of the stuff i've packed? can you believe how cute these little mary jane socks are??

time is flying!!!

you know how time sort of drags along when you are waiting for something BIG? and then, all of a sudden, time accelerates to warp speed and you have no idea how you'll accomplish everything and start kicking yourself for not preparing sooner. no? it's just me? well, i was just pondering the fact that in 48 hours i need to have the whole family packed and ready to go. i think i can manage that. then, however, i remember that we are not going on a normal vacation. we are going to take care of our sweet baby girl for a week. how can i possibly prepare for that when i don't know nothin' 'bout babies??? we are in such big trouble.

it's almost like we've planned a dive trip without going to scuba class. or a ski trip without a ski lesson. what if i've forgotten to pack something as essential as oxygen or skis? and what good will the proper equipment even be when i've no clue what to do with it?

deep breath. i'm sure it will be fine. she's just a baby. our baby, after all.