forecast

the good news: very nice temps!

the bad news: probably the kind of humidity that will make my hair ENORMOUS. you won't be seeing any of those mother-daughter photos from this trip.

FriAug 3
Isolated T-Storms
76°/62°

SatAug 4
Partly Cloudy
75°/64°

SunAug 5
Scattered T-Storms
76°/62°

MonAug 6
Scattered T-Storms
76°/62°

four days

it's hard to believe after a year of endless paperwork and waiting that we only have four days left to prepare! we leave early thursday morning and we'll have our sweet girl that afternoon. then, we'll go to the embassy for an 8 am appointment on friday. if our interview goes well, her visa will be ready to pick up on monday at 3:30. we'll fly home on tuesday, august 7!

we're spending this weekend packing and nesting and even unpacking the last few boxes from our move. it would be nice to be really moved in before we bring another kid home! oh, and i'm also spending some time in bed letting my back heal from a recent injury related to the three year old. we're hopeful that i'll be better in time for the trip. pray for my stupid bulging disc!!!

WE'VE GOT PINK!!!!

isn't it just typical that the day i was whining about the embassy they were busy issuing our pink slip? at long last i can annouce to you that we are leaving next thursday to bring home baby sister!!!

i got an email with the pink slip tonight and started booking things right away. i can't believe the appointment is so much earlier than i had expected! i don't know what to do first!

your tax dollars at work

we still don't have a travel date. not that we were expecting one yet - i'm just letting you know that we don't know. it's part of a sinister plot by our dept of homeland security. you see, if they prolong the agony and torture long enough, then you'll be so glad when you're finally in guatemala with your child that you won't pitch a fit over the long wait on your embassy day followed by another long wait once you are in your port of entry. you'll just suck it up and be glad to have your child.

it's a lot like the day we were fingerprinted (for the third time). the boys were being wild in the immigration office because it was three hours after our appointment time and we were still waiting to be printed. one of the workers came out and told us and another family to keep our kids under control or they would shut the whole office down. instead of yelling back at this insensitive woman who had clearly never spent three hours in a line with her 2 and 3 year old sons, we just had to nod and keep quiet. in fact, c and i said nothing at all in reply because we couldn't find anything to say that wouldn't have gotten us kicked out of there!

so, until baby girl's visa is issued and we land in the states making her a citizen, i'll just have to keep my big mouth shut and hand over as many notarized, certified and apostilled copies of my most personal and private documents as they request. you want my tax returns? sure. my birth certificate? no problem. the deed to my house? here it is. now you need my bank numbers, social security and college transcripts? i can have them tomorrow...in triplicate. you want the hundred dollar bills to be crisp and unmarked? you got it! (have i mentioned that our bank hates to see me coming?)

just waiting for pink

"we've got pink!" is an exclamation that you often see on the guatemalan adoption message boards. once the adoption is finalized in guatemala (also called "getting out of pgn"), the case is submitted to the US Embassy for a visa appointment. that appointment is called a pink slip and it is usually just a few days in the future. so...don't be surprised when we suddenly skip town because WE ARE OUT OF PGN AND ARE WAITING FOR PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in other words, that precious baby girl is legally OURS and we're just getting a little more paperwork done to be able to bring her to the states. because we visited her, she'll be an american citizen when we land in this country.

post your questions - i know you'll have plenty!