Mmmm...

Believe it or not, this is Estuardo's first ice cream cone!...

As he would say..."NUM!!!"

No laptop :o(

My laptop has caught some bugs and is in the shop for a tune-up, so that's where I've been the past couple of weeks... Hopefully it will be home soon and I will be able to post some new pics.
We have been receiving glowing reports from Kory and Marisol's teachers. They have acclimated well to being in school and are doing great. After only 2 months, Marisol is already typing out second grade level spelling words on her braille typewriter! Jesse is also enjoying being in high school.
Estuardo and Onnolee are best buddies. He just adores her and they wake up in the morning with big smiles for each other. That is so neat to see!
We have begun redecorating/remodeling the house, which is our project for this year. Stew has built bunkbeds for the older boys and a toddler bed for Estuardo (not that he sleeps in it yet). He is planning to build a bed for Marisol next. Then I will begin decorating and fixing up their rooms finally.
I finished up 10 grueling weeks of College Algebra at University of Phoenix online, and I am back in regular nursing classes. I hope to finish my Bachelor's Degree this year and depending on how burned out I am, start working on my Master's Degree.
So that's our update!
Congratulations to all of my online friends who have brought their babies home this past 2 months, that is so awesome to see! And prayers to those who are still waiting, for a speedy process and that your babies will be home soon too!

Cloth and wool...

We visited our friends at the local diaper shop on Thursday and both Estuardo and Onnolee got new "woolies", wool diaper covers. It hasn't been much harder cloth diapering two as opposed to one, we run a load of diapers about every 2 days now instead of every 3. We used disposable diapers while we were in Guatemala and I just couldn't hardly wait to get home to our cloth and wool. The disposables just seem so...paper...

And the mystery guest is...
Estuardo in his new Lana night soaker!
Onnolee in her "rainbow short" prefold diaper from Green Mountain Diaper Company.
And her new Aristocrat wooly!

Babywatching

My husband laughs at me because I am so enthralled watching the babies grow and learn to do things. Estuardo got a bunch of Fisher Price Little People toys for Christmas and it just amazes me how he automatically knows how to drive his cars in the garage and put the horses in the barn...he's only 21 months old! I am so happy that he is enjoying his toys!

Okay, Mama, go away!!
And then of course there's little Miss Smiley!!!
CHEESE!!!

Settling in

Well, after 2 weeks of no sleep for Mom or Dad, Onnolee is finally starting to -mostly- sleep through the night instead of crying every half hour. She only wakes up twice or so to suck bottle and goes right back to sleep. She is finally starting to drink 4 or 5 ounces out of her bottle all at once, instead of 1/2 ounce spurts here and there. After 2 weeks of refusing to eat anything except torn up pieces of bread, she ate chicken, carrots, cereal and a whole container of mango dessert tonight along with her bread and cereal puffs.
After 2 nights of fairly decent sleep, I almost feel normal...

Feeling a little better!!!

Oops, where's Estuardo?

Ahh, there he is! Having a little snack...
Momentarily getting along fine!
Awww~~~little princess!

"ROCK" a BYE baby!!!

Ha, should I give it a name?? 6 days of hard labor...whew!!

FINALLY SOME PICS!!!

What next?

We've been facing one disaster after another for the past 2 weeks. We missed our connecting flight in Houston after arriving 45 minutes late and then taking over an hour to get through customs. There were no flights until the next morning so they set up a "discount" room for us. The shuttle that was supposed to take us there left us standing at the curb and drove off without us, leaving us to wait over an hour for the next shuttle. Our flight the next day was uneventful but Houston decided to keep one of our suitcases, the one with the babies' coats in it. The temperature in Salt Lake was 0 degrees. We had set aside one day to visit with our family in Salt Lake but instead spent it in Houston, so we barely had time to have dinner with our relatives so they could meet Onnolee. No major events on the drive home, thank goodness, but the two babies ended up with bad respiratory infections, and Estuardo had to go to the ER with his high fever and ended up with a major ear infection on top of the respiratory infection---he was very sick! And we no sooner got home than my body decided it was time for another kidney stone. Which decided it was going to stay stuck since Thursday and it still hasn't passed. So here I am trying to be happy and enjoy these two babies...on Percocet. All 3 of us are feeling a little better today finally. I took a few pics, hopefully will post them shortly.

OH MY HECK...

Wow, what a disaster it almost was...
We made it to our appointment at the Embassy on Friday and we thought we were all prepared...First disaster was that I had accidentally left my PIN number at home so I had no access to cash through the ATM. We knew we were okay because the Embassy takes visa...well, of course their credit card machine was not working. Cash only. First panic of the morning. Our facilitator reassured us that we could pay on Monday as long as it was at least an hour before visa pick-up. I thankfully remembered that my PIN number was on the dashboard of my van which was parked at my daughter's house, so I was able to get that later in the day. So after about 2 hours of LOOONNNNG waiting time in a crowded room with two babes, we finally got called. We presented all our paperwork--- our 3 years taxes and my most recent pay stub. "Where is your W-2?" (oops) No W-2, no visa. Yikes. Okay so again, we needed to get it by Monday. So as soon as we got back I started communicating with my employer trying to get them to fax me a copy. No way, they say. It's confidential, they are not allowed. I started emailing my boss. The best option we were able to get them to agree to at first was to snail-mail me a copy...to GUATEMALA!!!!! It would have taken WEEKS!!! There I was, sitting in the Baby Lounge at the Marriot, crying my eyes out, wondering what the heck I was going to do. Finally, after 2 hours (literally) of emails, my boss convinced the super-high-ups to email me a copy. Tears of relief!!!
And just as a little icing on the cake...later that day when Stew and I were sitting in the Baby Lounge reflecting on the state of affairs, all of a sudden the whole room SHOOK!!!!! Down here they refer to it as "the shakes"...just a little 5.6 Richter EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heck...what a day...
Sorry no pics...we both forgot our lappies and this computer does not take sd cards, so pics when we get home.
Oh, yesterday we took a tour of Antigua with Highland Tours, Juan Carlos. It was awesome and highly recommended!
Onnolee has the throw-up-icky-diaper crud. Once we get rid of that, everything should be great. She is just beautiful, and wants to be held all the time right now.

We are here!

Onnolee is just gorgeous! We had a tearful goodbye meeting with her fostermom last night, as well as our attorney and our facilitator. Our embassy appointment this morning was unfortunately not problem free, and we have a few hoops to jump by Monday so we are a little stressed and a lot tired. No pics to post yet. Hopefully in the next day or two when things settle down a little. Estuardo is handling things well although he has been very clingy. More later...

Nesting and packing...

"Gook! Gook! (Look! Look!)"




I am officially off from work. Unfortunately, the only reason I am not working tonight is because I have a nasty sinus infection and hoping to beat it by this weekend. The kids had a really nice Christmas, and in retrospect I am kind of glad our trip to Guatemala isn't happening for another few days. I think it would have been too much at once after all. Tomorrow starts the great "clean-up"- nesting and babyproofing! I have four days, hopefully with everyone helping, to get the place in tiptop shape, plus do laundry and finish packing. We will be heading up to Salt Lake on Sunday or Monday depending on the weather reports, and then down to Guatemala on Thursday at dark thirty. Our flight is around five in the morning so we have to be at the airport at 2 or 3. This may be my final blog until then as I won't have internet access in Salt Lake. But I will be back online, hopefully, once we get to Guatemala!

Just plain excited!!!

Between the Christmas holidays and our upcoming pick-up trip, and even the thought of having 5 weeks off from work, I am just plain excited!!!!! I spent my days off this week working on finishing up my Christmas shopping, and I got to work on sewing a new supply of cloth diapers for Estuardo, as he has outgrown his last batch. This coming week I want to get Christmas presents wrapped and ready, sew up some diapers for my granddaughter, mail off long-distance Christmas packages. Next week, once Christmas excitement starts to calm down, it will be time to PACK!!!
I got Onnolee's DNA results the other day and they came with a beautiful color Polaroid photo. She is just getting so pretty!! I can't wait to see her again, and this time we won't have to give her back.

The rest of the dates in our adoption timeline are...

Onnolee with her fostermom last April 2007, 1 month old

January 3rd, 2008- in our arms forever
January 4th, 2008- Embassy appointment
January 8th, 2008- HOME FOREVER
WE ARE OFFICIALLY "PINK"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Countdown to pink...

I hope we hear something tomorrow!

Dec 12, 2007
3:34 PM
Delivered
GUATEMALA CITY GT

2:50 PM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
GUATEMALA CITY GT

2:33 PM
At local FedEx facility
GUATEMALA CITY GT

7:55 AM
In transit
MIAMI, FL

7:55 AM
At dest sort facility
MIAMI, FL

1:19 AM
Departed FedEx location
MEMPHIS, TN

Dec 11, 2007
11:15 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
MEMPHIS, TN

8:48 PM
Left origin
GREENSBORO, NC

7:18 PM
Picked up
GREENSBORO, NC

9:32 AM
Package data transmitted to FedEx

Fedex...

...should be delivering our DNA results to the Embassy TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!! Then we officially begin to watch our email for our e-PINK slip!!! We may just get to Guatemala before Christmas after all!!! :oD

Tomorrow...

...we may have some good news...

Maybe...

Labcorp says to keep our fingers crossed.

Okay...

DNA has reached Labcorp. The only bad thing is that they tell me it will take 7-10 days to complete. So we may not get to Guatemala before Christmas. BUT, thank goodness it's moving, it's there and we are countdown to PINK.

Will this be the week??

Okay, I admit it, I am getting IMPATIENT!!! I hope that the DNA test has been done and is on it's way to Labcorp.