And...we're off!!

I can't believe we get to meet our son in 10 days! I'm starting to de-stress a bit now that one suitcase is fully packed.....that and my darling husband figured out our new video camera! (Details further down).

Speaking of my sweet husband, did I mention that he sent me flowers last week? :) Aren't they gorgeous? 2 dozen roses and they still smell sweet.

In other news, Mike's thesis is going well, but we've decided to plan for a December graduation. He is making great progress on his thesis, but due to the time it will take for committee members to review it and then scheduling the defense around summer vacations, we decided to be safe and just plan for Mike to "walk" in December. The info for his graduation is:

December 14, 2007
7:00 PM
Alexander Coliseum, Georgia Tech

Let me know if you want recommendations for hotels or best areas to stay.

Okay so back to the video camera...I was starting to stress because it appeared that when you record something, then do a second recording, the first recording is overwritten. I spent an hour going through the 2 inch thick manual. Then I got my dear father to spend another 30 minutes reviewing the manual to try to figure it out. But, alas, it only took my engineer husband 10 minutes of "playing with buttons" to see that nothing had been erased!

Without further ado, my first video clip is below. The video is dark, hard to hear, gets blury and a little bumpy at times but I thought it was quite amusing. Oh, and I also recorded this as "wide screen" so it looks a bit squished. Other than that it's great footage! :-D Hopefully you won't have to take dramamine to watch it. :) (I think this video proves the validity of the commandment "Thou shalt honor thy father and mother". If you listen closely you can hear me rag on my dad right before whacking my shin on the sharp corner of our coffee table. :) )

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Please pray for a safe journey...and that Mike and I remember to feed the baby, to not put his diapers on inside out and that we can't leave him in the room and go out for a while like we do with Fezzi. :-) I am going to try to post some pictures and videos while we're in Guatemala, but I can't make any promises!

Last but not least, pray we get into PGN soon!! That's our last huge hurdle!

Leavin' on a jet plane...don't know when we'll be back again...

So it's really happening, we're really going down to Guatemala to meet our son. We're excited but it also seems a bit surreal. He doesn't even know what's going to hit him! :) If you wanted to know where Guatemala is or where Guatemala City is, I posted a map for your viewing pleasure.

We are flying down May 6th and will meet our son for the first time on May 7th. Kaden's room - formerly-known-as-the-guest/storage-room is full of stuff to take down. Now if I just had a maid or butler to show up and get everything organized and packed!!

We are hoping to do a bit of sightseeing at the end of the week but we will remain in the hotel while Kaden is with us. (It's best not to go out much since he isn't "officially" ours yet). We would appreciate your prayers for safe travel and a great visit--obviously. :) The first day we will get to meet his Foster Mom and ask questions about his care, health, personality, etc... I have a list of things to ask but I'm sure I will be overwhelmed with emotion and excitement. (This may even be more exciting than when I bought my first car! ;-) )

In other news, we had to keep this on the "down low" last week, but we surprised Mike's Mom for her 39th...uh, yea that's it, birthday this past weekend! We had a great weekend with McKinleys out in Spokane. It was also very fun to call Mom on the phone to wish her happy birthday, then see her be-grudgingly head towards the door (she didn't understand why Blake/Dad couldn't just answer the door since she was on the phone!) and see us.

Our sister in law Dana made a wonderful breakfast for us that morning and then we ate at Mom's favorite seafood restaurant downtown for dinner.

Why do I always return from Spokane feeling like I need to lose weight???

If you can't decipher the button Mom is wearing, it says "70 and Smashing", but I promised I wouldn't reveal how old she is so please don't ask. :)

Back to adoption news, the last we heard, we are in Family Court(FC). We should hear that we are out of FC and that we have Pre-approval (PA) some time in the next month or so. Then its off to PGN for an unknown number of days or months.

Oh and if anyone would like to take care of an adorably fluffy, licky, sweetest doggie for a week in May, let us know!

Last but not least, we got a second video of Kaden! Its from a little over a month ago but he held his head up and looked around a bunch. :) Now Mike and I need to get back to studying our Spanish. Asta Luego!

99.99% !!!

You will often see this heading "99.99% !!!" on international adoption forums. It means that the DNA test has been done and the results were positive! Woohoo!! This is a requirement by the U.S. to cut down on human trafficking, i.e. make sure the birth mom really is the birth mom.

I was stressing about these results last week...wondering what if they were negative? What would I do ? Its hard not to second guess stuff, going through this long, tedious process. We are so very thankful for the results, though....now it's time to worry about the next steps! (lol). I'm not sure it has quite hit me yet though....maybe it will once we hear from our agency that our dates of travel are approved.

Travel, you say? Yes! We are planning to go for our first visit in early May. We will get to keep Kaden with us in the hotel for 4 nights. I've got a few "baby" lists of what to pack but I need to get going on actually acquiring all that stuff!

And speaking of the cutest baby ever, they sent us new pics over the weekend too!

I call this his "I love doing push ups!" pose.


And how about his "I look like a balding old man, mommy. Why did they part my hair on the side?" pose.

And last but not least, the smiliest, happiest little boy you've ever seen!

We wish all of you a blessed week and a wonderful Easter. Thanks again for your prayers and support. I don't know how we would get through all of this without all of you.

And for those who really want to know, our next steps are:
1. As far as we know, we are currently still in Family Court. The social worker interview was about 10 days ago. Once the SW writes up his/her report and submits it, we can leave Family Court.
2. Next we get submitted to PGN (their Attorney General). This is the last big, potentially long step. I have seen people get in and out in a month but most people are in for 2 - 6 months.
3. We actually need whats known as "Pre approval" before entering PGN, but some attorneys submit everything to PGN before Pre approval ---aka PA. The reason is that pretty much ALL cases get kicked out of PGN mulitple times, due to errors. If they submit before PA, they know we'll get kicked out, but it's likely that PGN will note other errors....save us from an additional kick out later. Yea, I know....kinda cooky.