One more to get you through the weekend

I had to share one more post...you've gotta see ME with my son! I'm not having a good hair day in this video, but hey, all you care about is seeing the cute baby, right? This was taken our last day with Kaden. He loves doing the "bouncey bouncey" as you'll see here.


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I've been hearing some good news on the Guatemala side this week. Pre-approvals seems to be coming a bit faster, although we're still waiting for ours. I have dreamt twice this week that we got ours. Would you pray that we will get "PA" this weekend or early next week? It sure would be great to know we're finally headed towards our last big step to bring this little one home.

And finally, about the charcoal...we took some Acidophilus pills with us to Guatemala. We were told to take some with every meal to fight off any food illnesses. They have the "good" bacteria...that sounds funny, anyway, the "good" bacteria that you need to fight off any "bad" bacteria you may be eating. However, once we returned home we found out that charcoal also does a good job of neutralizing any "bad" bacteria. So, since I was not doing well the first part of this week, Mike went to GNC to buy more acidophilus pills but came home with charcoal pills as well! I've been taking them this week and I must say...they're strange. It's a weird experience to swallow solid black pills and people give you strange looks as well. I have found, however, that this natural remedy is not unfamiliar to some other people. A Russian friend at work said that charcoal is what they all use for any stomach troubles. "What Pepto Bismal is to you in the U.S., charcoal is to us in Russia." Go figure!! Well, I'm not sure if it helped me or not but I'm definitely feeling better. If anyone needs some charcoal let us know, I think we have extra left over!

Pray for PA and Pray our boy home!

--Susan

Mike made me eat charcoal!

Yep folks, you read it right...my husband made me eat charcoal! But more on that later. :) First lets take a look at the sweetest, happiest, cutest little Guatemalan you've ever seen! The light is a bit dim here, its first thing in the morning and our little one is doing his morning coos and goos.

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We had a fantastic week in Guatemala City. Kaden is a sweet, wonderful baby and it was great to finally meet his foster family. I chuckle every time I look at this picture of us and Kaden's foster mom.

The Marriott we stayed at was very nice but a bit pricey for our taste (I think we're used to Motel 6 or something!). We stayed healthy for the most part except for one day when Mike started turning a greenish-yellow color. It didn't take me long to decide that it would be worthwhile to have an english speaking doctor pay him a visit! He got some medicine and was fine the next day.

But back to Kaden....he kept us up a good bit the first night, but he's just a darling little boy. He was a bit whiny...probably due to anxiety, but he wasn't a big cryer. He has a wonderful smile that lights up his whole face and is quite the cuddler.

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We spent most of our time in our room or in the baby lounge. This Marriott has a very nice baby lounge on the 3rd floor stocked with toys, a changing table, comfy furniture and a PC that anyone can use to download pictures and connect to the internet. It was nice to meet other folks like us while down there. We got to meet a very nice couple from Boston and another one that flew in from Ireland. We also got to meet up with a couple from Atlanta that is adopting through our same agency.

I'm not sure what else to say unless you want to hear about the poopy diapers or me kissing his feet or Mike reading his deep theological books to Kaden. It was just a wonderful, amazing week. We are so thankful for this little one and can't wait to make the trip back to bring him home! Speaking of which, we still don't really know when we'll be able to bring him home, but we're hoping to hear good news in the next few months. So, please keep praying our boy home! And thanks so much for everyone's continued prayers and support. This has been an awfully long journey, but oh, what a precious little boy he is. We can't wait to introduce him to you all!

This picture was taken on our last day together. Mike wasn't feeling well so he was lying down and rubbing Kaden's tummy. I got him to smile at me while I held the camera at an indirect angle.
I'll post more details and video in my next few blogs. :) Oh and I guess I'm outta room so you'll have to wait until my next blog to hear about the charcoal!

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. :) )

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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!