We´re Here and the Lord´s Given us an Angel!

Hello everyone!

I´ve had trouble posting to my blog. The keyboard is all different with lots of accent marks and punctuation for Spanish that are in all the wrong places.... But, finally, here I am...

Things started out VERY rough. Our flight was delayed in Houston and we were over 2 hours later arriving yesterday than we´d anticipated. I was very concerned that we would get to the hotel to find that they had been and left with the baby after waiting for us for so long. When we arrived, I was watching the lobby frantically looking for our little one, but hoping she wasn´t here yet so that we would have time to put away our luggage and prepare for her arrival.

Around five oclock, the phone rang, and we prepared ourselves for the trip to the Lobby. On the other end of the line was Jose´, who would be taking us to the embassy today. He was scheduled to meet with us lastnight to complete our final documents and make sure that we had everything in order.

We went to the lobby to meet with him and told him that the baby had not yet arrived. After making a phone call for us to the director of the orphanage, he learned that there had been a miscommunication¨and the baby would not be coming tonight¨. WHAT!!!???!!!! I was devestated. You´ve got to be kidding me. We are scheduled to be at the US Embassy in the morning (today) at 7:15 a.m. The orphanage is a good 3 hours away. When, how, will they get her here on time?? I was just about to have a complete melt down.

I had played over and over in my mind what our first meeting would be like, Nana was going to video tape our first meeting, I was sure I would ball my eyes out, etc... etc... etc... And now, I have no idea what this is going to look like. I am reassured that things will work out fine, but I´m thinking, ¨Things don´t seem to be working out too fine if you ask me!¨ Another couple, who checked in at the same time we did had their little one waiting here with it´s foster family in the lobby when they arrived. Overwhelming for them, and for me. Where´s my little one?

Fast forward to this morning......
Our meeting came just outside a photo shop beside the US Embassy where we were to take her to have 2 photos made for her passport. Here we stand on the side of an alley type street in Guatemala City when a large van pulls up. I see her, in the arms of the nanny (known as the ¨mommas¨) who has cared for her all these days. She works to make her laugh and smile for us. She is beautiful, amazing, indescribable. I would never have dreamed this type of meeting up ever, but it was beautiful, awkward, surreal. The ¨Momma¨tells her bye, asks us to send pictures back to them at EN often, lets us know how much she´s loved her and caring for her. They have lovingly packed a bag for clothing, food, diapers, wipes, toys, things to make her feel safe.

Immediately, she took to me, she has loved on me, and laughed for me, giggled and stopped crying immediately when she is my arms. She watches Todd cautiously, gives him an occasional smile, but does NOT want him holding her PERIOD! She laughs at Anna, who is in HEAVEN, entertaining this wee one. She finally has someone to watch all of her crazy antics and who thinks they are hysterical, when the rest of us think she´s being ridiculous.

Ah, I know it isn´t theologically sound, but Guatemala sure feels an awful lot like heaven right now!

Our embassy appointment went off without a hitch. Everything went very smoothly, took several hours and is all over. We will have her Visa tomorrow. Jose´will be taking us on a tour of Antigua tomorrow and we are thrilled about this. He is an absolute life saver! Can´t say enough about how great his help has been.

Currently, she is sleeping, in the room with her Daddy and Nana. Anna and I slipped off to the Executive Lounge where we have free internet access to email you all and let you know how things are going. She had her bottle, and lunch, and went to sleep in her stroller before we got back to our room after lunch. I even woke her a little to give her some tylenol because she felt a little warm (She has a horrible cough - I started her on the antibiotic that the pediatrician sent down with us. Please pray that this clears up soon.). She went right back to sleep when I layed her in her bed. She´s been down well over an hour. I´ll be interested to see if she is as pleasant when she wakes back up and realizes she still has us around. :O) I have noticed already that if my mother or Todd has her, she looks for me, that is a great sign. She also spent a lot of time studying my face when she took her bottle which is great for bonding. I am so thankful.

Hope she sleeps well tonight so that we all have a great trip into Antigua tomorrow.

For those of you planning to come to the airport on Saturday, be sure to check on the Continental website to make sure that our flight is on time. Hopefully things are not likely to get delayed on a Saturday. We are taking a smaller ¨lear¨ jet (not sure thats how it´s spelled) back from Houston to Birmingham, so I doubt it will have any sort of delays. Again, we are scheduled to arrive at 3:09 p.m. Hope to see some of you there.


God bless, keep praying! Gotta go check on Sleeping Beauty!
Lori