Home - Day 3

Lili is now on day 3 at home and still doing well. Last night was a bit rough, but she naps well and as long as I make a point of napping as well, I think we'll survive night time sleep deprivation until she's feeling more comfortable. I did manage to get all our luggage unpacked, most everything put away as well as most of the laundry done. Now my challenge is to get Dave's shirts ironed for work this week. The original plan was for him to take his 4 weeks of infant care leave, but one of his co-workers and his wife just had a baby so he is taking infant care leave right now. Plus, 2 new employees just joined the team at work, so he agreed to wait until the end of June to begin his leave. We hope to do a little traveling during his leave. Of course this depends on how well Lili has adjusted to the car seat. The car seat ride to the pediatricians office on Friday was a bit traumatic for her. I'm sure she'll be fine after a few trips to the mall, Baby Depot and grocery shopping.

Lili is now up from her nap so I'll post some pictures and try to post more tomorrow.

Lili at the airport in Guatemala City airport. Yeah! I'm going home.

We landed in Dallas! Here is Lili as a U.S. citizen. She's pretty happy about it.

Lili waiting for her first meal in the U.S.

We're Home

Sorry I didn't post earlier, but our flight from Dallas was delayed and by the time we arrived home it was after 1:00 a.m. Friday morning. We had been up since 3:30 a.m. Thursday, so yesterday I was running on empty. Also, Dave and I came home sick with a stomach bug, so that added to our exhaustion yesterday. I'm back now and feeling better so hopefully I'll be able to finish this post before Lili wakes up from her nap.

Things are going better than we anticipated. Lili loves her big brothers and her dogs. She is definitely a mommy's girl right now and doesn't want me out of her sight, but I'm sure that will get better over time. She is eating well, actually better than she was in Guatemala, but night time sleep is a problem. This is something that we anticipated could happen and seems to be her way of adjusting to the changes. So, all-in-all, things are good in the Weeks' household.

Now for some pictures that many have been asking for.

Embassy Day - March 25, 2008

Last Post Before Going Home

Or at least I hope we're going home tomorrow. We are booked on American and just heard this morning that they cancelled about 200 flights yesterday due to problems with some of the planes. Therefore, we are planning a trip out to the airport to make sure we will be traveling tomorrow and to purchase Lili's lap ticket.

This afternoon Dave will pick up Lili's visa and packet that we will have to present to the officials in Dallas. Tonight we've been invited to have dinner with Lili's foster family at their home. It is going to be a very special and a very tearful evening I'm sure.

I was so excited about the opportunity to meet Lili's birthmom, but unfortunately she is sick and was not able to make it. I hope we are able to meet her on a future visit.

Lili just woke up from her nap and was delivered to me by daddy. Apparently she was upset that mommy was not in the room. Since one handed typing is a bit challenging, I'm going to close. I'll post more detail about our trip once we get home.

Embassy Day

We are almost done now!!!!!! At 8:00 a.m. this morning we entered the U. S Embassy in Guatemala to await our turn to meet with the man behind the door at window #10. For those who have been through the process, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those who have not, let me explain. As each group of families come into the Embassy they sit in a room that has the capacity for about 45 people, although there were more than 45 there today. If a seat is available, you sit and wait for your name to be called and make your way up front to wait in line to see a man who is sitting behind a window in a "little" room (and when I say little I do mean little). You enter the room and the door is closed behind you. The man checked our passports to see if this was our first trip to Guatemala since receiving Lili's referral or if we had been to visit previously. He then verified some other information and paperwork and sent us on our way to wait again. This process takes about 5 minutes.

During our meeting with the man behind window #10, Lili begins chattering away and sometimes when Lili begins her chatter, it sounds somewhat bossy. For those of you who know Dave and I, you'll soon make the connection that she is sounding a bit like her mommy. LOL So, Dave makes the comment to the man that Lili is bossy. The man starts to make a comment and quickly decides that he shouldn't say anything, to which I reply "I know what you were going to say because I see the ring on your finger." This got quite the laugh and you just don't hear much laughter coming out of that little room. Not that it's a bad or scary meeting with the man behind window #10, but because it's "get down to business" and move everyone along.

After our meeting at window #10, we go back to find a seat and wait for our names to be called again. Unfortunately, we were #32 out of 36 families today, so we had a bit of a wait. During this time, Lili entertains all the woman sitting in the seats behind us, has a couple mini temper tantrums because mommy wouldn't let her go take the toy truck from the little boy, plays the game of back and forth between mommy and daddy and throw the toys on the floor so daddy can pick them up game. Not so bad, except for the fact that we arrived at 8:00 a.m. and now it's approaching 11:30 a.m. A long time for a baby girl to wait, so all in all she hasn't done too bad.

Finally they call our name and we approach window #8. The woman behind the window has us raise our right hands and swear that we are going to answer all her questions honestly to the best of our ability. She asks us when we first met Lili and we tell her in October. She checks our passports to see that we did in fact visit in October and she tells us that Lili will comes home on an IR3 visa, which means she is a U.S. citizen once her little feet hit U.S. soil. She looks at Lili and looks at her photo in their file to see that it's the same baby. At this point Lili begins her bossy chatter again. The woman smiles and acknowledges that Lili has been waiting quite awhile has me sign a couple of documents and then tells Lili that she is approving her visa and we can come back tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. to pick it up. After that point, we are free to travel home. YEAH!!!!!!!

One of our attorney's daughters was at the Embassy waiting for us when we arrived. She gave us all of Lili's paperwork which included her new birth certificate. This was the first time we had seen the birth certificate and it was an awesome feeling to see Weeks listed as her last name. The folder of information also included our PGN approval, along with the final adoption decree and some other documents. After going through all these months of processing, I'm anxious to find time to sit down and go through all the paperwork. Of course finding time to do much of anything will be limited now.

Sorry that there aren't any pictures posted yet, but we neglected to bring the chord necessary to upload the photos, so I won't be able to post pictures until we get home. So, please be patient a little while longer and I'll get them posted by Friday night.

Hola From Guatemala

I know that many have been watching my blog for updates and I do apologize that I haven't updated until now, but unfortunately, Lili has been sick. Nothing bad, but enough of something that the pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic. She is feeling much better now.

Since she and daddy are napping at the moment, I thought I should get something posted since I've gotten a couple emails wanting to know what's going on and where the pictures are.

First of all, there won't be any pictures posted today. Since Lili was sick, we didn't get a lot of pictures taken. We'll get more this week and I hope to post a few as the week goes on. I will say that she has gotten more beautiful since January and boy does she have personality plus. I can't wait for all our family and friends to meet her.

We did get to do some traveling around Guatemala over the weekend with Lili's foster family. We visited C hichicastenago, Lake Atitlan, and Retalileu. What an awesome country!!!!! For anyone who has never visited Guatemala, I highly recommend you find the time to do so. We've only see a small portion of the country, but will definitely return for visits as Lili grows up. Not only do we want to provide her with an opportunity to get to know her birth country, but there is so much more that we want to see ourselves.

Spending time with Lili's foster family over the weekend was awesome as well. Not only did Lili hit the jackpot with this family, but we did as well. We have not only adopted Lili, but we have adopted her foster family as well and look forward to staying in contact with them and seeing them on future visits to Guatemala.

Today we're just spending the day relaxing from our weekend trip. Tomorrow morning is our Embassy appointment, Wednesday we pick up Lili's visa and Thursday morning we leave for home. In between all of this we will be spending more time with the foster family and shopping at the market in Guatemala City. Another highlight of our trip is that Lili's birth mother has agreed to meet us. She lives not too far outside Guatemala City and will be coming into the city tomorrow afternoon. I have a list of questions for her and plan on video taping the meeting, with her permission of course. Having this information and video for Lili will be priceless so I hope everything works out.

I know this barely skims the surface of our trip so far, but I wanted to at least touch base with everyone and will post more as I find time during the week.

2 More Days to Take-Off, 3 Days to Lili

Yes, just 2 more days and we'll be on our way to Guatemala. Even more exciting is that in 3 days we'll have Lili in our arms forever. For the last several months I've read posts on forums and blogs from families who were getting ready to leave on their pick up trips and now it's my turn. To think that 16 months ago we made the decision to adopt and now we're preparing to pick up our precious baby girl is beyond exciting!!!!!

Unless something exciting happens between today and tomorrow, this will probably be my last post for a few days. I will try my best to post from time to time during our trip, but can't make any promises right now. However, be assured that if I don't post while we're gone, I'll have plenty to post about (along with pictures) when we get back.

Fav Photo Friday

Okay, so I know I posted pictures yesterday, but it is Friday so I thought I should get more posted.

Our little girl likes to eat. She should fit in to the family nicely!!!!

This ice cream is really fun!!!!

Back away from my ice cream or else!!!!

Also, a quick update on our travel plans.

As I stated in my post yesterday, we want to take a trip to Lake Atitlan this time and thought it would be a nice treat to spend the night there. Well, that's not going to happen. Easter is a very popular holiday in Guatemala and 1000's of people flock there to witness the celebration, especially in Antigua. Hotels in Antigua are impossible to get now and they are apparently impossible to get around Lake Atitlan as well. Therefore, our overnight trip has now become a day trip. At this point I feel lucky to know we have hotel accommodations in Guatemala City :-) Still, I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time seeing the sights in Guatemala while enjoying the newest addition to the Weeks' Family!!!!

Getting Ready

The airline and hotel reservations are made, boarding is set up for Jada and Lexie, Lili's appointment with the pediatrician has been made, and the packing has begun. Now, for those who know me, I just can't seem to pack light :-) and I am trying. Since we'll have a 10 month old on our trip back, I just wanted to deal with fewer bags this trip, but I think one of the airport luggage carts will become our friend. Granted, we probably have the equivalent of one bag that will be staying in Guatemala, but since a trip to the market is high on the list of things I want to do while in Guatemala, I'm sure I'll find lots of goodies to bring back with us which will refill that bag.

We also have plans of seeing Lake Atitlan on this trip, so today my goal is to find a nice hotel in the area and make reservations. Since Easter is a "big" holiday in Guatemala, I hope I'm successful in my goal.

Now I'll leave you with some pictures of our papaya loving girl.

Let's Cheer

Give me a P

P

Give me an I

I

Give me an N

N

Give me a K

K

What's that spell Pink

Louder Pink

Can't hear you Pink

YEAH PINK!!!!!

That's right, we have "PINK." Lili is coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Embassy appointment is March 25th at 8:00 a.m. and visa pick up is March 26th. So we can spend some time in Guatemala on this trip, we will be leaving the 19th and returning home late on March 27th.

Favorite Photo Friday

Yes, this will be 2 weeks in a row folks. Amazing, I know!!!!

My challenge was trying to decide what photo to post. Obviously, since we're still waiting on pink I should probably post a photo of Lili wearing something pink, but I decided instead to give everyone a little information on our oldest son, Ryan, and post one of my favorite pictures of him.

For those who do not already know this, Ryan has autism. He functions lower on the spectrum and also has a seizure disorder, which is not that uncommon in individuals with autism. Our goal for Ryan was to do everything we could that would allow him the opportunity to live a normal life. Part of living a normal life is moving away from home so about 3 years ago Ryan moved about 20 miles from us to a residential facility with 4 room mates. These 5 men have 24 hour staff to assist them with cooking, cleaning, hygiene care, shopping, medications, etc. Ryan has made some new friends and is living his life independently of mom and dad now, so he is living "his" normal life.

Unfortunately, Ryan's seizure disorder does create problems from time to time and this is one of those times. He got the flu and being sick will cause him to have break through seizures. During a seizure he aspirated vomit and was taken to the emergency room yesterday. A chest x-ray and blood work verified this and he was diagnosed with pneumonia in his left lung. After some heavy duty antibiotics were administered, they allowed him to go home for the night. Today he went back to the hospital for more blood work and another chest x-ray and then off to see his doctor for the results. The antibiotics seemed to work!!!!!!!!!! The x-ray showed significant improvement and his blood count was almost totally back to normal. He will stay on antibiotics for a little while, but he should recover nicely.

Since my big guy has had a rough go of it this week, I decided it was his turn to make the blog post.

Ryan chillin on the sofa.

No Pink Yet

I've been watching the forums closely and the Embassy is now issuing Pink for those who had DNA arrive 3/3/08. Since ours arrived 3/5/08, we may have to wait a few more days. In the meantime, keep wearing pink to hopefully speed up this process.

I Love the Fed Ex Guy

Our package has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was delivered and accepted at the Embassy at 3:36 p.m. today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now stay posted for news of ePink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I'm going to wear something pink until ePink arrives. Won't you all join me?

And Continues

At 3:02 p.m. today "the package" arrived at the local Fed Ex facility in Guatemala City.

And the Stalking Continues

As of 6:56 a.m. today, our precious package was in transit from Miami to Guatemala.

Let the Fed Ex Stalking Begin

Yes, we officially have our 2nd DNA results completed and here is part of the email I received from my new best friend at Lab Corp . . . .

GREAT NEWS results are going out to the embassy today!!!!!!!!!

She provided me with the Fed Ex tracking number, so I'll be consistently stalking the Fed Ex guy now.

I'm still predicting our Embassy appointment will be the last week of March.

Update to the Update

The lab doctor did not get all the reports released today and my new lab friend said there is nothing on Lili's report indicating the doctor is requesting further testing. Hopefully she'll have good news for us tomorrow and results will be on their way to the Embassy.

Tune in tomorrow for further updates!!!!!

Didn't Expect an Update So Soon

But, I received the following note from my new friend at Lab Corp:

case has been sent to the doctor for review...if all is good and no further testing is needed...results could possibly be released today...I will keep you posted

When the 1st DNA test was done, the results were completed and back within a week. Therefore, I have no reason to believe the same can't happen this time. It is quite possible that results will be shipped to the Embassy as early as today, which means we will most likely have "pink" (our Embassy appointment scheduled) by the end of the week. While it is possible that we could have an appointment as soon as March 19th (not probable though), I do think our appointment will be sometime during the last week of March with a return home that same week.

Stay posted today as I may have another update later.