My Brother Gets Married (and some Christmas)!

This weekend my little brother got married. It was an exciting and full weekend. We are very excited for Billy and Blair. It was such a blessing to be a part of their big day. Samuel was the ring bearer and surprised us all by making it all the way down the big aisle, holding on tightly to the hand of his cousin, Makenzie, the flower girl. The wedding was at Colonial Pres- a beautiful church in Overland Park. The reception was pretty unique- at the Architectual Reformation Foundation (I think I got that right!) in the West Bottoms (which I usually associate with Haunted Houses and Kemper Arena!). It was a very cool location. We had a great weekend!!

Rehearsal Dinner....

Mom, Papa and Aunt Peggy

Jimmy with Samuel and Makenzie

The aisle!!

The bride, Blair!
Toasts...

And a quick pic from Christmas morning- my Papa Jack with all of his grandkids and great grandkids.....

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season!

Merry Christmas!

Hope this finds you having a good week and staying warm! We are looking forward to a week full of Christmas and my brother's wedding events. Samuel and I survived a week long bout with the flu and are finally doing better.

We also applied for Samuel's Social Security card :). I have a whole new appreciation for government offices here. Despite clearly not being used to doing adoption social security card applications, the SS office people were nice and friendly. I brought every official adoption document with me because I am programmed to be prepared for the worst. It paid off because they said we would just need the certificate of citizenship, but they ended up asking for his birth certificate, the translation, my passport, his passport and my driver's license!

Last weekend and this weekend we celebrated Jimmy's 30th birthday. He turned 30 yesterday, but I had a little surprise birthday dinner for him last week. He was very surprised which was fun! It was a great night, but it was definitely a moment of realizing that we're in a new stage of life. Most of the guests left by 9:30 because of kids' bedtimes- there goes the social life!

Jimmy with his ice cream birthday cake :)

Samuel helping Jimmy open presents this weekend

Not much else to report from here.... we have a squirrel living in our attic. Jimmy had to climb up there today and set up a squirrel trap. Not sure if a squirrel is better or worse than the monster sized mouse I was envisioning??

Also- my computer crashed yesterday.... the "blue screen of death", as Jimmy calls it. I'm hoping we have most of it backed up or that Best Buy can salvage something. I think it died from all of the dust and mold in Antigua. I can't get too upset about it- pretty much a miracle it made it home from Antigua. I think three of my Antigua friends all had laptops die during our time in Guatemala.

Oh- one more piece of news! I have a very small part time job for next semester! I interviewed to teach Spanish at Longview community college and haven't heard if they'll need me yet. In the meantime, I got a call from another branch of the community college to teach a night class called Occupational Spanish. I'm really excited about it! It's just one night a week, so it isn't much time (or much $$... guess that's how it works!), but I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! It will be an extra special one for us since it's Samuel's first Christmas at home! Having him around has made me think more about the miracle of Jesus' birth. Just makes me wonder what Jesus' personality was like at 16 months.... wonder if His diapers smelled as bad as Samuel's or if He liked to dance with his pointer fingers in the air? :)

And just for fun.... a picture from Samuel's first Christmas! We had flown down to Guatemala on Christmas day to be with him for a few days....

A Video...

Baby Fight Night (just click- it's on You Tube)

featuring Samuel and Luke

(in matching PJ's courtesy of Luke's Grandma Lisa!)

One Month Home....

...and I feel like I should have my house organized and really clean. It hasn't exactly worked out as planned largely due to a small, adorable Guatemalan! Speaking of which, Samuel is doing well. He got his first shots today and only cried a tiny bit. He used to wail every time we set foot in a doctor's office in Guatemala, so this is progress. He's fascinated by the snow, but not a huge fan of the cold. It feels like we're finally settling in somewhat, although I've been looking for a part time job starting in January which would mean more changes. Just praying that if it is supposed to work out, it will. That's all from here!

Samuel has started this really devious little smile.... not sure if I should laugh or be worried!

Samuel and Erick at the mall playground on the train... not the best pic- they were so distracted by the kids, lights, etc. Definitely overstimulated!

Samuel in his Daddy's "Scottish" hat....

Samuel with his friend Bella...yes, he was eating her socks!

Fotos de la familia

Our good friend, Erin Duggin, took some family pictures for us when we were in St. Louis over the holidays. Thank you, Erin!! She has posted some on her blog if you'd like to take a look! She is one sweet and talented photographer. She runs a business called Just The Thing and offers lots of cool artsy things in addition to her photography. Take a look at her webpage if you're interested! She's the one who did the "name sign" that we have in our basement (Erin- we still get lots of compliments on it :)). Hope you're all having a good day!

Samuel's new friends...

We had a great Thanksgiving in St. Louis where Samuel got to meet lots of new friends and family. He's doing well- just had his first doctor's visit today. We're still having trouble getting him to sleep in his crib, but overall things are great. This month we're looking forward to Christmas, Jimmy's 30th birthday and my brother's wedding.



This week is our fourth week home and it is still surreal sometimes, but we've settled in slowly. I have moments where I pick up a toy or book we had in Guatemala or a piece of clothing that still smells like Antigua and I catch myself missing our time there (especially the warm weather!). I think I'll be ready to visit the next time we have the opportunity, but will really enjoy being able to leave whenever we want! Today we received Samuel's certificate of citizenship from USCIS and a letter from Pres. Bush :). Very exciting!

One of Samuel's first attempts at self-feeding with the spoon....

Play date with an "old" friend, Erick

Samuel and his favorite dance move (pointers!)
We had a quick, but sweet visit with some college friends, the Artz's and Duggin's. Here is Samuel with his lady friends, Sophia, Marlie and Grace.

Samuel and his cousins

Samuel and his cousin, Ian, on an unplanned matching PJ morning

Samuel meets Kate Kerens, daughter of our precious friends, Beth and Scott

Erick's Home!

Friday we headed to the airport to welcome home the Whitworth family! Erick stared at everyone for a moment and then went to playing with Samuel and some of the other kids without skipping a beat! It is so sweet to have them home! Today at church Erick was waving at us across the room. It made my heart melt. Now three of the six children from our little Guate gang are HOME. We are praying for Caterin, Paulo and Otoniel to come home soon!! Here are the three at the airport on Friday (Cindi, Samuel and Erick):

Saturday we went to Fritz's at Crown Center to see the trains. We were celebrating Braden's 2nd birthday! Braden is the son of our good college friends, Tim and Nicole. It was so fun to watch the boys be entertained by the trains!

If you read my previous post- sorry if I was overboard! I promise I was nice in the e-mail I sent to Mr. Riley. He hasn't responded- surprise! I was really hoping he'd come to dinner. Jimmy talked to the editor of the paper who apologized and told us he would be running many of the responses he received to the column. Here are a couple of links to responses if you're interested:

Response 1

Response 2

Today's our anniversary- six years! We went to dinner without Samuel, which was weird, but we thoroughly enjoyed a date night. We're going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with Jimmy's family this week. It will be a special day of thanksgiving for us as we reflect on where the Lord has brought us in the last year! Hope you all have a good week and a happy Thanksgiving!

I can't be quiet about this...

I mentioned we were featured in our local paper last week. I thought it was nice of them to highlight us and the other families- a warm welcome home! Then this week one of their opinion columnists wrote an article that was not as "warm and fuzzy." Here's the link:
http://www.examiner.net/opinions_columnists/x541355836/Bittersweet-emotions-Why-do-so-many-families-adopt-from-overseas

He explains that international adoptions leave him with a "bittersweet" feeling because he doesn't understand why we didn't adopt domestically. Did I say my stomach hurts? I really want to have the guy over for dinner. I drafted a letter to him inviting him, but Jimmy says he has to proof it first :). I want to tell him a few things:

Here are my questions for Mr. Riley
1) Have you been out of the country and seen with your own eyes the plight of orphans abroad? Do you know that when orphans ‘age out’ of the system in many countries, they are put to the street with little to no education, skills or support?

2) Do you know how complicated the adoption process is- both domestically and internationally?
Domestic adoptions are not as simple as showing up at your local adoption office, as you suggested, Mr. Riley.

3) Do you know that because our system favors placing the child with the biological family, many children go back and forth between foster care and biological family for years - facing horrible situations- before they are finally eligible for adoption?

4) Do you know statistics about orphans?
There are 130 million orphans worldwide. There are 500,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, 120,000 who are eligible for adoption. They all need loving families and homes.

5) Why did we adopt internationally, you ask?
Spending time in an orphanage in Peru and living eight months in Guatemala opened my eyes to the overwhelming obstacles these orphans face. In both Peru and Guatemala, orphans have little chance to be in foster care, to go to school and definitely have no access to programs like our country offers such as the A+ program (access to some free college tuition), Welfare, Section 8 housing or Medicaid. I am not saying that being an orphan in our country is easy. I am saying that our country does more than most to help our children and as citizens as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we need to help orphans both domestically and internationally.

By the way, Mr. Riley, did you know that adoption is closed in Guatemala right now? Did you know that if we hadn't signed for Samuel, he would be in an orphanage. If adoptions don't open up again in Guatemala, he would probably age out of that orphanage and be a shoe shine boy. Or maybe one of the car window washers or cell phone card sellers who stands at the polluted intersections in the city. Or maybe a scavenger at the huge dump in Guatemala City. There are 20,000 people who survive off of that dump. Or if he's lucky and somehow got some training, maybe he could be a low-wage construction worker or farmer.

6) Last question for you, Mr. Riley. Did you know that one-third of Americans consider adoption, but only 2% ever do? It isn’t easy and we have found that the process has resulted in greater conviction to help impoverished countries, like Guatemala, but also to look around our community and help those in need. Our experience has led us to continue to discuss and pray about being foster parents or pursuing another adoption - domestic or international.

So what do you say, Mr. Riley? What can YOU (and we) do to help the local and international orphans? I would think that it would be more productive to ponder this question than to criticize those who have gotten involved.

Home for Fall

I love fall. As beautiful as Guatemala is, my last month or so I was anxious to get home and see at least a bit of fall. While in Guatemala, my dad sent me pictures of his yard just so I could get a taste of fall at home. So it was a huge blessing to make it home before all of the leaves had fallen off! I hauled Samuel outside in the cold to snap a couple of pictures of him in the leaves (or eating the leaves!).

We had a good weekend and I'm feeling much more settled in. Saturday was the bridal shower for Blair which was fun. The Open House went well on Sunday- thanks to all who came! Samuel seems much more comfortable in the house and even slept in his crib last night. We still haven't figured out a schedule for him and I still feel a bit lost as to what life is supposed to look like for me at home with Samuel. Jimmy and I still catch ourselves in disbelief that this precious child is ours and that we are all home together!

I want to echo the words of Hannah in I Samuel 1:26-28 when she gives the Lord credit for her boy saying: "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." Hannah's named her son Samuel which means "God has heard". Thank You, Lord Jesus, for hearing our prayers, for holding us through this adoption journey and for bringing Samuel home!

Adjusting

We've been home almost a week. It is great to be here! The transition and adjustment has been a little tougher than I anticipated, but we are just so thankful to be home. For me, it has been weird to be here, but not working. The first couple of days at home felt like snow days or summer. I did unpacking, my mom came over to help and I watched a bit of the TODAY show (which for me is a teacher snow day tradition and treat!). Then my mom went to work and it was just Samuel and I all day- no Lee Anne, Erick, Milo or Angie to play with. Our Antigua schedule doesn't work here, so we've been struggling to get Samuel back on some kind of schedule. He just hasn't wanted to nap at all during the day. Samuel did great meeting people over the weekend, but this week he has been really clingy. I know he is probably lonely for his Casa Bella friends and overwhelmed with so many new faces and places. It just makes it hard for me to do much of anything- like shower or go to the bathroom. He likes to pull up on my knees or reaches for me to hold him while I'm on the toilet. Here's to the end of privacy! All this adds up to a couple of long days this week, but I know it just takes time to settle in.

I've had several moments of culture shock this week. A few things that have caught my attention....

-I have fallen right back into texting, but today I used my debit card for the first time here and got all flustered at the little machine where you scan your card and sign. You don't see many of those in Guatemala.

-I've also found myself being really cautious with my wallet here- even when it probably isn't necessary! I guess that comes from so many of my mom friends in Guatemala getting robbed :).

-I think I'm recovering from the "black lung" acquired in Guatemala. I have a whole new appreciation for our country's emission standards!

-It is so easy to communicate here. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED getting to speak Spanish in Guatemala, but sometimes my head would hurt from the extra mental energy to translate. In the store today, I realized I didn't have to think about whether I should speak Spanish or English! I was in Nature's Pantry and the cashier said "Hi, guapo (good-looking)!" to Samuel and she really caught me off guard!

-I love our roads and sidewalks- they are so smooth and cobblestone free. However, they are not good for lulling Samuel to sleep. In Guatemala, I would stroll Samuel in the stroller and then he'd take naps in his stroller. I gave it a try here one day because he was so fussy, but no luck. I'm pretty sure it didn't work because his stroller wasn't bouncing over cobblestone.

In other adoption news....

Our friends the Embrey's found out that their daughter Caterin is OUT of PGN! The Heinrich's got the same news about their daughter, Auri, as did the Huff's for Otoniel. It's been a week of good news. Still praying for the Harris' son, Paulo, to get OUT of PGN and for them all to have quick RENAP runs!!

Speaking of news, you know that there isn't much going on in town when our adoption story is on the front page of the local Blue Springs Examiner! My *dear* cousin, Jamie, decided to contact the paper and share our story. A writer contacted me and asked some questions and today we were in the paper! He butchered some info (most obviously the spelling of Guatemala :)), but it was a nice article!

Below are a few pictures from this week- including the NKOTB concert! It was a fun show and we had great seats (thanks again, Amie!). I also just have to share this video clip even though Gramma Beyer will kill me. The things grandparents will do to entertain!

Samuel meets Luke

What I found in my bed when I got home from the concert... could Samuel be sleeping any closer to Jimmy!?

NKOTB about how I remembered them from 15 years ago!

More of HOME...

Here are some more pictures from our trip home and the first weekend in KC. Thanks to Aunt Blair for some more airport pics!

Samuel checks out our plane in the Guatemalan airport.

Samuel looks sleepy in Atlanta

In KC- I am so excited to be home!

My parents with Cindi Embrey (who has been home over a month now!) in the airport on Friday

Samuel checks out his new room (complete with the sign made by Daddy)

It was like Christmas- Samuel had lots of new toys waiting for him Saturday morning!

Samuel poses by one of the signs that were waiting in our yard. Thanks to my fam, Renee and the BSHS kids who made them! We felt very welcomed!

Grandma Mary, Samuel and Cousin Ian

Sunday morning brunch with the Armstrong/Nolting fam. Samuel had a lot of fun playing with his cousins!

Yes, I finally made it to Target today! Woohoo! I took my camera like a true dork, but unfortunately Samuel was not as excited as I was for his first Target trip. See the pic below....

Needless to say, he slept in the car with Gramma Beyer and I shopped alone! He'll have to experience Target next time :).

It's been a good and busy first few days at home. We spent time with family this weekend and went to church on Sunday. It was such a blessing to finally see so many people from Gateway who have been praying for us and encouraging us home. Thank you!!

Today my mom took the day off to help me unpack. I had five suitcases full of stuff to organize. I remember reading Katie Mohr's blog about coming home and realizing how much "stuff" she had. It is SO true! I have been a bit embarrassed or disgusted by how much "stuff" we have. After living 8 months with a limited wardrobe and with just one room that was really "mine", to come home to cabinents, drawers, closets FULL of stuff- it is overwhelming. I admit I'm not complaining about seeing more of my wardrobe :), but after living more "simply" and among so many people in poverty, I am very convicted that I need to simplify things here. I mean, really, do I need half of the stuff I have? I cleaned out some bags of winter clothes today to give away, but have a ways to go. Jimmy said he's glad I'm doing it now, because he's afraid if I wait, I'll fall back into being comfortable and forget or become numb to what I've learned and seen in Guatemala. Oh, please Lord, don't let that happen! I want to not forget the faces and people who struggle to just survive in Guatemala. I want their faces to motivate me to help those who are struggling around me in my country!

Tomorrow is another day of cleaning out the house with my mom and we're also going to visit Samuel's great-grandparents! Tomorrow night is the big NKOTB concert/girls night out :). We'll see if I can make it up past 9:30 PM! This Saturday I'm helping throw a bridal shower for Blair, my sister-in-law-to-be. I was starting to worry we wouldn't make it back, so it is a blessing to be home for this celebration. Sunday is Samuel's Open House- feel free to come by from 1-4 PM to visit!

We're home!

We are HOME.

I've sat here for awhile trying to put into words how incredible the past two days have been, but I'm not sure I can express it very well. I still have a lot to process. Our trip home was incredibly smooth. I was still nervous that something would go wrong. When our plane took off from Guatemala, I relaxed a bit. When there were NO lines for immigration or customs in Atlanta, I relaxed even more. The immigration guy who had to process Samuel's paperwork was very kind and worked quickly. We had just under a 2 hour layover in Atlanta and we made it to our gate with almost 45 minutes to kill. When we took off to KC, I could feel tension draining from my shoulders. I think it has been there for 8 months!

We had an amazing welcoming crew at the airport in KC. Thank you so much to all who were there! I was a bit overwhelmed and I think I missed hugging a few people! Samuel responded really well and let others hold him without fussing. Thanks to Mr. Kenny Wilson, we have some airport pictures!

Welcoming crew

Samuel meets his great-grandpa, Papa Jack

Samuel meets Grandma Mary and Aunt Heather

Samuel and Gramma Beyer

Still smiley at 10 PM!

Jimmy's nieces came in from St. Louis to greet us!

Have I said before how thankful we are for the support of Gateway Church? These lovely ladies were a few of the people from our church family who came to the airport. You guys are such a blessing! I have a whole new appreciation for the support of our church!

Our first day was spent at home just hanging out. Samuel is doing well except for the napping part. I have some cute pics of him hanging out with his cousins and family and also his first coat and carseat ride. I'll post more pictures once we're more settled. I have five suitcases of stuff just waiting to be unpacked! I haven't made it to Target yet, but did go to the grocery store. I didn't bump into anyone or anything (unlike in Bodegona!), but it was a little overwhelming!

Thanks again for all of the support! It is sooo good to be home!!