Pool and Pineapple

Two firsts for Samuel yesterday... our first trip to the Hotel Antigua pool and his first taste of pineapple. Hotel Antigua is gorgeous. They allow you to pay and come to use the pool. It has a great baby pool which Samuel enjoyed for a bit and then took a nap in the shade of his stroller. I was careful to keep him out of too much sun, but not so wise for myself- I've got a red back today!

The other mommies have been giving their kiddos a piece of pineapple core to chew on so Samuel tried it last night and loved it. He was so proud of himself for being able to hold it and get it in his mouth...a couple of times went in his eye or nose first, but he didn't mind. Mom- don't worry- I watched him closely so he didn't choke!

When people ask me what I do all day it is hard to give a good answer. So far just figuring out his schedule, taking care of him and exploring Antigua a bit have kept me busy. I brought several books and the first four seasons of Friends to watch, but so far I have not read or watched much. I started to watch a movie with the girls last night, but was tired and went to bed at nine! Samuel is asleep on me now which probably won't last long, so we'll say hasta luego!

Happy Wednesday!

Today was a fun and full day! We spent most of the morning/early afternoon with the Embrey family. The newest additions to their family, Caterin and Cindy, are full of energy. There is picture of them playing at a fountain with their oldest brother, Coleman. It is obvious that their family is close and has a lot of fun together- I enjoyed seeing them interact and bond with the girls despite the language barriers.

In the afternoon, we had celebrated Maria's birthday. Maria comes to the house four days a week and cares for the kids so the moms can work or run errands. She kept Samuel for me for an hour today- all of the kids love her! There is a picture of her and Samuel. I am amazed by how the women here carry babies in those blankets. Pretty impressive!

This evening we found out that our DNA results have arrived at the embassy in Guatemala- yea! Now we start the waiting process for pre-approval from the embassy.

One of our housemates, Heather, just went to the embassy today for her final DNA test. They do a second DNA test on the child to confirm that there is a match with the first test... so there is no "child switching" taking place. She is one step closer to being done!

Samuel got a new toy today- the activity center. Jimmy bought it for us and the Embrey's graciously hauled it down here. I put it together last night and Samuel tried it out today. He was pretty excited until he realized it was all a ploy to keep him busy so I could do other things.

Una fiesta

Today our KC friends, the Embrey's, arrived to Antigua. The Embrey's are friends of my parent's friends and they are the ones who originally told us about our adoption agency, The Open Way Adoptions. They are adopting two precious Guatemalan girls, Caterin and Cindy and are staying in a house just across the street from us for the week to visit their girls. The Embrey's are one of five families (including us) in the Blue Springs/Lee's Summit area that are all adopting from our agency from Guatemala. Today is Caterin's 8th birthday and we were so excited to get to celebrate with her and the rest of the family! The Embrey's have a neat blog- their link is on the side of our page.

To help get ready for the party, Lee Anne and I went to the Holandesa bakery to pick up a birthday cake for Caterin. We also bought a cake for Maria, the nanny, as her birthday is tomorrow. You would think this was no big deal! It took some planning to get two cakes home in one piece. We also bought ice cream which was shoved under Lee Anne's stroller. On top, she balanced one cake and I carried the other with Samuel in his carrier. I'm sure the Guatemalans all thought we were crazy Americans- two cakes and two big tubs of ice cream. Oh well- the cake was definitely worth the trip!

The pictures are of the party. Note the first picture of Caterin's birthday presents. Erick was just as excited about the pink stroller and baby doll as Caterin. We think he needs a pink baby doll :). The girls love babies and it was nice to have some help holding and entertaining Samuel!

The last picture is us hanging out on the patio waiting for the Embrey's this morning. We were discussing the adoption timeline. We found out last night that our DNA results have been shipped from the lab in the USA to the Guatemalan embassy - yea! They will arrive at the embassy soon and then the embassy reviews some stuff and issues the "pre-approval". This can take up to 60 days. We are praying that ours goes through sooner than that! We were supposed to have our social worker interview this week, but the couple who work for our lawyer to coordinate these things had a death in the family. While my heart goes out to them, selfishly I'm hoping that we can still get the interview done early next week.

One of our house mates, Heather, has her final DNA test tomorrow. She will be headed home within the next month or so. We are so excited for her! She has been here since October!

That's all from here!