What's Happening....

We arrived here in Guatemala on Friday evening after a 45 minute delay in our flight. We were met with folks wearing masks and asking us to fill out swine flu sheets. Our driver met us and got us to LaCasa Grande where we got an early to bed time of 9:30 pm.

Saturday we were awoken by the phone. It was our facilitator calling to tell us that our I-72 was never re-entered into the embassy. Thursday, the embassy would not take the file from our attorney because her name was not on the original file(remember we switched attorneys last summer). The next day, the legal aid who has always worked the case tried to submit the file and they would not take it from her either. These are new conditions they decided to implement. So it was up to us on Monday to get the file re-entered.

Saturday, we took a tour of Antigua with a guide from Victor's tour offices named Luis. He was wonderful. We toured a coffe plantation, a jade factory where I purchased an adoption ring, Santa Domingo, a refurbished convent that was destroyed in a horrible earthquake and now was made into a lovely hotel and museum. We also visited the market for goodies.

We got the girls on Sunday, but because it was Mother's Day here as well, the foster mother's did not want to bring the girls until later. It ended up being 7 pm before we got both girls and it was a very emotional thing as both fosters were crying and not wanting to leave. Once they finally left around 8 pm, we ate dinner with the girls and they ate everything in sight. We met briefly with our coordinator for the next day's plan of action.

The girls slept between us in a King size bed, but Rod and I got little sleep. The girls slept great but are active sleepers. Monday we got happy campers for them to sleep in. They are very busy little 2 year olds and are kind to one another.

Monday we went to the embassy to turn in the I-72. We were #1 on the list. While we waited to see Angela, the top dog, we walked down the block to get the girl's visa pictures made. That was the easiest thing we did all day. We then waited for our meeting. We also spoke with the consular section to let them know we were there and wanted a quick appt. They were very understanding but said they couldn't do anything about speeding up the dhs portion of the embassy. We had our meeting with Angela requesting a quick resolution and she was not moved. Just said she would do no special favors and things would proceed an usual and she could promise nothing. We did get a pink slip for McKelle for Tuesday morning. At least one of them is coming home with us.

Monday evening we had dinner with missionary friends. McCaule threw up in there car on the way over (I got car sick as well but no mess on my part :) We had a wonderful time and the girls were entertained by the Conners children. We got them to bed early for we had to be at the embassy at 7:15.

The appt went well and we are to get our final secret packet tomorrow at 3:30. We are still hoping to get an appt. for McCaule tomorrow morning . That would push our home coming forward a day, but if it works, that would be the best result in our opinion.

The girls are doing quite well and we all seem to be adjusting to one another. Some bowel issues with McKelle, but that has always been the case when we visited. I believe she may be lactose intolerant, but they've never had that documented. It's somewhat easier to deal with since she's older and we can feed her alternate foods.

More later...