We received new pictures from Guatemala today! Isn't our Foster Mother great! It's so nice that she is able to send pictures to us on a regular basis. We made plans to travel to Guatemala over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we have less than 30 days until we are able to see Flora again!!
Daddy and Maria raked some leaves after work today and Daddy decided to take a few pictures of Maria in the leaf pile. When she was finished playing, he had to rake again...but oh well....That's what Daddy's are For!! He also did her hair, by the way!!
After they raked leaves, they decided to go for a walk downtown. Maria decided she wanted to push the buggy instead of ride in it. The video below is of her working very hard to push a very big buggy up a hill.
The Cincinnati Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption (FTGA) group is participating in National Make A Difference Day for the fourth year in a row. The last 3 years we have done work projects that have either benefited the Cincinnati-area Latino population or the people of Guatemala. This year we are asking FTGA members and others touched by Guatemalan adoption to shop at a local Guatemalan business or at an online business that sells Fair Trade Guatemalan items during the week of October 22nd. What a great opportunity to make a difference while shopping! We have compiled a list of businesses from across the U.S. and online to choose from.
To see the list go to http://www.ftga.net and click on "Special Events." You'll see a summary of this year's Make A Difference Day project - in the first paragraph there is orange underlined text that reads "Click here" to see the list of businesses. After you've shopped, we are asking that everyone submit how much they spent - the link to the form is in the second paragraph of the description.
When Love Takes You In
I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream
Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in
And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be
When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever
cause this love to lose its hold
When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in
Kisses in the Wind
I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams,
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.
I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long,
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.
Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.
May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.
Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.
May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.
--Unknown
OK...now for the good stuff...PICTURES It's been such a long time since I have posted that I have lots to share. Here are the pictures of Flora that we received today. Isn't she getting big! I can't wait to get to hold her again!!
I apologize that I haven't updated our blog in awhile...I guess I have been feeling rather uninspired since there hasn't been anything to report. Well today we finally have something to be happy about...actually we have a couple of things, we received some updated pictures from our foster mother and she told us that the social worker interview went well. If you keep up on the facts of our case and are confused because I reported in early September that the social worker interview was complete and now I am stating that it just happened, join the club...so am I. I guess the information I received when I was in Guatemala the last weekend in August was false, the social worker interview was not complete at that time, but it was conducted on Monday, October 15th. That's good news...the bad news is that it usually takes around 4 weeks to get the report from the social worker and then the report along with the rest of our documents can be submitted to PGN..the second to last leg of our adoption journey for Flora. I am hoping to beat the odds and have the report prior to the 4 weeks...I am a gambling woman and I am betting this social worker gal in Guatemala really wants to get this report done and off her desk!! Please God make it happen!! Anyway, just because I am a freak for the number of days that it has taken for any part of this process to happen I have started a ticker to clock our days from social worker interview to PGN...let's hope we don't hit 30!!
We Received PA Today!!
We received our Pre-Approval from the US Embassy in Guatemala today. We waited 54 days for them to issue our Pre-Approval. Getting Pre-Approval basically means that barring any unforseen circumstances the US Embassy plans to issue an immigrant visa to our baby once the Guatemalan governement releases our case.
Where are we now??
Well we are still waiting for word that Family Court has been completed. Family Court is similar to the completion of the homestudy process in the US. A social worker interviews the birth mother, the foster mother, meets the child and writes a report either recommending that the case proceed or God forbid, stating that she does not think the case should proceed. I know that the social worker has conducted the interviews but I have not been told that the report has been completed and that the judge has signed off on it. That will be the next thing we should hear about. Keep your fingers crossed that we hear soon, so we can continue on to the next phase.
Here's our Pre-Approval letter from the US Embassy
Name of child / Nombre del menor: XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
A pre-approval was issued for the above-listed adoption case. You may pick up this pre-approval at Window #10 at your earliest convenience. You must bring a copy of this notification.
Reminder: Adopting parents should not travel to Guatemala prior to issuance of the pink slip by the Consular Section, in order to avoid unnecessary expenses. Travel before pink slip issuance will not be considered an emergency and final documents will be processed as usual.
This office will not be giving priority to other cases over those who have complied with this requirement.
The Consular Section has implemented an Appointment System for the Immigrant Visa.
Please do not travel until you have received your appointment date and time.
La pre-aprobación correspondiente al caso de adopción que esta mencionado arriba
fue emitida. Puede recoger esta pre-aprobación en la Ventanilla #10. Deberá presentar una copia de esta notificación.
Recordatorio: Los Padres Adoptivos no deberán viajar a Guatemala antes de que la Sección
Consular expida la hoja rosada, para evitar gastos innecesarios. El hecho de viajar antes de que se haya expedido la hoja rosada no se considerará una emergencia y los documentos finales se tramitarán de manera regular.
Esta oficina no le dará prioridad a otros casos sobre los que sí hayan cumplido con este requisito.
La Sección Consular ha implementado un Sistema de Citas para la Visa de Inmigrante. Por favor, no viaje hasta que haya recibido la fecha y hora de su cita.
Sincerely, / Atentamente,
Adoptions Unit
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
American Embassy - Guatemala
Welcome To The World Kolte!
Kolte Patrick was born to my sister Amber and her husband Pat and to big sister Taryn on Saturday, September 15th. He weighed a little over 6 pounds and was 19 inches long. Both Mommy, Daddy, Sister and Baby are all doing well...except a little sleep deprived!!
Isn't he just a miracle!!
Praying for PA!!
If you look at our ticker on the right we still have quite a few days to go before we officially get to the day that the US Embassy says to expect to receive Pre-Approval from their office.
The thing is that more than several people on the online forums that I participate in have received their Pre-Approvals within the last couple of weeks at exactly the timeframe we are at right now. I so so so hope that we are able to follow their trend and receive Pre-Approval from the US Embassy within the next week. That would be awesome.
By the way, Pre-Approval means that the US Embassy (the ones that ultimately decide whether your child will be allowed to become a US citizen) has looked over your paperwork and unless something really unforseen comes to light they intend to rule favorably for your child to become a US citizen after the Guatemalan government has OK'd the adoption.
Happy Birthday Ethan!!
We went to Chuck E Cheese last night to celebrate Ethan's birthday! We had pizza and cupcakes and Ethan got lots of great presents. Can you believe that even Gabe the dog got Ethan a gift?? He's an awfully thoughtful dog!!
Chuck E Cheese, Ethan and Maria
Maria and Grandma
Maria riding the carousel
Lidia from Guatemala sent us some pictures today. The first two were taken when we dropped Flora off on Friday night, before we had to leave on Saturday. The last two were taken after we left Lidia's house. She is so sweet to think of us and send us these pictures. 
All of us at Lidia's home
Maria and Miyea (Lidia's Granddaughter)
Lidia and Flora
Flora in her crib
We're Home!!
We arrived home last night, Saturday, around midnight. Considering we got up at 4:30 am in Guatemala City and were at the airport at 5:30am Maria Rene did exceptionally well. There was only one flight (out of the four), that I am glad I will never see the other people on that plane ever again!! The last half hour of that particular flight was a rough one, but all said and done, she did great. She was tired all day today and we didn't get much accomplished, but the laundry from the trip. In my opinion, that was more than enough!! Here are some more pictures and video's from our trip. Thanks for following our journey!!
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Not Quite Sure What She's Doing In This Photo...Blowing Us A Kiss Maybe?? 
