4.28.2007

He's HERE!!!

When i opened the door to see my sweet husband's face this morning, i had to blink twice! i just couldn't stop my tears -- such an overwhelming feeling!!
















It only took the girls a few minutes to warm up to him, but i think the more they saw him and heard his voice, the more some recognition came back. it hurts my heart to think we only get to be with him for 2 weeks.















I am grateful for every second, but it's so hard and confusing to the girls.















Please pray that we will cherish every moment, and that Lord-willing this will be our last "good-bye".. i really just don't know how much more my heart can take, but GOD knows and I am confident that HE will not give me more than I can handle!

4.27.2007

Daddy, toothbrushes and gettin' big!

Oh my, oh my... daddy will be here in less than 10 hrs!! As i put the girls down for "night-night" I told them "when you wake up Dada will be here!" I know they have no clue what I'm talking about, but I am soooo excited!! I cannot believe it's almost been 7 weeks. Can you imagine not kissing your husband for 7 weeks? Can you imagine not having your husband be able to hold his daughters for 7 weeks? WAY too long! I am so grateful he is able to come down!

Oh, and we were listening to Tim McGraw tonight and I had the cd case sitting up on the table. "Smiles" was standing near-by and when she saw the cd case with the Tim picture, she smiled really big at it, like she normally does when she sees Daddy's picture. Daddy looks nothing like Tim, so good thing he's coming to remind her of what he looks like :D

Today we "upgraded" to toddler toothbrushes. The girls have always loved brushing their teeth since we started fostering, but as of recently (the new top tooth not helping) biting seemed to be more fun, than letting Mama brush. So, I pulled out the new toddler toothbrushes (or as Tio says "chew-brushes :) and yay, no more biting Mama's poor finger off!!











































I can't even count weeks anymore, now we're down to days.... 5 more days until my pumpkins' birthdays... i have about a dozen things i want to do to celebrate. GC Zoo, GC Children's Museum, Pinata, cake (going to try and make a butterfly cake myself), swimming at the pool, parties, etc, etc. I mean, really you only turn ONE years old once :)

































4.26.2007

Early B-day Celebration

Ok, the girls turn ONE a week from today. I have some pics for you.. see if you can figure out what we did to begin the Birthday celebrations!!?!!











































The girls were able to get their ears pierced today!!! We've really wanted them to have their ears pierced since they were babies. Here in Guatemala it's a sign of love and affection. We thought it was a great way to honor their culture, plus it looks so sweet on the Guat babies!! Our foster mother told us she had waited due to the girls' pre-mature births. So, I was able to find a nice, clean salon that does piercings all the time for the baby girls here, and we decided that it would be a special thing to do right before their birthday. I'll fully admit I was NOT in the room when they did it, and I was praying the whole time, I was just sooo nervous, but it went well and now my Guat Girls are able to finally wear their bonita earrings!! I love these babies so much, I am so blessed to be here with them!! How special that I was able to be with them for such a memorable event!!

































4.25.2007

They're growing up...

My babies don't even look like babies in these pictures. I cannot believe they will be ONE next week! Unbelievable!





























Countdown continues!!!
















More Days!!!


And I won't even mention the fact that a week from this Thursday our baby girls will be ONE YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!

4.23.2007

Great News!!


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We are back IN the game, baby!! Praise the LORD!! Our case was entered back into PGN today, and tomorrow our facilitator is going to meet our "new" reviewer to talk to him about our case (our previos, etc). We are praying that we might miraculously get OUT in record time. The quickest OUT I've ever seen from submit to OUT was 2 weeks, and I have to assume that there was some hand greasing involved. The avg. time in PGN is still 1.5 mos. Would you please pray that we might get OUT faster than we could imagine? We know GOD is able!

Papa and Nana left this morning, and we had a great time together. We can't wait to be home someday soon, so that we can see them lots!! The countdown 'till daddy arrives is at 4 days!!!!!!!!!! We will have lots of celebrating to do when he gets down here : birthdays, anniversary and being together after 7 weeks apart!!!
























































































4.22.2007

Bad news, good news, bad news...

ok, bad news is Papa and Nana have to leave tomorrow. These past 6 days have flown by and we had so much fun! We went out to "Pops" for ice cream tonight and the chickadees may have had one to many "tastes"... all i can say is HYPER! I have never seen them so wound up, but we had a lot of fun!














Good news is my sweet, darling husband is coming down to Antigua, Guatemala to see his 3 girls in 5 days!
















Bad news is that I still want to go home, but maybe, just maybe we'll get IN to PGN tomorrow.

4.21.2007

firsts, bugs and Jehovah's Witnesses?



Oh my word!!! Such a fun day!! We had so many firsts today. For the first time when I asked "Squeaks" what sound a doggy makes she made the "woof, woof". For the first time when I asked for a kissy for Mama, I got a nice wet one :) For the first time while "Squeaks" was playing with my cell phone, she held it up to her ear and looked waaay too teenager-like for me. For the first time in 45 days I was able to go out alone with just one of my babies... yay for one-on-one time, and tomorrow I'll get to have some one-on-one with my other sweet girl!!





























I woke up this morning to see one of the largest bugs I've seen in a while. It was flipped on it's back and couldn't get back over. Normally, I don't just kill bugs unless they're bothering me but this was one bug I didn't want to give the chance to bother me. Ok, I didn't actually do the killing, my neighbor's father got to for me :)














This afternoon I hear a knock at the door. I open to a lady who is talking in Spanish and after about a minute the only word I am able to make out is "Jehovah's Witnesses". Who would have guessed that even in Guatemala you might get that knock on your door!

4.20.2007

Hot Stuff!
















We love to drink out of our new sippy cups... they have a straw at the top that's lots of fun to chew on too :)

4.19.2007

Cerro de la Cruz















We were able to climb The Hill of the Cross today. It only took about 20 min from bottom to top and when you get to the top, you can see the entire city of Antigua! Very magnificent!





















































































Today was also the first time in 44 days that I've left the girls (even if it was only for 2 hrs) and of course, they were in good hands (Nana's) and napping more than half the time... but WOW, I missed those sweet girls soooo much. We hadn't even been gone for 30 mins, and I was longing to see them and hold them! What an amazing privilege parenting is, huh??
















I was able to speak to our facilitator again today, and unfortunately the one last item that needs to be fixed is taking too long the first way she decided to do it. So, tomorrow she is going try to fix it using option #2, and hopefully if all goes ok, she wanted to try and re-submit our case tomorrow afternoon, or first thing Monday morning. Would you please pray that we can really get back in? I can't wait to get IN, so we can wait and see what amazing things GOD is going to do to get us OUT!!! I want so badly to finally be a family of 4!

4.18.2007

Fun with Papa!

If this doesn't make you lol, I don't know what would :)




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4.17.2007

Chicken bus??














Nope.... Chicken Soup??












Nope.... Chicken Little?












Nope..... Chickenpox??















YEP!!!














My poor baby girl. The crazy thing is that it doesn't seem she's shared this with her sister yet. I'd rather just have them both get it, and be done. I do think she passed it on to two other children that we had a play-date with last week :(

... But on a happy note : Papa and Nana are here and we so glad for their company and they've had tons of fun with the babies today!! I'm sure we'll have lots of pics to post this week!