It's official...

We are going to Guatemala to pick up our precious baby girl! we just got word we have an appointment on september 11. (my caseworker pointed out this is the original date of our re-fingerprinting, ironic isn't it?) We will leave Sat or Sun and be back Wed or Thurs. I got to go book a flight and get a hotel our baby is coming home!!!!!!

my boys

Peter is having a crazy season. Soccer is usually a pretty crazy time of year with practices or games 6 days a week. He has had a fairly good start to the season, we have enjoyed coming to watch the home games. We always sit in the stands and cheer daddy's team on. He loves coaching the Indian Hill JV team. then don't forget football season has started, that is where he is tonight. the most important night of the year, the fantasy football draft night! He invites a bunch of friends from the neighborhood and church and they all draft their leagues for the season. A friend hosts, they all bring their laptops, eat lots of nasty food, and well, I don't know the rest, I just know he loves it. And then of course, we have been dealing with Micaiah and the struggles there as well as the news of his father's cancer. Like I said, it has been a crazy season, not to mention work. oh yeah, he has a job too! He absolutely loves his job. They are starting a serious, the world according to... last week they talked about materialism. the world according to Donald Trump. He recently had the opportunity to speak in big church. He did an amazing job. If you want to hear the message it is on the church's website: www.horizoncc.com and the message was on August 6.

Caleb is starting school september 7 (on Gma Tina's birthday). We have been watching his school being built. It's just around the corner from our home. We told him he could go to school when he turned 4 and when the building was done. Well, the building is done so we are watching the playground be assembled. We walk down there most days to check on the current status. :o) He is soooo looking forward to starting school. We got his backpack and school supplies. He and Elijah love to play school. They put their backpacks on, walk across the hall to Micaiah's room, take the backpacks off and "play school" it is sooo cute!
Caleb has also started his second season of soccer. Our first practice this season he was very hesitant to join in, we were on a new team, new field, new coach, and none of his friends or teammates from last season were on the team. After about 5 seconds of hesitation, he ran right in, joined practiced, did amazingly well, and had a great time. He loved it and he has improved soooo much from just one season. even at his first game, he was so much more confident and aggressive and excited to be in the game. We let him decide if he wanted to play this season and it looks like he made a great choice. I think it is going to be a fun season.

Elijah is loving life and admiring Caleb's every move. he is talking non-stop and saying just about everything, he counts, says about half his ABC's and is soooo smart. He also loves to play soccer and practices and plays on the sidelines during Caleb's practice and games. So far, he is just intimidated enough by the amount of kids on the field that he is content to play on his own. Every once in awhile during practice he sneaks on the field and joins them in a drill or two :o) He also loves to watch the progress on the school. We are excited to have some special time together when Caleb is at school. Elijah is also very excited to be a big brother, just like Caleb. Elijah learned how to ride his tricycle within the last few weeks and now in the last few days has learned to ride Caleb's 2 wheeler with training wheels! He is amazing! so ambitious and loving to try new things, almost always with success. He loves to play pretend,

Tonight for dinner, the little boys and I made pizza, one of their favorites. We roll out the dough, put the sauce on, shredd the cheese and peperoni on, tomatoes and mushrooms on mom's side. the boys help with it all. and then eat their broccoli while the pizza cooks! they love broccoli.

i love my boys, they are so much fun and such blessings in my life.

details...details...details...

here's what I got.

Art: Peter's dad has metastatic melanoma, it started in his eye came back 3 times (the third time they removed his eye) and now has moved to his spine. they will learn more in the next weeks as to prognosis and treatment. they have done another CT scan to see if it has spread to the brain, as of 2 months ago it had not. He is still in a lot of pain, but in good spirits, Rita comes and goes.

Micaiah: last week I took 4 kids (1, 2, 3, and 4 years old) downtown Cincinnati, parked in a garage, trucked them through 7 elevators, through security, one potty break (although we had to stop on a seperate floor for the handicapped bathroom that would fit a double stroller), and in the end had our approval and clearance for fingerprints in hand!!! And I only spent 40 minutes in the parking garage, not bad, heh? So, all to say, we have fingerprint clearance but are having trouble confirming that the US embassy has receivd them in Guatemala. My caseworker and I have been back and forth via email and phone trying to get them resent, because the embassy says they do not have them. Exciting news. we got out of PGN on Monday, next step birth certificate, I figured we would get it by the end of the week and then our attorney would submit for our appointment early next week. Actually, she submitted Thursday, however we were rejected for not having a document. I believe she resubmitted us today. Unfortunately we will be rejected again if they do not have our fingerprints. My caseworker says, best case scenerio, we travel the week after Labor Day (Caleb's first day of school is the 7th) and worst case scenerio the following week.

Other news: our family is traveling to Chicago to see Peter's dad tomorrow. Caleb has his second soccer game of the fall season and then we will head out, arriving just after Peter's dad finishes up a PET scan. Peter will come home Monday, and the boys and I will stay until Thursday. We are looking forward to spending time with Peter's family.

Bittersweet 12 hours

I can't believe I am writing this...
WE ARE OUT!!!!!!!

yep! we are out of PGN!! 22 weeks! 154 days! 5 months and 1 day! We officially got out yesterday, August 21st! I can't believe it is real!!!! We got our phone call this afternoon. I had it in my head that when my caseworker called, she would want to talk about fingerprints, so when the phone rang and I saw Aimee on the caller ID, I was sure she wanted to confirm how things were coming with the processing of our fingerprints. Instead she said, "are you sitting down?" and my response, "are you serious? it's over!" I couldn't believe it!!!! We had a great conversation about the next few steps and Micaiah's transition coming home. She said, our attorney is very fast and we could travel in as quick as 2 weeks!!! It still is not real to me! I think when we have our appointment to go down and pick up her visa and finalize things it will be more real! So in all reality we should expect Micaiah to be home by her birthday, September 17! I feel like ti's the best birthday present of all!!!! and it's not even my birthday. thank you God!!!!!!!!!!

so what is so bittersweet? well, last night we received word that Peter's dad has Stage 4 metastatic melenoma in his spine. They did and MRI on his spine and found the mass on two vertebrae, 30 days later it has spread to four vertebrae. On Thursday we will get more details on the treatment and prognosis. please keep Art and Rita in your prayers. He is still in a lot of pain and Rita is having a hard time digesting all of this. thank you.

updated pics of Micaiah~July '06

Just received this update on Micaiah and pictures!

No PGN news yet. Caroline will start calling Zulma late afternoon as the PGN outs are not released until afternoon.Attached are some updated pictures of Micaiah. When Pedro went to take the photos he visited with Juliet. She remarked that Micaiah still does not like strangers but she loves other children. Even when Juliet's extended family visits, and they do frequently, Micaiah shys away from them. She probably will need some time and patience when coming home in dealing with everyone.Caroline shared that Micaiah sounds very much like her daughter, Lisi, who came home at 14 months. Lisi was not open to being with many people. However, Caroline said that in a very short time she bonded to Caroline and having another young child (Caroline's son David) at home tremendously helped with the transition. In our family we have also found that all 3 of our Guatemalan children loved having siblings in our home and we feel they helped with the transition. I believe that Caleb and Elijah will provide a positive influence on Micaiah's transition. Kids are drawn to one another!Pedro and Juliet report that Miciah is walking with the assistance of a walker or holding someone's hand - which she prefers.Hang in there,Aimee

remembering...

today was our first trip back to the zoo since my dad died. I didn't handle it quite as good as I thought I would. I thought I would be teary eyed, but I fell apart. I miss him so much. It was hard to be there and know this is the last place I saw him really alive. It was very overwhelming, but I don't regret going. As funny or strange as it may sound, I had the same feeling I had when we were there that day, almost 3 months ago. I just get this overwhelming sense of peace, and can't help but feel like my dad saw Jesus then and there. I felt like He welcomed dad home and then said, I want you to stay on earth for a few more days. I don't when my dad went to heaven, I don't know if we ever know? During those few precious days, I felt so very blessed to be with my daddy. I prayed with him, talked to him, shared my frustrations with him, sang to him, and just enjoyed being by his side. Each of his siblings also had the opportunity to see him and just 30 short hours after my sister arrived at the hospital he was gone. I am so grateful for our time in the hospital. Caleb and Elijah didn't mention anything at the zoo, at first I was frustrated, especially since I was standing there crying. I sooo badly want them to remember papa, but then Peter said, it's probably better that way. He is right. We have lots of memories of Papa and it would be better if the boys didn't remember seeing him on the ground at the zoo. We have so many other fun things to remember. The other day I was feeling sad and Caleb asked why. I told him I missed papa and we began sharing memories. I would ask Caleb about Papa's favorite things: what was papa's favorite thing to do at our house? where was papa's favorite place to take Caleb when he came to visit? what was papa's favorite thing to make for breakfast? etc. we went through lots of memories and Caleb answered them all. When I couldn't think of anymore, I stopped. We both felt another step in the healing process. Later that day, Caleb asked if we could "do that thing again, with papa's favorite things". I smiled and said, we can do that whenever you want to.

patience is running thin...

if there is any left to begin with. so, here is the word. Wednesday and Thursday we did not get out of PGN. Our wonderful caseworker calls us everynight to say that our attorney went to PGN and we did not get out. Last night she called and said, she still had not heard anything good or bad. We should have gotten out yesterday. I went on the forum and saw someone else from our agency got out yesterday. They had been in almost 3 months, so good for them :o)

I have a feeling like since someone else from our agency got out and was already notified that we probably did not get out, although you never know.

on a better note, we got the fingerprint thing taken care of after a crazy morning. We had our representative get us an appointment immediately and went down to the office on Thursday morning. I was fingerprinted first, and they had a very difficult time. I have excema. I have been putting steroid cream on it for 8 days to clear it up as best as possible for my fingerprints. Well, one fingerprint was not very good, they had four different people print me! I was just about in tears. They said, I could just come back in and do it again, well of course, that takes several weeks. They were all very helpful and actually sent my fingerprints on to be approved before we even left the building to confirm I would not have to come back. Thank God, Phil Heimlich and Jean Schmidt helped me out. They said it was easier to clear my prints because my other prints had not yet expired. Had I gone in on my scheduled date (9/11) this would have been yet another problem.

still waiting....

still waiting...maybe tomorrow.

these are pictures from our blueberry picking adventures! they are tooo cute!


















Well, the latest is that PGN was closed yesterday and today, soooooo technically we could get news tomorrow!!!!

and about the fingerprints, we contacted our Representative and she contacted the USCIS office and the person she needs to speak to had left for the day, so we will get news on that tomorrow as well!!!

praying for the best Wednesday ever!!!

Tonight the boys and I (and Henry and Allie, kiddos I babysit for) went to Peter's first soccer game of the season. He is coaching High School JV again. We all had a great time, but they lost 0-1 in the last 9 seconds of the game! urrrrrgh. The boys have sooo much fun playing with Allie (she is 1 month older than Micaiah) they are soooo ready to be big brothers.

a ray of hope...

I apologize for not posting more often, I have been having trouble coming to the computer and sharing the same old news. I have been to the computer a ton, but I just go through all the adoption forums trying to find some good news, people getting out of PGN. there have been outs, 6 two weeks ago from our agency alone, although none this past week. This week, there have been a few so far. Anyways, I think I feel as if I am online it will bring her home sooner.

so where is the ray of hope? well, I got a phone call from my caseworker today. She mentioned there may be some progress on my case soon!!!!! She is hoping to hear something by early next week!

Pray, that tomorrow, GOD makes it happend and Micaiah is on her way to coming home.

Also, we have come to the point in our adoption where we are beginning to have to redo paperwork. Our fingerprints expire on Aug 26. We need to have Micaiah in our arms either before our fingerprints expire (this would be a huge MIRACLE) as the process after we get out is at least 2 weeks! or we have to be refingerprinted. We are in process of redoing our fingerprinting, however don't have an appointment until 9/11. We are trying to get the appointment moved up, the last thing we want is to be delayed in getting Micaiah because of our fingerprints. So please PRAY!!!!!!!

And of course, all of this could be nothing and we could be in the same boat we have been in with no changes. I will post as soon as I know something.

thank you soooo much for your prayers and encouragement!

like father...like son

when Peter was a little guy he went on a boat ride with his family. He claimed that on that...
"Mommy, I saw a fish and it was this big (as he stretched out his arms as far as they would go) and then I put my arms out (he puts his arms out in front of his body, connecting his hands to make a large circle) and the fish jumped right through it!" He spoke in all seriousness.
and
another story where Peter smashes eggs on the living room couch while his mom is in the shower and when she gets out and asks him what he has done (she finds him and Amy have put themselves in their naughty chairs). Peter says, "Mommy, there was a lion in the fridge and I had to let him out"
so, as I said, like father...like son
this afternoon Elijah was bustling about in his chair eating lunch and he fell. He got up started to fuss a little and said, "Mommy I hurt my leg playing soccer (meaning the owie he just got from falling off the chair). I was kicking the ball and I fall down. and I got the ball from mommy. and I got the ball from daddy...."
(this is not the first time he has fallen or gotten an owie that was not related to soccer and claimed it was a soccer injury, if I recall, last time it was during a game of baseball in our backyard!)

laugh laugh laugh, what else could I do! what a character.