we're HERE!!!

We arrived in Guatemala City at about 12:30. Spent some time walking around and Micaiah arrived at 2:30, all smiles.

she smiled at both of us. I waited a long while before even attempting to take her from Judith, (we just found out our foster mom's name is Judith, not Juliet). Judith put her down on the chair and I played with her awhile there. she was happy and all smiles. I reached to pick her up and she reached out to me!!!!!!!! yeah, she did sooooo good the entire time Judith and her two children, Francisco (Micaiah knows him as Paco) and Josselina. And, they had a new baby, they had just received today, a little boy less than a week old. I am sure that will help the family in healing from the loss of Micaiah.

so we got the low down on Micaiah's life and then an hour and a half later it was time to say our good byes. we let Micaiah wave and said, "dice adios" (say goodbye) and off they went. we made it to the elevator and she began to cry looking all over for Judith and waving good bye-to us I am sure. Now, 2 hours and 45 minutes later, she is in Peter's arms and seems to be calming down, at least for the past 2 minutes as I write this. Longer than she has been not crying since we have been with her. yeah Micaiah!!!

we covet your prayers for our little girl as she goes through this very very difficult time.

Needless to say, carryout from the sports bar downstairs was the best we could do for supper tonight. they had awesome black bean soup. I am sure peter will try to post pics when our baby girl is peacefully asleep in bed.

for now she has just fallen asleep in peter's arms, still gasping from the crying.

pobrecita (poor baby)

Jocelyn

1st day of preschool

today was it, the real thing! Caleb's first day of preschool.

Daddy came home for lunch, we all ate together and then packed up to go to school. Caleb actually got himself dressed and was ready to walk out the door at 9:30 (that's pretty early considering he didn't wake up until after 8 and then spends a good 10 minutes cuddling and then 20 minutes devouring breakfast). He asked if he could go to school then and I told him we would go after lunch. He asked if he could eat lunch now! Needless to say, he was soooo excited about his first day. He packed up his Spiderman backpack over a week ago and was excited he finally got to wear it today. Elijah rode his two wheeler, Henry and Allie walked with us, and we joined Caleb's friend Ethan and his family to walk down to the school.

We got there and Caleb found his cubbie with his name and picture on it, put his backpack away, and got to work. I mean play! We left shortly after, he only notice we were leaving because I went up to him gave him a kiss and told him I would miss him and I would be back soon.

I couldn't wait to get back and pick him up and find out all about his day. So Caleb, what did you do today at preschool?

I don't remember. (typical answer I suppose)

so we dug a little deeper and he shared lots of details about all the exciting things he did at school. he is very excited to go back and excited Grandma Tina gets to take him to school next week!

Tonight, Peter asked him what was your favorite thing at school today. Caleb said, "playing on the computer, the playground, actually all of the things were my favorite"

I am so excited for him, everyone asked if I was sad, but not really. I missed him, but he was so ready to go and I knew it would be a positive experience for him. I really like his teacher and am excited for Caleb's opportunity to make new friends.

(sorry no pics, I can't get the camera hooked up right now, I will add them later)

that's my sister!

we have pictures on our dishwasher of family and friends. the kids look at the pics all the time and we talk about all the people on the fridge. well, this morning Elijah said, "that's Micaiah" (which he often says) and then he said,

"that's my sister!"

he looked so proud, like he had finally figured it all out! hope is just as excited when she takes over the Sutton house :o)

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.

throwing up

(as Peter calls it) that just means I have a lot to say :o)

well, this morning I was trying to decide if I would be more crazy to have four children ages 11 months, 2, 3, and 4 (Allie, Elijah, Henry, and Caleb) or to take 4 children, who are not all mine with me to the dr. while the boys get checkups.
well, they were all ANGELS! Literally, we were in the dr. office for 1 hour and 40 minutes with no crying, whining, or fighting. It was amazing.
the results:
Caleb, 42 inches, 80th percentile, 36 pounds, 50th percentile
Elijah: 34 inches, 40th percentile, 26 pounds, 30th percentile (Elijah's projected height is 68inches 5 ft 8 inches, double what a child is at 2)
Caleb is projected to be 6' 1'' or 6' 2", Elijah definitely has Papa's build. :o)

Last night the boys and I had a special treat. We watched Bob the Builder and ate popcorn in front of the tv. Well, Caleb watched Bob the Builder. Elijah is not into tv much. fine by me :o) he played Rescue Hereos. Peter was in IL with his father. I guess I forgot to post about Peter's dad.

Art has surgery this morning to remove his eye. He had cancer in it twice before and found more. The surgery went well, he is already home and recovering well. God is good! They don't think this is related to all the other problems he has been having this past month. Still no answers on that stuff.

We are still in PGN and waiting to get out. There has been a lot of movement of the director signing papers and getting people out. This is great news, I have seen lots of people getting out who have not been in as long as we have, but a few old timers like us are getting out to. I am pretty sure there are not too many old timers still in. Are paperwork shows we have been in since March 20. the good news about that is that there was a meeting on Monday to address two very importnat factors: people who have been in more than 3 months (that's us) and people who were kicked out for stupid reasons (this is not us). Because of the forum and listserve I am on I got notice of this meeting and got to submit our case and it was one of the documented cases to prove that they are not sticking to their guidelines and people are not getting out within a reasonable time frame (3 months is reasonable to them). we continue to wait and pray and pray and wait. I was hoping to have our case out of PGN by my birthday. This would make it very likely that she would be home by her birthday (9.17) we'll see.

We all miss Papa lots but continue to share memories and talk about him daily. Everytime we say prayers, Elijah always says "Papa & Grandpa". He doesn't want us to forget to pray for them :o) what a sweetie.

still not able to post pics :o(

i keep forgetting to post...this is FUNNY

Well, if you haven't heard, Caleb loves Buzz Lightyear.

and for those of you who are unfamiliar with Buzz there are two phrases that go with Buzz

to infinite... and beyond

Buzz Lightyear, to the rescue

well, at supper the other night Caleb says,

Dear God, to the rescue

(he followed it up by saying, oops and then smiled)

We could not stop laughing!!!!!

(I tried to post pics, won't work :o()

Micaiah is SMILING!

today we got a picture of Micaiah smiling!!!!! with her foster sister Josselina! It is sooo good to see a smile on her face!

update on the potty training...Elijah is still in training, a few hits and a few misses each day. He is starting to say when he has to go, before it has dripped down his legs! YEAH! He does best when he is in the buff, it's a good thing its summer!

It's weird to be in the official stage of our adoption where we could potentially get a call any day, saying we are out of PGN and only have a few weeks of paperwork left. (but of course, as a reminder to all of you, it could be much longer) I told God I am ready! I think about her sooo often.

All I want for my birthday is to get approval out of PGN!!!!!! (did you hear that God?)

Actually, I have been praying for us to get out on Thursday. Outs sometimes happen on Thurs or Fridays, late at night. And, well, I figure, I been in this for quite sometime now and we just ought to end with a BANG! a super speedy time of our case officially being with a reviewer and then out we go.

so I wonder if I convince myself and all of you we should get out, will I convince God too? hee hee.

Caleb spent yesterday in the big pool (3 feet deep). He was very brave and is learning to trust himself in the water more! He is progressing quickly, considering our first day in the pool this year was Saturday!

We are all missing Peter. He is doing well in Mexico, I missed his call tonight. We can't wait to be together again!

blueberries, swimming, pizza with friends...what a day!

What a wonderful Saturday I had with the boys.

We started off blueberry picking, they both lasted longer than I anticipated and thorougly enjoyed picking and especially eating the blueberries. We came home with 7 pounds of blueberries! We plan to make homemade blue berry muffins tomorrow and eat blueberries until we turn blue. (we did freeze a bunch of them for future smoothies and blueberry pancakes). We are hoping to head back next Saturday morning with daddy, at $2 a pound we are going to stock up!

We stopped and picked up flowers to replace the ones that died in our flower boxes and then to the library for books (and videos for me to watch while I try to organize my closets, files, etc. after the kiddos go to bed each night).

Caleb and I painted pictures on the driveway, made thank you notes from his birthday, planted the flowers, and looked at his baby book while Elijah napped.

Then off to the YMCA for our first official swim of the season! WOW, for us it seems summer has just begun! We all had a blast!

Then off the pizza with Ethan and Owen and their parents, the kids had a great time.

We said our prayers and thanked God for the beautiful time we had together and prayed for daddy and the kids in Mexico!

a truly joyous day...

i think i still remember how to do this?

wow! it's been a long time. I will attempt to be more diligent. Where do i begin?

for those of you relying on our blog for the latest adoption news:

The interview we had been waiting for since March 31, finally occured on Memorial Day, the write up was then completed and we were submitted into the official part of PGN that we want to be in! We were officially in (meaning our case can now be looked at by a reviewer) on July 5. In actuality, we have been in since March 20, almost 4 months! Well, today we got word that we received a previo. This has become extremely common and was something we anticipated (under the new director, almost no one gets through PGN without at least 1 previo). The good news is, this means our case is being reviewed! My caseworker said they wanted an updated document from our attorney. Even better news, she already submitted the paperwork and we are back in again! This all happened between Tuesday and today! Now that is my kind of timing! thank you GOD! now, let's keep it coming.

Our caseworker informed us that they have switched pediatricians so we are a little late in getting a dr. update and pictures of Micaiah this month.

Other exciting news on the adoption front, our good friends the Walatka's are just finishing their pick up trip to bring their two boys (1 & 2 years old) from Ethiopia. We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet them! Keith and Shelley now have Tommy, 3, Hunter 3, Benjamin, 2, Joseph, 1, and Anna, 1. They are awesome people and great parents and friends too! I know they will do well. and Tommy and Hunter turn 4 this week, so the numbers will look a little better! :o)

Peter left this evening for Mexico, for the annual mission trip with the high schoolers. He was home for a short 2 weeks and is gone again. More reason why I have not blogged.

Yesterday we spent the day at King's Island (amusement park). The church has a VIP pass, so we got to go for free, park for free, we brought our lunches, and splurged on Graeter's ice cream while we were there! A wonderful family day for just $5! What a deal.

pics not posting now, I'll try again later...

Elijah is FAMOUS

check it out!!!

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006607030343

it's working mommy, it's working

well, we are officially attempting to potty train Elijah. yesterday he woke up and said, mommy, potty. I ran and took him to the bathroom and he pee-d in the potty. YEAH!!!!!!! so for the past two days we have been in big boy underwear attempting to use the potty. when elijah gets off the potty he looks inside and says, it's not working mommy.

well, today he when he went in the potty he turned around looked inside and said...

it's working mommy, it's working

what a cutie!