Hi Everyone,

Sorry that I let this blog get slow right when it was really getting good. We've been getting adjusted to being home without Isabella again. Even though we've been without her for almost seven years it seems so weird to not have her with us now. I can't tell you how hard it is to have your child in another country where you can't even call to check up on her. We both miss her SO VERY much. We are coping though and keeping ourselves busy with things here.

This Friday will be my last day at work and my coworkers are throwing me a small baby shower/ going away party. I'm so excited ! I'm also a little sad to be leaving my job though, but I really feel like the time is right to move on so that I can focus on being a mother and wife. It is a stressfull industry but I've enjoyed the challenge it brought every day. I will miss my coworkers so much but don't worry guys I'll be stopping in to visit often !

Update on the case. Our DNA test was done on Feb 16 as our attorney had hoped. This means that the birth mother signed off after holding the child she had given birth to for the very last time. (Unless we get the chance to meet her later of course.) I admire her strentgh and sacrifice so that Isabella would have all the things she would not be able to give her. Please pray for her and also pray for us that we will be able to give Isabella everything her birth mother would have dreamed for her.

We are now waiting on the DNA results to get to the US Embassy which should happen this week, and then we'll wait for pre-approval from the Embassy. After that we move into PGN, the last stage of court ! With God's help we will move through these stages quickly !

As many of you might know John's mother has bravely been fighting breast cancer for a few years now. We found out this week that his grandfather also has terminal cancer. He promises not to die until he holds his great granddaughter and we really hope we can make that happen for him. Please, please keep them both in your prayers also. It's very hard for John and I to be across the country from them and we can't really go to them due to John's committment to the military. His mother is a VERY strong woman and I admire her so much for the strentgh she shows, but we all know that some good prayer can go a long way.

Hope you all enjoy the new photos we posted from our trip. More coming soon so stay tuned!

Thank you all for your support!
Janine

Saying "goodbye" day.... 

This was one of my favorite outfits! 

What's she thinking? 

Sleeping Beauty. 

Our little cutie pie. 

Snoozing in Daddy's arms. 

John holding Isabella for the first time. 

Sleeping with Mommy. 

Getting to know each other. 

Good News- Well we made it home and are busy busy getting unpacked, doing lanudry, running errands and restocking the house with food and such. I'm returning to work tomorrow and John went back on Tuesday.

We had a very VERY interesting experience at the Embassy Monday morning and got a lot of great information. I'll make a more detailed post about all the on my next day off work. I'll also be adding some new photos since I got prints done today and had everything saved on CD. I really have some great photos to add and I'm sorry I've been slow at getting them online.

The reason for my post is to update you with our GOOD NEWS. Our attorney got our authorization for DNA today ! Our test will hopefully be done on Thursday Feb,16. It normally takes about two weeks for the results and then we will wait on pre-approval from the Embassy, which normally takes another two weeks. From there we go into PGN which is the last stage of court ! PGN normally takes the longest and ranges anywhere from 3 weeks up to 3 months or longer. Fingers crossed that we don't have any hang-ups and it ends up taking that long! I'll go insane!

Even though we are waiting I still feel so fortuante that we are able to adopt from Guatemala. It is the quickest program out there and we were blessed with such a wonderful baby!

Keep praying for us and thank you all for your support. More Bella photos coming soon !

We want to thank everyone who have sent notes of prayer and support for us today. We are doing okay, though it has been a hard day. Lucinda (Bella foster mom) picked up Bella today and you could tell how happy she was to see her. I know that she is in very loving arms until we can come back. Her husband also came along which was nice getting to meet another person who is responsible for keeping our daughter safe and happy for the next few months. Handing Bella over today reminded me of saying goodbye to John when he left for deployment for six months. It is so hard...beyond words hard...but I know that we'll be coming back to bring her home soon.

We had a chance to walk around the city a little bit today and get some fresh air. That was a nice distraction for us and we enjoyed being out after ten days in our hotel walls. We had dinner in a tree house restaurant called Kakao and it was VERY good.

I'm off to finish packing...but just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing okay. We're looking forward to being home again and seeing our dogs. I already miss Bella so much and I know the next few months will be hard, but we'll get though it.

John and I are going to the US Embassy tomorrow before our flight. We're going to try to talk to the official overseeing adoptions and get an explanation of why they are doing such a horrible job right now. We'll post an update for you guys when we get home.

Also, the internet connection here is not great and I've been unable to post photos again. I'll post many more when I get home and get settled in again.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts today...

Janine & John

I can't believe it's already been one week since I first held my daughter in my arms. Our time to leave Guatemala is coming up all too quickly and I'm having to face the fact that I will have to hand my daughter back to her foster mother on Sunday and walk away. This time here has been so amazing and it was all I could have dreamed it too be...but I am not looking forward to this Sunday. Instead of getting caught up in that though, I'm just going to focus on the wonderful memories we've shared this week with Isabella. We feel so blessed to have been able to meet her when she was this young, and that we'll have this story to tell her when she is older. I know the next few months will probably be some of the hardest of my life, but I'll make it through just as I have all the waiting to get to this day.

Update on our case: Unfortunatley, we were unable to get the DNA testing done this week. There is a big mess at the US Embassy and our attorney has been there every day this week at 6am to get in line to sumbit our authorization request for DNA testing. He said there are hundreds of attorneys in line each day and the Embassy is assinging numbers of 1-50 and sending everyone else home. Of those 50 they are only getting to about 10-20 a day. Each day he has had a number and still has not been able to submit or authorization. It makes me so angry that our own US government is screwing this up. I would be more understanding if it were the Guatemalan government holding us up, but our tax dollars are paying for stuff like this. I certainly plan to call my congressman and senators when I get home. The next stage after DNA testing is pre-approval from the US Embassy so I will be at their mercy for the next two steps. If anyone else would like to write their congressmen on our behalf it would be appreciated. There are a lot of other adoptive familes doing the same so if we rally together maybe something will get done.

Okay enough of my venting..I guess that's what happens when something stands between a momma and her baby. I'm going to end for now so I can go watch my little angel sleep. I'll try to add a few more photos for you guys too :-)

-Janine

Happy Girl ! 

All dressed up and no where to go :-) 

Proud Papa. Bella says "Daddy this is the finger you're going to be wrapped around." 

Bella discovers the pacifier. They are not used in Guatemala but she sucks her fingers if she doesn't have one so I'd rather her suck a pacifier. 

Bella and her friend... 

Getting ready for bed time.  

We traveled all the way to Guatemala and found a couple from my tiny home town in Kentucky. I went to school with Amy and Charlie and they were here to bring their new son Landon home from Guatemala. Congrats to the new family! 

Bath Time. Isabella LOVES to have a bath. We can barely keep her in the tub because she kicks and splashes so much. 

Hey Everyone....It's another great day with Isabella her in Guatemala. I am so glad that we have such a wonderful hotel staff here. They really cater to adoptive families and I bet there are at least 60 other adoptive couples here right now. There are so many babies and its so great to get all that support. It makes being confined to hotel for 10 days a little easier. I'm glad I have contact with everyone on the internet though. I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has taken time to post comments or send us emails so far. I'm really touched that so many people are supporting us. It's hard to be away from your family when we are bringing a new child into the "family" and hearing from you all makes it a little easier.

I did want to add a note about us meeting Isabella's birthmother. There is not a question of whether or not John and I want to meet her. We %100 DO want to meet her, so we will have the chance to thank the person who made such a sacrifice for us, and gave us this amazing gift. We know that Isabella will want to have the information some day and we want to be able to give it to her. However, the birthmother can still change her mind at this point and our attorney will determine when and if the time is right for us to meet her. He has been in very close contact with Isabella's birth mother throughout the entire process and he will know what is best.

We will not do anything to put our case at any risk. Also some mothers don't want to meet the adoptive families because it would be too painful. We are going to respect that. In the end everything works out how God wants it too and so we are putting our trust in him to guide everyone involved in the process.

Okay I'm going to end now because I really do want to get some photos posted before my little angel wakes from her nap. Her and daddy are sleeping on the bed together right now. :-)

Love You All !
Janine

Hey Everyone....Just wanted to sneak in a quick post while Bella is enjoying her bouncy chair. Forgive any misspellings because I doubt I'l l have time to spell check ;-)

Things here in Guatemala are GREAT. Isabella is bonding so well it amazes me. She already knows who momma and daddy are and she knows who to go to for what. She loves to just stare into my eyes when I sing to her and rock her to sleep. She puts her little hands up on mind and then off to dreaming in no time. There are no words to describe what that feels like. She is so amazing. She also loves the comfort of daddy's hands too, and she knows to turn to him when she's in the mood for some laughs !

WE RECEIVED GOOD NEWS ON OUR CASE. We are oficially out of the first stage of court in record timing. We should get to take the baby to her DNA testing this week. After that we wait for pre-approval from the embassy and then our case goes into the last stage of court called PGN. I don't want to jinx us or anything but if things keep moving at the same pace Bella will get to come home in April. (Keep our fingers crossed.)

We also found out that we may have the chance to meet Bella birth mother while we are here. That is very rare and we are debating if we will do it on this trip or not...I'd love to have the information for Bella though and the birth mother will have to see her regardless at the DNA testing so we might just go along. We are still working with our attorney to see what the best choice is on this issue.
Janine went to put the baby to sleep because all my tricks aren't working. We will add a lot of new photos later tonight so check back soon. Until next time... John

Our Family. 

She barely fills John's hands at 9.5 lbs. She's a wiggly handfull though. 

Yea...I can wink!  

Surprise! She hates the flash on cameras. 

Future milk commercial? 

Daddy's happy girl 

Bella's silly hat! 

Our first full day with our daughter in coming to an end. Today was a day full of first...our first bath, first morning waking up to a little girl full of smiles, first day learning how we are really going to work together as parents. I have to give us a pat on the back. I think we're doing pretty darn good for first timers. Isabella is a pure joy. She is so happy and is really on track with development. At two months she can almost hold her head up already on her own. She reaches out for toys and trys to get a grip on them...and she loves to kick!

She is a pure daddys girl too. I've never thought my husband to be really really funny looking..but Bella will sit on his lap and laugh at him nonstop for a half hours straight. She is totally head over heels for John already. She's warming up to me pretty well too and wants me to hold her and feed her, when something is wrong. Particulary when she has a dirty diaper :-)
These are all good signs of early bonding though so I am very happy to see these things develop.

Our hotel is also top notch...not in luxuary but in service. We are two doors down from the adoptive parents lounge on the third floors. That makes it really easy to run to the bottle warmer or microwave in the middle of the night, and it's a great place to socialize with other families. There are TONS of adoptive familes here with their babies. The free breakfast buffet here is also dubbed the Parade of Babies because everyone dresses up their little ones and brings them down to show them off. It's great being able to get support from others who understand what you're going through.

I seem to be having trouble adding photos to my blog. Last night I tried posting six or seven but when I pull up the site I can't see any of them. Some ppl have emailed me saying they can't post comments. You guys can email me at neen522@hotmail.com.

Well Bella is sleeping now so I'm going to try to get some zzzz's while I can. She wakes up every two hours too eat, and she's got a little bit of a stuffy nose so I don't sleep to well worrying about her. Typical new mom stuff....I'm sure I'll pass that stage soon...but I'm just going to let myself go through it in bliss. Her next checkup is due when we're here so I'm going to call our attorney tomorrow too see if we can get that scheduled early.

Goodnight for now..someone let me know if you can't view the photos I tried to post please...and I'll try adding them again.

Good night!

The bags are packed! We made it to the airport. We are not off to a great start. The 5pm fight we were going to take to Atlanta cancelled, and so we're sitting here until the 6:55pm flight...which is actually not leaving until 7:45 pm. The great city of Atlanta is experiencing air traffic control problems due to rain. I'm glad I was a smart enough traveler to go to Atlanta the night before to spend the night. Never count on the weather to cooperate with you when you are traveling for something this important. There are always rainy days. Thanks to Edward with Delta for checking on all our flights for tomorrow...you guys have all been a great support. Don't worry Edward your turn is coming :-)


I'm going through the list of what I possibly could have forgotten, and I can't think of anything. John says I brought the whole house and there is nothing we could have left behind because it's all in our bags. We checked in three bags and have one carry on plus a backpack and the laptop computer. Geez....I imagine all my friends here at the airport think I have gone nuts. I've spent many slow days at the ticket counter with my coworkers making fun of people like me. People who think they have to have everything they own with them for a two week trip. I do have an excuse though, we brought a whole bag just for the baby and very little for John and I so I'm not doing that bad right?

I am so excited about this trip. I think it will really hit me afar I get my seat assignment for the Guatemala flight tomorrow. We are flying stand-by and so far the flight looks good. It's always bittersweet flying standby until you get the boarding pass in your hand. That's when I know we are really going to meet our daughter tomorrow.

I think we are both nervous...the new parent kind of nervous. We usually talk each other's ear off but I've noticed we've both been more quiet today. The anticipation is so thick....I can't imagine how hard those last few minutes sitting in the hotel lobby will be....Waiting for our foster mother and our new daughter to walk through the door. To have her placed in my arms for the first time. I asked John if he wanted to hold her first....But he said I could hold her first which I am not going to argue with :-) I have a wonderful husband.

I'm going to end for now...I may try to post from the airport tomorrow. If not then the next time I post on this site I will probably have my sitting very near my side. (Or more realistically she'll be napping ).

Isabella....We are on our way!