What a day...............

................and I chose today to wear make up!!!! If I had known what the day held, I would have definitely gone makeupless. Mayra picked me up at around 9:00 and we headed to PGN. Our investigator was in a meeting. We waited for probably two hours before we could speak with her. Then the fun began............(sarcasm). The first thing the woman told us was that the judge had no say in whether or not we could complete our adoption but that it was up to the CNA and the CNA already had their list of adoptions to complete and basically ours wasn't one of them. Of course at that point, the tears started to flow. Then the other woman in the office spoke up and said the first woman wasn't exactly correct but that if the birth mother was found, she could claim Nola or any family member could do the same (we already knew that). But then they told me that our attorney didn't show up to the first hearing in August and that the judge probably assumed we were not interested in completing the adoption. They said we were no longer part of the process. They apologized for the fact that our lawyer has been lying to us and giving us false information.............more tears..........and anger! They told us we should go speak with someone in another office who could possibly help so we went to ask for directions to that office. The secretary we spoke with (Sonja) told us it would do no good to talk to the people in that office and she told us to go try to speak with the judge. We were planning on that anyway and Sonja gave us directions. We were off to see the judge. That was an adventure in itself! After finally finding the building, it was up four flights of winding stairs and I think each step was a different height.............and me in heels.............what was I thinking?!?! Anyway, we finally got to the right floor and the right area and waited for about an hour for someone to come back to the office and found out we were waiting to speak to the wrong person. We finally got to speak to the official (who is under our judge) who has our file. It took her a bit to find it but she finally came back with a file that was at least 3 1/2" thick! No kidding! Mayra told her what PGN had told us and she started looking through our file. She showed me the report that our lawyer had written after the hearing and proof that he was there representing us. She told us that we are still part of the process and showed me all of our family information in the file. She just shook her head in disbelief about the info we got from PGN. She filled out a form with my name and the date and time and a note stating I was there and still wanting to complete the adoption. She had me add my signature to it. She made me a copy and put the original in our file and said the judge would be interested is seeing that I was there. I had put together a little photo book of Nola with us and took it with me. They all loved looking at it and they placed it in our file too. She told me that the judge will make a ruling at the hearing in June and it would be good for me to come. Just in case our lawyer didn't show up, I would be able to go into the hearing and represent our family. She was so nice and so helpful and certainly turned what had started out as a rotten day into a great one!

Mayra has already got me penciled in for June 24 at 9;00. She will accompany me to the hearing. As long as our lawyer is there, I will probably not be able to be inside during the hearing, but we can wait outside and it will be good for the judge to know I'm there.

I'm so glad I came! Mayra has such a heart for the children and families who are stuck in this mess. She is truly a gift from God.

I fly out tomorrow at 12:55. It still feels wierd being here by myself. I can't wait to be back home!

Thanks for all of your prayers and please, keep them coming!

Another Stamp In My Passport

Hello from beautiful Guatemala. I arrived yesterday and am all ready for my day today. I'm dressed up (including heels) and I have make up on........yes, me with make up on;) Certainly not in my comfy zone but I'm going all out today. This morning, Mayra is going to pick me up to go to PGN to check on the investigation. Next we're going to the judges office. Mayra couldn't get an appointment for us so we are going to sit and wait for the judge to talk to us............could be a long day.

I'm all alone on this trip so I should have plenty of time to post this evening and let you know how the day has gone.

Inviting your prayers!

Seeing The World Through New Eyes!

At her last Dr appointment, Maria's Dr had her do the generic eye test. I covered one of Maria's eyes while the nurse pointed at the black shape of a sail boat and asked Maria what it was. Maria responded "it's a house". Of course the nurse and I just looked at each other. She pointed at the next shape, which was a star. Maria called that one a triangle. So we switched eyes and got about the same result. I was beyond surprised! The Dr suggested we have a regular eye Dr test Maria's eyes. We found out she has a great deal of astigmatism in both eyes.
She's had her beautiful PINK glasses for about a week now. She wears them all of the time and doesn't complain. That shows me she can see much better with them than without them. And she looks just adorable in them!

Kels helped her color Easter eggs today. Ya, Kelsey was helping Maria, but she was having a good time too;)

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

MARIA REALLY NEEDS HER LITTLE SISTER TO COME HOME.......

......so she'll have someone else to play princess dress up with..........

Poor Dawson!

Just a couple of updates:

*I'm still resisting my chocolate cravings. In fact, I have some days I don't think about it much.

But there are other days.................... I don't know how many bags of Hershey Candy Coated Eggs Mark has put away......(and by put away, I don't mean placed somewhere for safe keeping). He loves those things! I have to admit, I do too. I knew the Easter candy season would be tough but so far so good!

*There is starting to be movement for some cases in the final stages of the adoption process. That's good news for all of us. Even though nothing will happen for us until after our court date in June, it's good to know some cases are starting to be processed again.

I have made plans to go to Guatemala next month. I have a woman who is going to make an appointment for me to meet with our judge. I just want her to know, we're not giving up. I want her to see my face and associate it with one of the many files she has stacked on her desk. I'm also planning on going to PGN to remind our investigator, June is right around the corner, and he needs to get that investigation finished. Maybe I'll find out it's finished when I get there..............probably not, but maybe.

That's all for now.

Please continue to remember the kids in Guatemala, and their waiting

families, in your prayers.

THE CASTLE CAKE WITH PRINCESSES ON IT, WATER AROUND IT AND A MERMAID IN THE WATER..........WHEW!

Well, my Saturday, that I had hoped to dedicate to cake baking and decorating, didn't go quite like I had planned................what a Surprise! Kelsey had a track meet she forgot to tell me about. Of course, it had to be an hour away and one of those that lasted most of the day. We left home at 10:00am and got back home at around 4:30pm. I didn't get started baking until around 7:00 and finally got to bed at almost 5:00am Sunday morning...............but the cake was done!

I started out with two 12" square cakes and a 10" stacked together. I had baked the 6" but it was cooling so while it cooled, I started on the towers.

Each tower was 11 chocolate chip cookies sandwiched together with icing and then covered all around with icing. I cut the corners of the cake off so the towers would fit against it and I stacked and iced the cookies on a pancake turner to make it easier to move while I iced them and to put them in place.

I topped the towers with cakes baked in a Wilton pan that is used to make the dress of small doll cakes. I would rather they had been more pointed and I was going to shape them that way, but when the time came, I decided they were fine the way they were.
I finished icing, placed the princesses and Voila! It was done!
Maria loved it! Unfortunately, for me, she's already planning her next year's cake


Now if you're wondering what happened to the mermaid, well, I wasn't real happy with the way she turned out so she didn't receive a front and center placement. She is, however around the side, in the water, leaning against one of the towers.




It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. If you have a little princess in your house who wants a castle cake, Wilton has a castle cake kit with all of the little pieces and parts you need to make a princess castle...............................but where's the challenge in that?

Another Year Past!

Our little angel, aka little devil.............aka little princess..............aka little artist................aka little fashionista...................aka little bull headed bundle of energy (yes, she's all that and more)
turned six years old on Tuesday! It's hard to believe so much time has past. It's also hard to believe by looking at her (because she's so tiny) that she's six years old! But she is so proud of the fact "I'm not five anymore!"

I'm finally starting to believe Kindergarten may be an attainable thing for her next fall. She's come a long way in her language skills (although she still has a long way to go). Other Kindergarten ready skills are starting to show themselves and I'm hoping with some work over the summer, she'll be up to speed.

We haven't had her birthday party yet. That will happen on Sunday when all the family can come. She wants to have a princess theme (not a surprise!). She also has her cake all planned out. She's requesting a castle, with princesses on it, a mote around it and a mermaid in the water of the mote. I mean, come on...............no problem right?!?! What ever happened to a regular cake with candles? The Cake Boss..........that's what happened. She watches that show with Kelsey and now she thinks anything is possible. Well, you'll have to check in next week and see what kind of concoction I come up with.

To be continued.........

Ah.......A Much Needed Distraction!

After a couple of very busy weeks of work and several weeks of feeling down about how things are moving in Guatemala, Mark let me know he had the week end off and was planning a special surprise for Maria. Knowing how much his baby girl loves to romp and play in the snow, he decided we needed to head down to Paoli Peaks to spend the day snow tubing. Maria didn't know where we were going, just that Daddy had a surprise for her. We loaded up the truck and hit the road. After asking for probably the twentieth time "Are we there yet?", she gave up and she and Monkey snoozed on the trip down.


It's about a two hour drive on some twisting turning roads ,which she would have enjoyed had she been awake. Probably the closest thing to a roller coaster she'll get for quite some time. I don't know if she'll ever be tall enough to meet the height requirement to ride a real one. Anyway, it was a perfect day. The warmest we've had for a while. It's a little expensive but we had such a good time. Listening to her squeal with delight on the way down the hills was absolutely priceless!


I don't know how many times she said afterwards "thank you so much for my surprise............it was so fun!"
It was what we all needed, to get away and just have some fun. Yes, even me, the one who sooo wants winter to be over, had a good time in the snow. I might even be fine with one more trip down there before they close for the winter ;)

What a great idea for a fun day daddy!