One week from today....

........I will be in the same city as my baby boy! We are leaving around 6:00 am from the Columbus airport and we arrive in Guatemala City a little before noon. It is essentially the same flight I took the last two times we flew. We will arrive home on Tuesday the 17th a little before 6:00. We also have our rooms at the Marriott booked. So, we are pretty much good to go!!!

Ryan's mom and dad have decided to go with us to Guatemala. I am very grateful that they are willing to come along. They will be a tremendous help with the kids and as always, just good company.

I have been packing a little bit the last couple days. Oh my, we are going to have a lot of luggage. Packing for 7 people for 9/10 days is not easy. Not to metion all the gifts I am packing for Gideon's foster family and all the snacks and stuff for the kids/us that we can't get in Guatemala. I swear I am trying to condense it as much as I can, but this is quite the crew!

We have been working on the house quite a bit the last couple weeks also and we are making really great progress. The kitchen is done and our new bathroom is almost finished. Plus, I have just been doing a lot of organizing and cleaning. We finally have the kids' 3 bedrooms ready for all 5 kids. As silly as this may sound, it is a great feeling to fill those bedrooms up! Leah really made out on the room situation. All 3 bedrooms are really good sized, but hers is probably the biggest and she has it to herself! She loves it!

I wanted to add a little "thank you" to my mom and my sister. They are already working on things for the "Welcome Home" party so that I don't have to mess with it. I really appreciate them!

Well, off I go for now. I'm sure I will check back in before we leave.

Julie

Boys can look good in PINK also!!!

Well, we got the call we've been waiting for!! Gideon has his pink slip!!!!! Oh my goodness, I am so excited. Here is how is went down, it is pretty cool.....

I decided to call the US Embassy in Guatemala today to see if they had received Gideon's DNA results yet. That was a little out of my comfort zone, but I thought what the heck. You can only call the Embassy from 2 to 3:15 Tues. through Thurs., so, if I didn't call today, I'd have to call next week. So I called at 4:45 our time (2:45 Guat time) and talked to a really nice lady. She said they hadn't got his DNA results yet. She also said that they try to issue the pink slips as soon as they get the DNA results. She then told me that Embassy appointments were running around 2 weeks out.

So, I went along on my merry way (well, kind of merry). I got home around 8:45 tonight and there was a message on my phone from the US Embassy! Yes, the US Embassy in Guatemala called me at home. I have never heard of that! It was the sweetest lady and she said that they recieved Gideon's DNA results today and his visa appointment is October 12th at 7:15 am!! I am just so suprised they called me at home and they got the results and, well, I am just so ready to go and get my boy!!!!

Right now we don't know when we will be leaving. Ryan is at a Red's game and won't be home until late. We will talk asap!

FYI, it looks like the kids' welcome home party will be November 3rd. This isn't set in stone, but that will probably work out the best!

So, I will let you know when I have more news!! Oh my goodness.....so excited!!

Julie

More Good News!

I just talked to my agency and she just got Gideon's DNA results in the mail. She normally gets them faxed to her. So, she said that if she has them the Embassy will probably have them by tomorrow. She said that we should have our pink slip within a week. Woohoo!!!! I cannot tell you how exciting this is.

To tell you the truth, it is a little scary. I mean I am totally ready, but we have a lot to do to get this brood physically ready to travel. Plus, on top of that I am trying to get my kitchen finished. We had to completely redo all the paper and repaint. So, the painting is done and the paper is about 2/3 rds done, but I ran out of paper, so..... It may not get done before we go, even though I just ordered some more.

Our agency said that they are seeing Embassy appointments being made for 3 or 4 days after pink slips, but on my adoption board they are running more like 2 weeks out. So, we shall see......

As exciting as all this is for us I would love to ask prayers for a friend of mine. She just got abother knock out of PGN after being in for 10 weeks. And, it was something that her caseworker forgot to put in her file. She is just so bummed and I just feel really bad for her.....

Thanks guys!!

Julie

Moving right along!!!

Well we had to give our credit card # to our agency today for Gideon's 2nd DNA. This is very cool and puts us a little further along than I thought we were (for once :)). Our agency said it usually take a weeks to get the DNA back to the Embassy and then 1 to 5 days to get pink. So, we might get to go back as early as 2 weeks!! I am ready!!! Come to mama baby boy!!!

Julie

Today was a little scary.

So I took Annie to our local Dr.'s office to get her TB test read (she had it done in Cincy on Wed.). Well, it was positive. Dr. Staat had said that 20% of children will test positive. So, the next step was a chest x-ray. Before the x-ray I was getting a little scared. If the chest x-ray was bad it would mean she has active TB, which is pretty contagious and just not a good thing. Praise God the x-ray came back negative. So now Annie will have to take a daily medicine for 9 months. I guess after that she has a 95% chance of never showing any syptoms of her TB. although, she will always probably be a carrier.

Poor girl, daily medicine for 9 months, yuck! But hey, it could have been worse!

Julie

A Gideon Update

I got an e-mail from our agency this morning saying that Gideon has his new birth certificate. YIPEE!! This made me so very happy because I was getting pretty bummed with how long it seems things are taking. So, the next big stop is the US Embassy. He will get his new passport and stuff, but those should only take a day or two. I think it will take like 3 to 4 weeks until we travel. I feel like I've been saying that for 6 weeks now, but we are actually moving, so that should be about right.

I don't know if I wrote this or not before, but the plan is to leave as soon as we have our pink slip for Gideon. There's usually 5 to 8 days between notification of pink and the appointment. We are going to try and leave like next day. With Annie we waited until closer to the actual date.

I really can't tell you how excited I am to bring Gideon home. It is amazing to me how much he seems such a part of our family already. At least in my heart he is. I just can't wait to introduce him to everyone. He is such a cool little guy!

Julie

Finally some pictures of Annie!

Ok, so we finally got our computer issues worked out so here are some pictures of Miss Annie.


This one I just thought was cute. We visited my mom and step dad at a campground a couple weekends ago and the girls needed a place to sleep. So, Annie fell asleep in the back of our Suburban and Maddie went to sleep in the back of my sister's Tahoe.


I totally love this picture of Annie. It was taken over at my BIL and SIL's house. We went over for my sweet little niece's first birthday.

Well, it was bound to happen. We have two identical strollers that the girls push around the house all day. It was only a matter of time that they realized that they could push each other around.

Cool dude, don't cha think? She thought so, she loves to put glasses on and smile!

We took this at a campfire we had here at the house. The girls look so old sitting like big kids in their chairs!

I just like this picture of Annie. So sweet!

This picture was just taken like two days ago. This is what happens when you give a toddler a handy snack with peanut butter. Seriously though, Annie is the messiest eater I have ever seen. But, I was asking for it though. I mean peanut butter for a 16 month old....... I just set her on the ground and let Flirt (our golden retriever) clean her up.

Well, that is it for now.

Oh, just a little tid bit of info..... Wednesday was are going to Cincy to take Annie to her Dr.'s Appt. with Dr. Staat. Dr. Staat is an International Assistance Dr. that does nothing but see children that have been internationally adopted. Annie will eventually just see our family Dr., but it is good for her to initally see a specialist.

I will post later, after I talk to my agency about Gideon.

Julie

P.S. I really didn't let Flirt lick Annie clean. Stop worrying. I mean gesh, what kind of mom do you think I am? :)

Annie is just so great!

I thought I would take a moment to dote on my Annie.

She is just doing such an amazing job at adjusting into life with the Coles! I am so proud! She pretty much understands everything we say to her, and has been for a while. She even follows intructions, which I'm not even sure Maddie did at that age. She says, "ut oh," and "peek a boo." She also says ma ma, da da and ba ba (for her bottle). She has gained 3 pounds since she came home, which is quite a bit considering she only started out a little over 19 lbs. You can tell she has chunked up. I love it.

We have pretty much moved her from formula to milk and she does great on it.

For those of you who haven't met her yet, she has a super low voice. It is kind of cool and raspy sounding. Sometimes I can't tell if she is whining or laughing because her voice is so low. But, she can hit the high notes when she wants. Like when she is ticked because she doesn't want to take a nap. Holy cow, she can really scream when she wants!

Our three other kiddos get along great with her. Leah and Logan just love to love on her and are so helpful with her! Maddie does pretty good with her also, considering. Annie and Maddie have their moments. Like when they try to steal each others toys, they are both fiesty and will pitch a fit. In hindsight, it is pretty funny. Annie likes to swipe things. Like, she will swipe Maddie's binky even though she has no desire to use one. I really believe she knows it ticked Maddie off. She will swipe it and then stick it in her mouth and smile. Once no one is paying attention, she throws it down. The do have their sweet moments though. Sometimes Maddie will "pet" Annie or feed her her bottle. I have yet to see either be "mean" to one another. I can also tell that Maddie is soothing to Annie. She will settle down when Maddie is around. She also follows Maddie everywhere and often times tries to copy her. I can tell, this is the start of a beautiful thing!

Annie is a pretty friendly gal also. She will high 5 people and wave at them.

Oh one more thing, she twirls her hair when she is tired. I just love that. She especially does it when she is tired and has a bottle. The bottle will be in one hand and the twirling hair in the other. It is quite adorable.

Ok, doting over! I want to add some updated pics since she's been home. But we are having computer issues (again), so it will have to wait.

BTW, no new news on Gideon. I will call next Tues., which will be 2 weeks since the document has been to Guatemala and check on things. We are still planning to travel to Guatemala as a family. The plan is to leave as soon as we have pink (like the next day). There's usually 5 to 8 days between pink and our Embassy appointment, so that will get us there a little early. I am still very much missing my boy, but I am really trying not to focus on the gaping hole, but on the bigger picture, which is us together as a family!

Julie