Happy Weekend

We are heading to my Dad's for the weekend to celebrate the Holidays with them. I hope everyone has a great weekend and there is plenty of good news today. Happy new year!

Doesn't get any better

than this! We had a wonderful Christmas with Alex and then if that wasn't enough
to make me giddy I turn on the computer to find out that Anika's Birth Certificate and Passport have been issued!!!!!!!!!!!! It turns out that the final adoption decree was not done on the 18th as reported before but on the 11th! This was the day after we exited PGN. The BC was done on the 18th and her passport on the 20th!!!

This means that we should be submitted to the Embassy for final travel dates very soon. I am going to guess that we will be there in 3 weeks!! Lets see if I am right.

This picture of Alex makes me happy. Christmas was a blast this year. Do you know that Santa's Reindeer eat fruit loops? They did right in our driveway! :)
Smiling today...

Adoption Decree has been signed!

I just found out that Anika's birthmother signed
for the 4th and final time yesterday. This means that
we are now Anika's legal parents! My heart breaks thinking
of how hard yesterday must have been for her.

Yesterday was also Miss Julianna's First Birthday! Julianna is my cousin's
daughter. She is so cute. Hope it was a great day.

What does this mean for our travel time now that we have the decree signed? Well we will hopefully being heading to Guatemala in mid-Jan!!

Make new friends

But keep the old
One is Silver and the other Gold...


We went on a trip this weekend to visit my College friends.
It is always nice to hang out with them. We had a gift exchange for
the kids and a nice lunch. Alex was great with my friend's son who will
be a year old on the 31st. I just love this picture of the two kids. Next year Anika will be with us! Yippppeee

HAPPY 8 MONTHS ANIKA!!!

A moment in time...

I will never forget what happened this morning. I went to Alex's Kindergarten to help
with the class trip to the Santa House. It was really special to see all the kids with Santa and how excited they were. They let the kids decorate and eat cookies,get their faces painted and of course visit with Santa. Well Alex gets up on Santa's lap and Santa asked if he had any brothers or sisters. "Yes and we found out yesterday that she is coming after Christmas." I can not explain the joy that I felt at that moment. Alex's teacher heard it too and we locked eyes for a second. I managed not to cry only because I knew it was going to be the big fall on the floor in a puddle cry and I was supposed to be helping. It was really great. I think it has not even sunk in yet and that moment was almost like getting the call. I mean this is really real. I am just so thankful............................

I also found out today that my blog friend Beth is OUT OUT OUT OUT also!! Yea! Still can't figure out these links... www.peachesncinnamon.blogspot.com I am so happy for them.

Thank you all for your comments and support. It means a lot.
Tracy

Alex wants to tell you......

WE ARE OUT!!!!!!
Anika will be with us in a few weeks! Oh Thank you God!
Feeling really blessed right now.
Tracy

Merry Christmas Spiderman

I love this picture. I am so thankful for you KBoy!

Weekend Fun

Snow Day

Today was Kboy's first official SNOW DAY! I am not sure how much snow we have as of now but it must be close to 12 inches and it is still snowing. He had so much fun playing in the snow today. After we came in we made cookies. I just love the picture of Kboy sitting in his chair in front of the oven watching the cookies "grow". Yes he sat there the whole 8 minutes without moving and just watched. It was a nice day.
Hopefully I will get to the decorating pictures from this weekend soon. No news on the adoption front today. Last night there were 4 or 5 families that were approved by PGN in Guatemala with our agency. We are getting closer....

I've been Tagged

Sorry about that lack of hyperlinks in this post. I can't get it to work.
Can anyone tell me how? :)



I've been tagged by Beth http://www.peachesncinnamon.blogspot.com/

4 jobs I have held:
Cruise Line Desk Job
Recruiter
Retail
Mom (By far my favorite)

4 movies watched more than once:

The American President
Notting Hill
Top Gun
Bourne Identity

4 TV Shows I watch faithfully:

The Amazing Race
Numbers
Providence

4 places I have vacationed:

Germany
Paris
Bermuda
London

4 Favorite Foods:
Pizza
Chinese
Mexican
Coffee (is that a food? it is for me)



Places I'd rather be:

Guatemala...duh (ditto Beth)
Florida
Europe
but really did I say Guatemala yet???


Hobbies I have:
surfing the net
taking pictures
surfing the net again....


Thanks for the Tag Beth. It was good to keep my mind off the wait while we as you put it so nicely wait.... I am waiting to see your out post!! You have to be close. In the mean time I tag Sarah.

http://thefoxscub.blogspot.com/2006/12/julianna-morgan.html


I have some nice pictures to share from our Holiday decorating day on Saturday. Christmas with a 5 year old is a total total joy! Those of you waiting for your first babies oh are you in for a treat. I can't wait to do it all again.
Take care
Tracy






Friday, November 30, 2007

November Update Pictures!

Anika is 7 months old in these pictures. She
was not thrilled to have her picture taken this
month. I love the one where she is turning away
and smiling. Kboy looked and said "I can't wait for
the day that I can hug her." OH PGN PLEASE approve us
before Jan!! Latest word is that the vote on wether or not
in process adoptions will continue has passed two readings the final and
3rd reading still needs to take place.

Favorite Photo Friday

This is Kboy last Christmas. He has changed so much in a year. This is the same shirt he had on in my last post. I am amazed at how much my boy has grown.

CONGRATULATIONS to Emily and Sandy who both found out today they PGN has approved their adoptions in Guatemala!!
http://www.guatparentstobe.blogspot.com/
http://www.jsburnette.blogspot.com/

They were both submitted on 10-5-07 and we were resubmitted on 11-9-07 I am hoping we have only a month left!

Holiday Pictures

We had such a wonderful trip to see family last week. We were able to go Wednesday-Sunday this year which made it much less rushed than it normally is. I have so many great pictures. These are only a few. The top one is K-boy with his uncle and great-grandpa. Kboy is starting to read and he jumped onto his great-grandpa's lap to read him a book. It was such a neat moment. Finally Kboy and Daddy today at lunch. I will add more later I need to get Kboy in the tub....

Thankful!

I am feeling a bit bad about the tone of my last post. In thinking about Thanksgiving
this week I realize that I have SO MUCH to be Thankful for! I don't want to be the
bitter person that I was when I wrote the last post. I just long for Anika to be with us and sometimes it is more than I can gracefully deal with. I am Thankful for so much and wanted to share some pictures of my wonderful son with you all. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Not Kicked out of PGN in October.....

afterall. We found out on friday that we were submitted to PGN on 10-10-07 like
we orignally thought. We were NOT issued any previos until 11-07-07! Just this past week. The 10-23-07 resubmit date was a mistake on the lawyers report to our agency a few weeks ago. So.....We were in all along and just kicked out this past week. Luckily the problem with the paperwork was an easy fix and we are back in as of Friday 11-09-07. SO the wait begins again....

A walk in the rain

We went for a little walk in the rain on Sunday. I just love these pictures. Kboy
was so excited to walk with his umbrella. He really is a lot of fun to be with lately. 5 is such a neat age.

New Pictures

Happy Halloween

Fall Fun

This is a video I made of the last few weeks. We are trying to do as much as we can while the weather is still nice. I hope you all are enjoying too. Thanks for the messages and emails this weekend. I got Anika a shirt today that says "worth the wait" I can't wait until she is wearing it but it reminded me that she will be here and she will be worth this wait and so much more



FALL FAMILY FUN

Kicked out of PGN

Well I just checked our agency adoption tracking page to see that we were resubmitted to PGN on 10-23-07! WHAT I thought if you got a previo (KO) then you got a phone call. The good news is we are back in. It must have been an easy fix so we are thankful for that. So the PGN countdown starts over as of the 23rd. Lets hope that is the last KO and we are on our way to an approval.

Fall Fun

We hit a fall festival today at a local ski resort. My favorite part was riding the chair lift to enjoy the leaves. Kboy was MUCH more interested in the bounce house. I am really trying to do lots of these trips with him since next year we will have a one year old in the family and will have to scale back the activities a bit. I know that having a sibling is going to be so wonderful for Kboy. I just hope he feels that way this summer when we are not at the park all day like we were this year. He is still very excited about his sister and asked today if we could bring her to this festival next year. :) I just love how much he thinks of her already.

Visit to Kindergarten!

This picture is Kboy in his classroom but last spring at the registration day. He liked his teacher so much that I asked for him to be in her class and it worked out. Have I mentioned that she is an adoptive mom also? :) Yes I am so thrilled.

It is amazing how one thing can change your whole outlook around. I was in a bit of a funk this week. I was missing Kboy on Wednesday. He was home with a fever on Tues and it was hard to have him gone again the next day. Wednesday was also the day that Anika turned 6 months old. I was in a major funk that day. I was too sad to even post about it. I managed to get past Wednesday and then I put him on the bus Thursday am and came back to "hit the computer" and check out every one's blogs and the adoption chat groups. I hit the send/receive on my email and there is a message from Kboy's teacher. She has a parent come in every Thursday to help make copies and prepare things for the next week etc.. The parent that was going to come had to cx and would I be able to come for an hr that day or the next. I ended up going to school for 2 hrs Thursday and it was such a blessing to me! It was nice to be able to help. I can not describe how neat it was to see Kboy in school sitting in a circle on the floor working with his class. He was so excited that every few minutes he said " Mommy I love you" to me in the back of the class. I was in the office for much of the time making copies and I think that was good so that his teacher could teach without him saying that every few minutes. LOL The best reaction from Kboy was when his teacher took me out to the playground to say hi before I went to the office. He was so happy. He took me to his line and I lined up with the class and walked behind him into school. :) I am really looking forward to Nov when I get to go again. There is also the Halloween Party the day before. This is going to be fun.

Some new pictures

My Sweet Boy

We were just in the kitchen getting Kboys after school snack and he
goes to the fridge and takes a picture of Anika off and kisses it. Then he says "Mom I wish Anika
was really here in this house with us" " I am tired of waiting"
Oh me too sweet boy! Me too!

New Video

I finally made a video of our trip to Germany in August. It was such a great trip. We went to visit my husbands parents. We also had a party for their 50th Anniversary. I hope you enjoy the pictures. This makes me so excited to go on vacation again. Of course we have no idea when that will be. We are saving Jens's vacation for our trip to Guatemala and so that he can stay home a few days when we come back. Also taking a one year old to Germany does not sound like my idea of fun. We went when Kboy was 10 months and about 18 months and it was hard. That being said we will have to take Anika at some point to see all of her family there. Kboy had so much fun this trip and I can't wait to go on vacation with him again.
Germany Trip 2007 August

IN PGN!!!!

We just got word that we were submitted to PGN on Oct 10th! OH what a great
feeling. That is the day that I called and they said that they had no record of our file. So I guess
that explains that. I am so happy right now.

Kboy was only at school today until 12:00. They had a half day and the teachers had a professional development day in the afternoon. It was so fun to see him all afternoon. We hit the park and the library and played some board games. All around a good day. Happy weekend.

Mom's Overture by Anita Renfroe

This is so funny! Enjoy. :)

Guatemalan Ties 2007 - July

Wow I just found this on You Tube. This is a video from the Guatemalan Ties trip this summer. They arrange a heritage trip to Guatemala for adoptive families. This looks amazing. I can't wait until K boy is a bit older so we can go. He is so proud of Guatemala and I am so happy and thankful for that. I just love the smiles on these kids in the video. Kuddos to these parents for taking such a trip with and for them...

Bummer

A fellow http://guatparentstobe.blogspot.com blog buddy called PGN today and found out that they have been in for a while now and are already past the first reviewer. I was so excited for them and very hopeful since they recieved PA the same day we did. Can you see where this is headed? Well I decided to call too fully expecting to hear similar good news. Well you know what they say about assuming?? I was shocked to find out there is no record of our file in PGN yet!! BUMMER BUMMER. I emailed FTIA right away. Ten days between PA and PGN entrance is not out of what they consider to be a normal time frame but they are going to check with our lawyer and get back to us.

I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Emily and hopefully I will have better news soon.

No update yet

We just heard from our Agency that our Lawyer had no new updates for us on last friday's report. :( This is not a surprise and DOES NOT mean that we are not in PGN yet. I am still thinking we have been in a few days now and hopefully this will be confirmed this friday.

My first movie.

My Montage 10/3/07

This is a movie with some pictures from last spring and summer. I am feeling so sentimental these days. I think I will be making more of these in the days to come. Time to go get Kboy off the bus. :) I am finding that since we don't have nearly as much time together as before the time we do have is better in a lot of ways. We are both excited to see each other and we have more quality time. Don't get me wrong it is not ALL great but somehow more intense. There are times when we are still on each others nerves. I am just wondering how things will go once Anika is added to the mix. We are getting used to this "new normal" and then in a few months it will be changed majorly again. Have to run the first bus just came by. :)

Thankful to be his Mom!

With all the stress and worry going on in the Guatemalan adoption world lately I have not put anything on the blog about my son in a while. This post is long overdue. He has been doing so well in Kindergarten! I am just so proud of him. He has gone from going to preschool 3 days a week for 2 hrs to going 5 days a week from 7:45-3:00. I did send him to our local YMCA for 2 weeks this summer for their camp for kids going into K or first grade this year. This was from 9:00-4:00 and I thought it would be a good test run for school. He loved it there and I have to say that he loves school MORE !! I am so thankful that he is so happy about it and that he has a wonderful teacher. She is very good with the kids and is also an adoptive mom! How cool is that? It has gone as well as it possibly can and much better than I expected. Today was such a good day. His teacher sent home a "progress report" with a little note on how he is doing so far. His could not have been any better. YIKES this is turning into a post where I feel like I'm bragging. It is more relief and joy on my end. He is a great kid and I know it is not all my doing.
Part of her note read " He is very ready for all day K..." I had to giggle at that one because it seems that he was "ready for all day K" all along it was ME that everyone had to drag kicking and screaming to the school. (Not literally :) I really wanted him to go just half day. It seems like I had to "send him to school" a year early this way. This last month has been very interesting for me. I think once Anika is here things will fall into place. I am so happy and thrilled with school and so sad at the same time. Very strange feeling really. I did go to the school a few weeks ago when they had school pictures to help. That was really neat to see him there and how happy he was! I knew he was happy but to see it was a very neat experience. I had a hard time not crying. My first day to go into his class and help his teacher prepare things is Nov 1st. That will be fun and very interesting though I am guessing he will act differently with me there. Since K is now all day I have cut his activites way back. The only thing he is doing right now other than school is Tae Kwon doe. He started that this summer and we all love it. The change in him has been amazing. He is so much more respectful and listens better. I think this is helping him shine so bright at school. Tonight was his first "test" he demonstrated what he has learned since June and answered questions on the history of Tae Kwon doe. He has moved up into a new rank. He is now a yellow belt. The look on his face is worth everything in the world to me. I am very very very thankful tonight!! He is such a special gift and I am so lucky to be his Mom. I can only imagine how great it is going to be to have Anika with us as well.
Feeling Blessed
Guatemama Two