Yeah Callum!!!

Callum is now officially potty trained!!! It has been a full week with no accidents. He is doing so well and we couldn't be prouder!!! Now I get a break from diapers and never in a million years did I think I would say this, but hopefully soon I will have more to change!!!

Here is our little man!!!

Here is our little boy that we have been praying for!!! He is now 15 months, and yes we have been matched with him for that entire 15 months:0) These are first pictures that we have gotten in over 6 months. We spoke to our lawyer in Guatemala today and he is still working on things. Today for the first time in a long time ,I think Gareth and I feel very hopeful. I truly wish that I could go in to details of everything that we have been through, but now that there is an investigation pending with the Attorney Generals' office and the FBI, I can't share much. Just please know that your continued prayers and support are VERY much appreciated!!!!

Isn't he adorable????

rather than posting something that is in writing and I can't take back, just know that we were supposed to get news again today and now it is 10:30 and we got nothing. I just need some positive news right now and no drama!!!! I have never felt so hopeless and down about a situation before ever!!! Oh well, maybe tomorrow!!!

another long weekend!!!

You would think that by now, we would be used to them. We were hoping to get pictures today and to hear the final word on our adoption. It is 5:30, and as of 2:00, our lawyer in Guat. hadn't heard anything. So, as the same story goes, we get to wait another weekend to find anything out.

Alex got her report card today and we couldn't be more proud of her. She got perfect scores on just about everything, except listening skills, (no suprise there hehehe). She is a full grade above grade level now. I treated her to a pet dog from target with a carrying case. She is very excited. A few weeks ago, Gareth took the kids to the Women's Basketball game at the Univ. of Maryland. They were playing Duke. Alex was so excited when she came home and said that she wanted to go to college to play basketball now, not be a Doctor. We had to inform her that although those girls plays basketball, they do study other things as well. Then she proceeded to ask me if she should go to Maryland or Duke. I told her that both schools required her to get really good grades and to study really hard. Today as we were going over her report card, she said, "If I keep this up, I can go to college and play basketball." too cute. I know what most of you are thinking. We have no idea where she has gotten this fixation with basketball, Gareth and I know nothing about basketball and neither of us have ever played it, but now that she is playing it, it is all she talks about. i think she has found her passion.

and so it continues......we were able to have a conference call today with Guatemala.
Things could still happen. What an absolute roller coaster we are on. In the past 2 months, we have been on and off again almost a dozen times. I am not sure how much more we can take emotionally, but we are going to hang on until they tell us that NOTHING more can be done. We now know that the birth mom still very much wants this to happen. How horrible that she is being effected by this too. Now we just have to continue to get through the other obstacles in our way!!!! I just pray that we can physically and emotionally do it. It seems that the main person holding us up is the facilitator. She is not cooperating My strength is getting better every day, but I am still not 100%. I think I am better and then I try to do something and it really reminds me how sick I was.

Alex gets her report card tomorrow. she is very excited and keeps talking about it. I hope that she always loves school this much!! It is very exciting!!!

negotitations didn't go well. very disappointed and our hearts are breaking more each day.

still trying!!!

As of 4:00 p.m. tonight, we were waiting for a call. Our lawyer down in Guat. was meeting with our facilitator. It is now 10p.m. and we just got an email from the lawyer saying that the facilitator will negotiate, and will call him with a "proposal" tomorrow morning. Always tomorrow. We can't ever get an answer when we are supposed to. Let's just pray that she really does lower what she is asking for. This is a child not a car!!!

Wednesday!

We were able to speak with our lawyer in Guatemala. He is still trying to see if we have any options left. I truly wish that I could give you all the low down, but to put it all in writing, would take ages, and some things I am not aloud to share. I think we are most upset that the main person that will be hurt in this is a beautiful 15 month old little boy. What a shame that adoption around the world has been turned in to a business. I am trying to hang on to the fact that God is able to change any situation and anyone's heart. He is in control of this situation and I just pray that we are given peace in whatever decisions that we need to make. The hardest part of this process is the ups and downs of not knowing the end result. For the past two months, we have been told endless times that this isn't happening, only to be told within hours or the next day that they have found a way. OUr emotions are just on edge and I pray that we are able to have our answer soon!!!

I felt pretty rough today. it is amazing how pneumonia can do this to you. Just walking up stairs takes everything out of me. We have been blessed with such wonderful friends that have helped with the kids, made meals so that Gareth doesn't have to worry about feeding everyone, and just called to check on us. Thank you so much to all of you for helping while I am sick. I have lost about 10 pounds so if there is anything positive out of all of this, it is that. I know that I will put it all back on soon, but right now, my pants are loose:0) We are off to put our beautiful children to bed. I hope that you all have a GREAT night!!!

Looks like the prayer just wasn't answered!

if the prayer was answered, it wasn't the answered that we had wanted. We used our last contact this week and it doesn't look good. At this point, it looks as if the adoption isn't going to be able to be finished. There is so much drama involved that I can't even begin to go in to it here. The only thing that could help at this point is a miracle and I can't really believe that will happen at this point. I can't begin to describe how we feel. We do appreciate all of your support through the last few months.

Monday!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Last week was one that I hope not to repeat again. On Thursday, I woke up feeling a bit ill. As many of us know, when you have kids, you can't take the day off, so I got up and went about the day as usual. Around 3 or 4 I started to feel pretty bad and at 6 I called Gareth and asked him to try and come home early. At 6:30 I called my mom and asked her to come over and help with the kids. Gareth was able to come home about an hour early and at 8:00 when he walked through the door, I told him that I thought i needed to go to the hospital. Long story short, by the time we got there, i had a raging fever, and my heart rate was over 140. They took me straight back, hooked me up to an IV and that is where I stayed for the next few hours. At 2:30a.m., after many tests and check x-ray etc., they explained that since they couldn't get my heart rate down under 120, and I had pneumonia, they were preparing to admit me. GREAT!!! I got to spend Friday and Saturday in the hospital. On Saturday night when the doctor came in, I told her I was going home. What an awful place to be if you are sick. Needless to say, I am trying to take it easy now. I did go out for an hour today and kinda regret it now:0) i will be taking it easy this week trying to get my strength back up. We do have the most wonderful friends that have helped with the kids and that have made some meals so that Gareth doesn't have to stress about food this week. As for me, I don't have much of an appetite yet, so maybe the plus to this will be losing a few pounds:0)

We are praying for news on the adoption by the end of the week. Hopefully it will be good news!!

Thursday!

Our contact is coming home early since she has had no luck. No new news for us:0(

Middle of the week and no new news!!

Well, it is the middle of the week. Our contact went down on Monday and has had no luck finding anything out on our case. It has been very disappointing to get emails from her with no new news. She was really the last hope we had when it comes to people that we personally know.

We have one option left and although it isn't the best alternative for us as it is going to def. cost more money, we have to try it before giving up completely. At least if we try, we will know where we stand. If we give up now without knowing, we will always wonder. I do have a hard time believing that we were brought this far to not bring him home, but as days have turned in to weeks and now months since we were issued approval, it seems more possible that that is indeed the case. My heart aches and we are trying very hard to remain strong. I know that I haven't had the morning sickness this time, although I have been pretty sick to my stomach, and I know that I haven't gained pregnancy weight,(i know, i didn't gain with Alex) although I have gained more weight from stress eating. I have experienced many things that were the same as Alex's pregnancy and many that were different. There were similar things in Callum's adoption and different. The one thing that is the same is that we would like to have the joy of having another child and I just pray that it really does get to happen.

We got word today that Gareth's parents are coming at the end of April. We are so excited that we now have something positive to look forward to. We haven't told the kids and don't think that we will until they are about to come. We will never hear the end of "when are they coming?" if we tell them now:0)

Please continue to keep our whole adoption situation in your prayers!!!! Please pray for our strength. That we will be able to get answers which ever way we are supposed to go. Please pray for the beautiful little boy that is waiting to be loved and held. That he is being taken care of. Please pray for our family. Alex and Callum. Alex keeps talking about her brother and she just doesn't understand that it might not happen. Please pray that we are able to find trustworthy people to try and help us!!

Ya know, it just never ends.....

So, we get an email last night saying that someone is going down on Monday. They will try and get to the bottom of everything. That is great. They do need money for foster care fees. We knew that. I had today to wire it. I went to the bank first thing this morning, 9:15 to be exact and took care of everything. I was then gone for the day. I got home about 5:30 after picking Alex up from school and running a few errands. Well, our bank had called at noon saying that they needed another address in order to wire the money. Apparently the bank routing number, account number and bank address were not enough, even though when I was there, they said they had everything they needed. Long story short, it was 5:45 by the time I got the message. The bank is closed. Luckily, I just got off the phone with the women going down and she said that I should take care of it asap, but it should be ok. Thank heavens that she called or I would have stressed all weekend. She did ask me to ask for prayer. Please pray that she is able to find favor with the people down there and get answers. That she is gentle and wise. This next week will be huge for us and hopefully by the end of the week we will at least know where we stand in terms of our case!!! Please pray!!!

Day 1 in to the New Year!

So, who would have expected drama the first day of the new year? Not Us:0)
Last night, we got home from Basketball and Cheerleading and I noticed during the practices how pale Alex was. She wasn't acting like herself, but she didn't want to leave. We got home, got the kids a bath and then put them to bed. Today was the first day back at school and Alex was VERY excited to go back. Around 10:30, I heard her in her bed crying. I went in thinking that she had had a nightmare. She was burning up with fever and was complaining that her throat hurt and she couldn't breath. Now, Alex is the child that had pneumonia at 2 and was still running around like nothing was wrong. She hates to stop and she hates to miss school. I asked, do we need to go to the doctor? That means no school tomorrow. She said, "mommy I hurt real bad." My heart broke. So, I took her down to the E.R. We had to spend most of the night there. It turns out that she has strep throat,(her throat was very swollen) an ear infection and a fever. Poor thing!! She never once complained about her ear, but the Dr. said "An adult that had an ear that red and swollen would have been crying like a baby. She must have a very high tolerance for pain." She got so upset when the Doctor said no school for 2 days. So, we have spent today catching up on sleep, which is pretty hard to do considering Callum got a full nights sleep. She says that she is feeling better now, but she also says that she wants to go back to school tomorrow. She is still very pale and hasn't eaten today, so my theary is that she is just trying to convince me to let her go tomorrow. NOt gonna happen:0)I hope that she loves school this much when she is a teenager!!

Happy New Year!!!

We had our nephews on Sunday night and that was great!! We didn't have church so we went to a friends to watch the Redskins WIN!!! Go SKINS!! Gareth and I didn't exchange gifts this year for Christmas as we were hoping to go to Guatemala and now we are still saving for going to Guatemala. Anyway, on Sunday he surprised me with a Brand New Redskins Jersey that just "couldn't be passed up." It was a #7 Theismann. It was originally $110.00. He noticed that it had a pen mark on it, so he went up and asked if there was another in Medium. The manager said, "no, but I will discount it for you." He said that he would have taken it for $65.00 as it was authentic and stitched. When she quoted him $50 he said it was a no brain er. How sweet he is. He made my day by the gift, but those of you who know me well, know the deal meant just as much. I was so proud of him, and I am sure that we will be able to get the pin mark out. I am just not aloud to try until after they play on Saturday. (unless they win, then it will have to wait again)

Anyway, New Years Eve.... we have decided that we are not young anymore. The 2 of us went to dinner and a movie. It was so nice. Midnight saw us on the couch trying to keep our eyes open. (so sad) During dinner, we were talking about how hard the past 4 years have been. My dad's health keeps going down hill, miscarriage, my moms bout with cancer, waiting for Callum, now waiting for Nicholas, not to mention many others. Needless to say, it is pretty easy to say that we haven't had a smooth patch of time for a while. Gareth said that he feels 2008 will be our year!!! Regardless of what happens and what things are thrown at us, we will start to really enjoy life again. Our lives have been filled with so much drama and we have really been in a holding pattern waiting for almost 2 years for our newest addition. As easy as it would be for us to dwell on all of the negatives, We are really going to try to stay focused on the positive and really enjoy life!!!! I pray that 2008 gets a little easier for us, but I also know that through the past years, we have grown. We have gown as individuals and as a couple. We joked that a little break to come up for air would be nice:0) So, here is to 2008!!! Another wonderful year with a wonderful family, beautiful children and the Grace of God that has gotten us here and will continue to get us through!!