Thoughts from the week

Last week we had our first official family trip to get ice cream. We went to one of Jason and my favorite places - King Cone Castle. Karla had a great time! I had fun just watching her!

Hmmm...what flavor should we get?


I'm not wasting a bite of this!


Last week was a bit stressful. Karla hurt her arm one evening and then the next morning wasn't using her arm at all and was clinging to Jason when he went to leave for work so we were both very worried. Luckily, a little Tylenol and some Pap-Pap time healed her arm right up! (yep, I had to call Pap-Pap on his first day off for the summer so he could calm me down) And yes, Karla's parents were both overly worried about her and took longer to recover than she did.

Then Wednesday Karla had a fever. It hit her pretty suddenly and then I noticed she was having difficulty breathing. I got nervous because it was the first time that has happened when I was here by myself. Usually Jason has been home. Anyway, after some albuterol in her nebulizer her breathing was okay. We did lots of laying around and cuddling that day...so it wasn't all bad. :)

Thursday Karla and I stayed home again for her to continue to recuperate. By Friday I was ready to get out of the house. The weather didn't look too great outside so I decided we were going to go to Fun Fore All where there is an indoor play area for kids. We had a great time! It took a while for Karla to warm up and get adventurous but she did! This picture is on a bridge that is 4 stories above ground. I felt a little shaky being up so high (I refused to jump on the bridge with her) but she thought it was great.


I have been meaning to post the following picture from our trip - I think it has been 2 weeks already - to Chik Fil A with Mammy and Pappy.


Saturday we went to visit my family for the day to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. We've been there several times since Karla has been home but this was the easiest and smoothest trip! Usually it takes a few days to get her back to normal with sleeping once she gets off her usual routine. This time she took a nap at Grandma and Grandpa's! We've tried before but she just cried...well, screamed...and that made me feel so mean. Anyway, she went right to bed last night, slept all night last night, and we had no problems today either. Whew!

She had a great time playing with her cousins, singing "Happy Birthday" and eating cake!

I was just going to sit down and write a few things...and now I can think of even more to write. Enough for tonight though!

I uploaded more pictures to flickr the other day so be sure to check them out!

Rant about Guat Adoptions

I just learned about a campaign called "The Guatemala 900" last week. There are 900 Guatemalan children waiting to come home to the U.S. I haven't been keeping up on the situation in Guatemala much because it really does continue to anger and upset me to know there are children STILL waiting to be able to come home. I haven't fully recovered from our wait yet. Even though Karla is home I still feel for these 900 families!

I received an email from Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) with the following information:

(This campaign is not officially affiliated with JCICS but is supported by JCICS.)
On June 17th, the Guatemala 900 Campaign will become a voice for the 900 children whose adoptions have yet to be completed despite 18 months of investigations, court hearings and interviews. The campaign will advocate with the U.S. and Guatemalan governments to ensure a quick and final resolution of all cases and an end to the victimization of Guatemalan children.

The launch of the campaign will include a rally, speeches, a march from the White House to the Capitol and a candlelight vigil at the Guatemalan Embassy.

The Guatemala 900 Campaign has a goal in parallel to the ongoing Joint Council Guatemala 5000 Initiative

We were part of the Guatemala 5000 initiative because, when Guatemala closed adoptions on January 1, 2008 (Yes, I said 2008), we were one of the 5000 families waiting for their child to come home.

So, now the number is down to 900...but WHY? After being closed for adoptions for 18 months, I think it would be interesting to know what the Guatemala government is doing down there. Why can't they get these cases completed and why do they continue to make more "busy" work for these families?

You may say that on Jan 1, 2008 there were 5000 families and now there are only 900 waiting - but there NEVER should have been 5000 way back at the beginning of 2008. The system is corrupt.

So, in the U.S. parents are sad and stressed (and probably continuing to have to pay more and more money) waiting for their child and in Guatemala the children are getting older which will only make the transition home more difficult.

Something to think about...

Lets pray that next Wednesday, June 17th, this campaign gets someone's attention!

Scrapbook Page

I started this page a few days ago and I finished it just a few minutes ago! I love how it turned out. I actually had the camera and Karla was feeling cooperative...making lots of faces for me. :) I always have trouble fitting multiple pictures on scrapbook pages and still having them look nice. I love my little Epson PictureMate printer!

I know you can't read the caption above each picture...I'll just have to show you the pages sometime!

Highlights from our week

Here are some highlights from our week:

Monday we got to have lunch with Mammy and Pappy at Chik Fil A! Karla had a great time and even got Pappy to play in the Playplace with her.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast with Shirley for her birthday. We got to go out to eat twice in two days!

Wednesday Karla spent the morning with Grammy while I caught up on doctor's appointments. Here is Karla pretending to be a baby with Grammy.

In the afternoon we watched about half of Pocahontas. It was raining, dreary, and Daddy was working late. I say we watched half of it because I fast-forwarded through a lot of parts. Karla didn't even want to see scenes without John Smith or Pocahontas so that was good....skipped over the fight scenes. We had the VHS tape...I almost forgot how to use the VCR and hook it up to our TV! :) Here is Karla acting really excited with her Pocahontas tape and picture that she colored.


Thursday we went to the allergist for Karla's 6 week check-up. Karla was actually excited to see the doctor (and tell him about her latest boo-boo) and was very well-behaved in his office. He told us that he gave a seminar recently to physicians in the area and that he ran into Karla's pediatrician. He said they talked about Karla when they spoke to one another. I guess she is a memorable little patient. :) We love Karla's allergist! He is so nice, takes us seriously, and spends time talking to us.

Jason took Thursday morning off so we stopped at FedEx to get Karla's picture taken for her certificate of citizenship and passport. We're not planning any trips out of the country anytime soon but want her to have a passport. Then we went to Moe's for lunch! Yeah! Karla likes their tacos (and I like their burritos). All the employees are nice as I'm sure you know if you've been to the Moe's near us...and at least 2 of them are adopted so Karla usually gets special attention there....and she doesn't mind one bit.

Karla and I did some finger painting (and feet-painting) on the deck one evening. She had a great time making a big mess!


Today we went to Lola and Carey's house! We hadn't seen them in a while so we were both excited to see them and catch up. We were hoping to be able to get in their pool but...the weather was too cold.

Better rest up for tomorrow's adventures!

Pilates, Pocahontas, and the Park

This evening we had some friends over for dinner. They have a 2 and a 4 year old girl and a baby boy. Karla loves playing with the girls. The above pictures are Ava and Karla chillin' in the lounge chair. Karla seems to like to be led around by Sophia, the 4 year old. Here are the three cuties...


This week has been pretty good considering all the dreary weather (except this sunny weekend). Monday Jason was off work for Memorial Day. We worked all morning and early afternoon on potty training. Karla is MUCH more likely to sit on the potty for Jason than for me. We had some successes and some accidents. I guess the potty-training is going to be a longer process than I thought. But that is okay. I thought we were going to be working on it all week but it fizzled out after Jason went back to work on Tuesday.

Monday afternoon we got to have a picnic with some friends from church at the park. It was nice because I feel like we haven't gotten to talk to them much since little K's been home.

Wednesday morning I got to do some running around - errands and at the Y - while Grammy stayed with Karla.

Thursday after bible study we went to Pizza Hut with Nana Shirley and a few other people. It was neat because Karla is finally warming up to Shirley. She let her hold her once and then held her hand from the car to our table in the restaurant. It meant a lot to me and I think Shirley liked it too! I wished I had my camera.

This week marked a year since I worked...not that I am really keeping track. Just remembered it was at the end of May and my dad sent me flowers. :) I can't believe it has been that long!

Jason has had a stack of adoption papers for me to go through and determine if it is okay to get rid of them. I finally did it the other day. Most of the papers were duplicates of papers we had to send in our initial dossier to Guatemala and then lots of notes I took during phone conversations with various people from our agency and in Guatemala. After a few months of adoption, I realized EVERYTHING I said, and especially what others told me, needed to be documented. I didn't want to part with the papers but then I asked myself why I thought I needed them. I decided I didn't need them because the only thing they do is get me irritated and bring that "pain" back. I don't need that anymore and none of that matters!! I'm letting Jason shred it all though. :) Not sure why I just wrote all that...

One of our neighbors brought a bunch of nice hand-me-down summer clothes over for Karla. All her size! We have a lot of nice neighbors! Several let us use their swing sets too - which I am very grateful for...we're getting ready to get our own soon though.

Karla and I did pilates every other day this week. I have a 20 minute video that we did. The first day she laid on the floor with her legs up in the air - right next to me. The second day she did a little and then played with her toys in the same room. The third day she played with her toys and every once in a while would say "good job, Mommy" or "sit up tall, Mommy". I guess the lady in the video says that frequently. All 3 days Karla did the "ball" exercise with me. Then Saturday morning I noticed she was doing something with Oso...I asked her what she was doing and she said "Oso, ball". It was pretty funny! Oso does pilates too! Oh, and at the end of our pilates session I always get an extra 30 lb "ball" of resistance that I put up in the air with my legs to make an "airplane"...so we always end laughing.

By the way, Oso is no longer Oso. He is always "Baby Oso". Not sure why or exactly when this happened.

Karla goes through phases of books that she lets us read/likes to read. This week she discovered a book on her shelf called Pocohontas. She calls it "Cocahonas" - pretty close! We've read it MANY times a day! It has gone places in the car with us. Yesterday when we were at some friends house who had little cowboy and Indian figures - Karla named them - Kokoum, John Smith, Namonotuck, Ratcliffe - all characters in the book. Someone heard me talking about how Karla is into this book right now and then brought the Disney movie to church this morning for us to borrow!! I have to preview it though to see if it will be okay for her to watch. I haven't seen it in a long time.

I took Karla to get bloodwork done on Friday for her her 6 month check-up. It is recommended to check (again) that all her immunizations were done in Guatemala, etc. I was supposed to take her in May...and I waited until the last possible day because I wasn't looking forward to it. Last time she had bloodwork I made Jason go with us, go in late to work, and hold Karla during the blood draw. This time I was determined to do it by myself with Karla. She did GREAT! Why was I even worried? She whimpered when they first put the needle in but then she was fine. I was proud of us both...and the nurses commented again about what a good little patient she is. :)

Yesterday I took Karla to the park in the morning. I took a snack and after we played a while, we sat on a bench to eat. Karla was holding my hand, leaning on my legs and chewing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature wasn't too hot or cold. I just had to think, does it get any better than this? :) Then she looked up at me and said "love you, Mommy".

Happy Memorial Day!

Fun! Fun! Fun!



We went to Mammy and Pappy's house today (my grandparents and Karla's GREAT-grandparents). Every year they have had a Memorial Day picnic...except last year because Mammy was going through chemo. BUT this year was great! Mammy is better and Karla is home! Fun was had by all! Karla experienced her first slip-and-slide and spent the whole afternoon with her cousins and family. She had no fear and loved the water. If it is nice tomorrow we are thinking of taking her to the local pool to swim.

I'm uploading new pictures to flickr now. It is going to take a while though...lots of pictures. :)

This Week

A week ago today we finally received Karla's Pennsylvania Birth Certificate in the mail! We were pretty excited to get it! We've been waiting on it since our court appointment in March.

Last Sunday we went over to some friends' house for dinner and some playing. It is amazing how it was so cool that night and then it was so hot by Wednesday! Karla had fun using Isadora's jump rope (she was pretty good I must say). She's seen her cousins jumping rope before but never done it herself. She also learned to play duck-duck-goose. Isadora's dad took lots of pictures with his new camera. I was happy he did because he got some good ones! I want to post a lot but I'll have to upload the others to flickr sometime this weekend. :)




I haven't worked much on the potty training. She gets mad if we suggest sitting on the potty. However, she did sit and went pee-pee Monday night for Daddy! She's more likely/willing to try for him than me...

I discovered Karla is able to draw circles. Apparently Jason had seen this before but I hadn't. :)

We're still searching for a basic swing set. We just want something with 3-4 swings and a slide. Seems like you have to get that plus a clubhouse/treehouse thing with a rock wall, and all the accessories, etc. While that is all fun and fine, it isn't what we want. Several neighbors have big swing sets and we live close to at least 3 parks so we don't need it. Plus we have limited flat and dry yard space. PLUS swing set prices are (in my opinion) ridiculous! Have they always been that expensive? The other thing that is bothering me is that we are going to have to put one together probably or make our own...not really what I want Jason to have to do in the evenings or on weekends. Oh well. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them! :)

Last weekend we FINALLY put sand in a sand box we have had on our deck for 2 years. Karla loves it and can spend long amounts of time there.


Here is a picture I took at our playgroup Tuesday. We were hosting this week. All the moms were cleaning up and all of a sudden someone said, "Where are the kids?"
This is what we found:

They all quickly had found and went up the stairs. It is funny how that is where all little kids end up at our house. So of course I had to take a picture. It makes me so happy to see all these kids together! We were missing another little girl, two little boys, and two baby girls.

I feel like I'm enjoying all the "small" things in life this week: jump rope, pretending, friends, duck-duck-goose, sand, a full night's sleep, running outside, drawing circles and "squares", tracing anything you can think of with sidewalk chalk, multiple hours of sleep in a row at night (did I already say that??) and reading board books and nursery tales. Doesn't get much better than that!