Tuesday, May 22, 2007

She's a Night Owl for Now

At just a few days old, Izzie apparently had her nights and days mixed up. It's a common conundrum for babes, after all, it's night all the time for nine months, and they sleep and eat, kick and flip, and wave their arms and suck their thumbs and who knows what else in the calm and quiet of darkness. So Izzie sleeps all day, then wakes up when the sun goes down. She's up until 2, sleeps till 4, then is ready for a bottle! That may have changed as she is now 3 weeks old! What a gal...

Her big brother, the G man, never had his days and nights confused, really. He had a real predictable schedule. Between about 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., he'd sleep for two hours, nurse and fuss and nurse and scream and nurse and cry for an hour, sleep for two hours, nurse and fuss and nurse and cry for an hour, sleep for two hours, and on and on. During the day, he took naps, but sure enough, he nursed every two hours until he was 11 months old. I was a very tired momma.

Now, Griffin is a night owl, and sleeps in like a teenager. That boy has been known to sleep to 11 a.m.! It is good for me, who has never been a morning person.

We'll see how little Miss Mary Isabela develops her sleep patterns!

On another note, I sent a package to my agency, and they'll take it down to her next week. A few items for her, and a few thank-you items for the foster family. Everything has to fit in a gallon bag, so you see, it can't be much.

Adios for now. I've got to go clean the house.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

The Name

Mary Isabela

And her big brother has decided she will be called Izzie.

God bless Mary Isabela.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Baby Sister Needs A Name!

Help! I feel like I'm trapped in a Berenstain Bears episode, because I refer to our sweet baby girl as baby sister. I'm trying so hard to think of the right name for her, and I'm doing it in the confines of just a few choices. I want to include my mom's name and I'd like to use something from our little girl's given name, and/or part of her birth mom's name.

So that leaves me with but a few options:

Mary Isabela
Isabela Mary
Haydee Marianne

Which way to go? The little G guy wants to call her Izzie, so his vote is for Isabela Mary or Mary Isabela. Perhaps if we went with Mary Isabela, we could instead use the nickname of Maisey, which I also like. At least two very dear friends have voted for Haydee Marianne, because Haydee is unusual, but cute.

Stay tuned...

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Our Beautiful Baby Girl


I cannot believe it. We have received our referral. And she is so sweet, and amazing. I can't stop looking at her beautiful face. We're still deciding on her name, so stay tuned.
Now begins the second wait, probably the toughest and longest, to bring her home. Please pray with us that it will be speedy and without problems. And please pray that our baby girl will be safe and well-cared for while she waits to come home. And finally, pray for her birth mother that she is comforted in knowing that her baby girl is already loved by so many, and that she will be a cherished daughter and sister in our family.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

My Handsome Guy


The G man has had to get glasses, and boy is he too handsome in them. He is doing great wearing them, although he did manage to step on them just about a week after getting them. Luckily, they didn't break. Kids' glasses ain't cheap! Anyway, let's hope that wearing the glasses will correct (or improve) the vision in his right eye. Otherwise he may have to start wearing a patch too. While he would look like his cool friend Q in his patch and glasses, I'm hoping we don't have to patch. Q wears his patch very well, but it is still a struggle (according to his mom). Okay, here's a pic of Griff with his new glasses, standing next to R2D2 and CP30 (or is it C3PO) at our post office. Griffin made me bring the camera so we could get a pic of his favorite little robot R2D2, who lives (according to Griffin) in robot land, which is a big, big desert. Does anyone remember the beginning of the first Star Wars (in order of how the movies came out) when Luke bought R2D2 and CP30, and then R2D2 ran away. That is as far as we got when watching the movie about six months ago, because Griffin got very upset and worried about R2D2 getting lost. But those 15 minutes of the movie left a big impression... and Griffin still recalls what robot land looks like.

Monday, May 07, 2007

It's true, I really was born!

Finally, my birth certificate arrived, notarized, certified and authenticated. Today I put it in the hands of the US Post Office, and am keeping my fingers crossed that it'll arrive safe and sound in the Chicago Guatemalan Consulate tomorrow by noon. The USPS has tried my nerves... I talked with the Illinois authentication office last Friday, and was told that my certificate left their office on April 18. Well, instead of putting in my mail box, the USPS decided to forward it to my parents' house. In fact, much of my mail is now being forwarded to my parents' house. The USPS has even sent notices to various businesses that mail me regularly to inform them of my *new* address, so now my parents are receiving bank statements, bills, etc. -- all meant for me! AAARRRGGHHH! My parents lived here briefly while their house was being built, and then filled out forwarding address forms (each individually) so that they'd get their mail that was coming here forwarded to their new house. So now, more than four months later, the USPS has decided they should also forward all my mail to my parents. I'm highly annoyed.

Well, at least my parents live only a half-hour away, and they kindy brought my birth certificate here last night so I could get it out asap. My agency did tell me that they received my Virginia divorce papers from the D.C. Guatemalan consulate so hooray! I'm so nearly done with the dotting of i's and crossing of t's, and wrapping up the dossier.

And hopefully soon I'll get a referral. That will be amazing. It really is all amazing.

As for other news, Disney World was too much fun. I'm so glad I was able to take the G man to Disney, and that my parents were able to share it with us. G really had a blast, as did we all. At breakfast on the first day we went to Magic Kingdom, G colored a picture of Mickey M. and announced that he wanted to give it to Mickey when he saw him. It was too cute. G walked up to Mickey, handed him the pic, and gave him a big hug.