Dominick is 8 Months Old Today! Sniffle, Sniffle

I am super sad because Dominick is 8 months old today and not home. But on the other hand, I have heard some speculation that my case should be out within 1-2 weeks, if not sooner. That is only speculation, there is NO way to know for sure. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. It means so much to me. I know when Dominick is home, this will all be over and I won't care about the long and frustrating wait.

AWESOME NEWS FROM ONE OF MY BLOGGER BUDDIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy to announce that Holly and baby Gia are OUT, OUT, OUT of PGN. She had been in for 123 days and living in Guatemala for 3-4 months. Wow, I am sooooo happy for her. Praise God!

Okay God, now it's our turn. We've been in for 131 days, that's almost 5 months, YIKES! Pleeeaaaase let us out Mr. PGN man. I got an email from my agency yesterday and all it said was that my case is STILL in PGN. I can't tell you what a relief it was to not hear "You've been kicked out for the 4th time". Thank you Jesus that I haven't been kicked out again (as far as we know).

CONGRATULATIONS Holly, Gia, and Zoe!!!!!! You'll be home reeeaaaaalll soon! YIPPPPEEEEE!!!

The World of Wating-on-Dominick

Not much new is happening in the world of Waiting-on-Dominick. For those of you that don't fully understand the whole process, when your case gets kicked out, it kinda starts all over as far as the order it was received. Well, after my last kick out, I was resubmitted on July 31 and the Big Guy (PGN director, aka Attorney General) is now signing off on cases ranging from July 1-20. So, IF I HAVEN'T GOTTEN KICKED OUT AGAIN, my case should be coming up soon. I guess that's why I've been a nervous wreck lately and keep crying to my poor husband saying "What if it gets kicked out again???". All I can say is that it is a horrible feeling when you are kicked out, as I'm sure many of you already know from experience and the rest of you can only imagine.

I have been reeaaaally missing my Chunky Monkey lately. I keep running all those precious memories of my week with him through my mind over and over and I miss him soooooooo much!!! I just keep thinking of how inquisitive he was, when we would walk into a new room of the hotel, he would instantly start turning his little head all over and studying the pictures on the wall and his surroundings. And that precious little laugh of his... often times when someone was talking to me, little Chunky Monkey would watch them and then suddenly start laughing as if they were talking to him. Oh my gosh, he was just so precious! I'm to the point where as much as I want him home, I really just want to see him (and hold him and kiss him of course). I think Hubbie and I have decided, if Dominick isn't home by Thanksgiving we are gonna go visit him again. I know he will probably/hopefully be home by then, and if not it's a horribly long time to wait to see your baby, but that's the plan for now. I would be itching to go see him now (actually I am itching to see him) but I really don't want to take off of work and use up a whole week of time I'd have home with him. But of course we teachers get a whole week off for Thanksgiving, so that's why we came up with that date. I just can't wait for Jon to see his son, he has no idea how much his love for Dominick is gonna make his heart want to explode.

Okay, so guess what our plans are for our Saturday evening (today). Go eat out (as we do every Sat.) and then go shopping for Chunky Monkey, YAAAY!!! When hubbie asked what I wanted to do after dinner, I said "Let's go look at baby stuff!!!" That's how it always begins, just looking. But it usually (always) turns out with buying, buying, buying!!! Dominick is so lucky to have 2 parents who both loooove to shop and spend money.

Wishing all of you a good weekend and praying like crazy for all of you PGN er's.

TRIPLE THE JOY, TRIPLE THE BLESSINGS, TRIPLE THE SWEETNESS!!!

My best friend from high school had triplets in March of 2006, 2 boys and a girl! There names are Geoffrey, Adam and Elise and they are so precious. I was so honored to be asked to be the godmother of Geoffrey. All three of them were Christened yesterday, check out the pictures.

Kate (mom), Jason (dad), Adam, Geoffrey and Elise.

Here's Geoffrey, everyone calls him "big boy" because he's a Chunky Monkey like Dominick.

Adam Patrick Noel!!!

Little Elise, sweet baby girl!!!

Adam is being baptized in this picture with his Mommy holding him.

Here's Geoffrey being held by his proud godparents.

Geoffrey and Nannie Lynn

Adam and Uncle Shawn

115 DAYS IN PGN

I officially start back at work (school) tomorrow. Yuck! I've been going to school to get my classroom ready every day for 2 weeks now and I didn't mind a bit, in fact I was pretty much lovin it. But that was because I was doing it on MY time schedule, knowing I could get there at what ever time I felt like and not having the responsibility of 21 active 1st graders. Don't get me wrong, the children are what make my job so meaningful and fun. But I must say, it is quite peaceful to be all by myself, without a room full of children. And it is really nice to be able to sleep late everyday. Anyway, as I suspected, EVERYONE at school has been asking me "Why don't you have your baby home? When is he going to be home? What is the problem?" I'm so grateful that everyone is so excited for me and concerned, but I'm already going a little nuts with all the questions and explanations. What really gets me is when people say, "Oh my gosh, he's going to be walking by the time you get him. That is just terrible that you are missing out on all of this." I just want to crawl under a table and cry when people say things like that. I know I'm missing out on SOOOOOOO much, do you think I need to be reminded every 10 minutes by a different person?!?!? Do you think I haven't run those thoughts through my head a million times a day for the past year now??? Even the lady at Sonic who has taken my breakfast order every day for the past year is telling me that my baby is going to be walking by the time I get him home. I wanted to say "I already know that could happen, thanks for rubbing it in my face lady!" Anyway, please forgive me if I am beginning to sound negative. I just don't have much else to talk about at this point in my adoption journey. I'm really not angry or upset with anyone, I am just sad and want my precious baby home. I'm not trying to say that this is some horrible experience and poor little me. It is the best experience of my entire life and I feel so very grateful that we are financially able to adopt this baby. Over the past 2 years, there hasn't been anything in this world I have wanted more than to adopt a baby for Guatemala. This is really and truly A DREAM COME TRUE!!!

PRAISE GOD-THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!!!!

I have heard some very encouraging news over the past few days. I'm on an adoption forum internet site, and about 6 people on that site alone got out of PGN on Wed., and about 20 PEOPLE GOT OUT YESTERDAY!!! That is awesome news people! I have never seen that many people get out in one week, much less one day. If PGN keeps up this pace, and IF I don't get kicked out again for some stupid reason, I could get out within the next few weeks. YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I can't imagine really getting out, it has just been so long it feels like it will never happen. I will probably be in shock when I finally do get out, and then I'll probably cry my heart out after bottling up this frustration for so long. And then of course I'll get on my hands and knees and thank God for letting me out of PGN. Anyway, regardless of what happens with my case, it is so encouraging to see so many people get out in one day. Mondays and Fridays are very slow days for PGN, and next Monday or Tuesday (or both) is a holiday in Guatemala, so PGN will be closed. I just hope and pray they continue letting a lot of cases out everyday.

107 Days in PGN and Counting...

I know I haven't posted recently, not much is happening. I have started going to school everyday to set up my classroom and get everything ready for a new school year. My first official day back will be August 15, and the kiddos start back on August 16. Believe it or not, I'm actually really excited about the new school year. I hadn't planned on going back to work until Nov. or Dec. because I thought our baby would have been home by now and I was going to take off several months to spend time with him. But now that I have gotten back into the swing of things, I am so excited. I really do love my job, and I just fall in love with those little munchkins every year. Another plus about it is that it will help the time go by much faster while I wait to get out of PGN. The worse part about it is getting up at 5:30 every morning. That just kills me, I am soooo not a morning person. Anyway, since there isn't anything new happening with Dominick, I thought I'd post a few pictures that I haven't posted yet.

This was Jon's Father's Day gift. I bought him and Dominick shirts that say "Big Dude" and "Little Dude". But since Dominick wasn't here, we put his shirt on Gizmo to model it. Poor baby, this was not the first time that we made the poor dog wear Dominick's clothes. I guess that is just what desperate parents do when they have to wait 12 months for their baby to come home.

This was the hotel we stayed at in Guatemala. It is a 5 star hotel and the service was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I've never seen so many people who are so friendly and love their jobs so much. Everyone who worked at this hotel spoke both Spanish and English fluently. They will go out of their way to do anything for you...you'd have to see it to understand just how awesome the service is at this place.

The heated pool at the Marriott.

Okay mom, since you keep REMINDING me not to post any pictures of you, I just had to post this one of you lounging on the goose down comforter after a long travel day to Guatemala. Hee-Hee, hope you're not mad!!!

BAD, BAD PRESS

First of all, I am not the type to get all bent-out-of-shape about all the adoption rumors and negativeness that other folks like to dwell upon. It usually doesn't bother me at all because I am on cloud nine about MY baby and that's all I really care about at the moment. I'm not the type to be offened because some ignorant reporter referred to Angelina Jolie as "Baby Shopping". Who really cares what they want to call it? It is just an article written with some catchie phrases to get people's attention and make them buy their magazines. Some folks seem to get all stressed out over silly things such as, "What should I call the day that my son was adopted? Let's not call it Gotcha Day (like people have been doing for years) because that could sound offensive, like someone caught a fly on the wall." Give me a break! That is one of the silliest things I've ever heard of. I have much more important things happening in my life than to sit down and contemplate whether my child might grow up and suddenly think that his mother was using the term Gotcha Day in a negative way. But I am offended when a reporter repeatedly refers to Guatemala as a "baby factory" or "baby farm". YIKES!!! That would be pretty darn offensive to anyone that respects the country of Guatemala. Sometimes things are said or done that are wrong, and it is our duty to stand up and educate others about the truth.

To get to my point, there was an article that apparently has been published in almost every newspaper across the U. S. about Guatemalan adoptions that is very one-sided and completely inaccurate. I don't even know where to begin when discussing this article, so please excuse any rambling I may do. I just want to say several things I do know about adoptions in Guatemala.

1. One of the reasons Guatemalan adoptions are so popular is because the babies are generally more healthy and have less delays than babies from other countries because:
2. They are usually raised in foster homes instead of orphanages, therefore they receive care in a private home instead of and institution.
3. It is almost unheard of for these babies to be born with something such as fetal alcohol syndrome because the birth mothers in Guat. do not use drugs and alcohol while pregnant (unlike other countries such as Russia, that are known for having many babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome).
4. These babies have much better medical care both before and after birth than babies from most other countries (at least the ones being handled by an attorney).
5. The adoption process is sometimes (not always) faster than many other countries and they are relinquished for adoption at a younger age, therefore your baby could be as young as 5-12 months when you take him home, whereas your baby might be 12-24 months in other countries. (can you blame someone for wanting their child home at a younger age so that they don't miss out on the many exciting milestones of their child's life and are able to bond with their child at a younger age???)
6. Also, Guatemala is much closer to travel than a country such as Russia, and at this time adoptive families are only required to make one trip of 4-5 days. Many other countries require 2 trips totaling 7-21 days.
7. Guatemala has both boys and girls available for adoption, whereas in some countries it is very difficult to get a girl and other countries it is almost impossible to get a boy.(Russia & China) After suffering years of infertility or miscarriages, one of the benefits of adoption is that you can actually choose the sex of your child. But some people like to make a whole debate out of whether you should be able to choose the sex of the child you are adopting.

One of the biggest things I want people to know about Guatemala is that these adoptions DO go through a court system. The article stated that "Guatemala still allows adoptions to be managed privately, without judicial approval". For someone not familiar with adoptions in Guat., this may sound like the adoptions are not approved by their court system, which is by far not the case. What they mean is that most, not all, adoptions in Guat. are private adoptions. It is the same difference as if you adopted a child privately through an attorney in the U. S. versus adopting a child through the state foster care system. The adoption is still completely legal and goes through all the appropriate court proceedings, the only difference is that a birth mother went directly through an attorney instead of dropping her child off at an orphanage. Also, the U. S. requires that all birth mothers and their babies have DNA testing to prove that the baby is in fact hers and that she DOES want to give her child up for adoption.

Guatemala is an extremely poor country that has no welfare system, no food stamps, no Medicaid, no child support laws, no disability, no minimum wage salary, and so on. There are many, many areas of Guat. that have no running water, no medical care, no schools or transportation. They are also known to be very fertile and a very Catholic/religious country that does not promote abortions and frowns upon unwed mothers. I could go on and on explaining to you the reasons that birth mothers have to give their child up in hopes of them having a better life. If you have read the article, please don't take it seriously. It is completely one-sided and inaccurate. If you are truly interested in what happens in Guatemala with poverty and adoptions, do as I did and spend the next 3 years researching Guatemala. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people who are caring and loving and want the best for their children.

HANDSOME MAN

O.K., I just had to copy off of Candy's blog site and try out the sepia tone. I have to say, I think my little man looks quite handsome in sepia pictures. What do you think???

Momma, you are beginning to bore me with that camera and all these pictures. Can't we do something else???

Oowwww Momma, this diaper is too tight for my cubby legs. That's why it keeps popping open, it is just tooooo tight!!!! Please stop wasting your money on all those clothes and hats and just get me some diapers that fit!!!

Maw Maw, I will sit here real still and handsome if you give me some more oatmeal or cookies. Is this good enough, may I please have some more food???