Back in Guatemala City

We made it to the Westin this afternoon. After some swimming, we are just relaxing in the room and will probably go to bed early! We have to meet our attorney in the lobby tomorrow morning at 7:30am to go to the U.S. embassy. No cameras are allowed (you even get in trouble if you take a picture of the outside of the building!!), so I won't be posting any pictures from the embassy. Basically, I've heard it is like waiting at the DMV for a few hours. We go up to a few different windows, answer some questions, solemnly swear some stuff, then we're done.

Some of you have been asking about meeting us at the airport when we arrive on Wednesday. While we really, really appreciate your enthusiasm and excitement, we would prefer to see all of you at a later date. Our plane gets in really late and after a long day of travelling, we're pretty sure we'll all be a bit crabby. Plus, we don't want to overwhelm Miranda with lots of new faces too quickly. She's just getting to know us. Please call us during our first few days home and we'd love to see you!

We're off to bed! Will post about the embassy tomorrow!

Leaving Antigua

Today we are leaving Antigua at 12:00 to head to the Westin in Guatemala City. We had a good day yesterday, going to different markets and having lunch with our friends Jimmy and Emily Armstrong and their son, Samuel.

Mitchell and Matt had a nice morning reading on the roof of the hotel.
Miranda loves looking at herself in the mirror.

One of the markets we went to in Antigua. Just imagine...lots of people yelling, "Hey lady, good price, you like? you buy?" and me constantly saying, "No, Gracias" over and over. Our last ride in a Tuk-Tuk. For 10 quetzales (about $1.30) these drivers will take you all over Antigua. Very helpful when coming back from the grocery store or when the boys are especially whiny.
This is us with Maya, the daughter of another guest in the hotel. She and her mom, Susan, have been here for over 2 weeks. They are hoping to have their embassy appointment in the next few weeks.
Here are our new friends, Neena and Shreesh, packing up their car. The whole time we've been in Guatemala, Matt has been searching for a new hat. Right as Neena and Shreesh were packing up, Shreesh asked, "Do you wear hats?" (Those of you who know Matt well know what a funny question that is!!) Then, Shreesh gave Matt one of their "A Long Drive" hats!! Rooftoppers....I imagine you'll be seeing this hat soon

Hallelujah...Matt's First Blog Post

Greetings from Guatemala. Matt here. I arrived in Guatemala yesterday, after a mostly uneventul trip down. (See below for more details.)

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Over the past many months, people have commended me on "our" blog. I have humbly confessed that I have nothing to do with "our" blog; it is Michele's blog. In fact and in general, Michele has been the heart and administrative hands of this adoption. I've been her gopher and servant: "Matt, Sign here...Take this to the post office...Email this person...Pray this prayer." Not to say I'm not THRILLED and EXCITED by Miranda entering our life. Just that Michele's been in charge, as she should be. What do I know about raising little girls? I'm just now getting the hang of raising little boys, and now they're not so little.

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Anyway, it's time I made my mark in this adoption process. So I suggested to Michele that I make my own blog post. To this suggestion Michele said, "Hmmm...Are you sure you can do that?" I said, "Michele, I pastor a medium-sized church. Surely I can make a blog post." Twenty minutes later she was pointing to keys on the keyboard saying, "Type this. Now Return. Michele is spelled with one L. Geesh."

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In a further effort to demonstrate my independence and contributions to this process, I took some pictures of Miranda and myself BY myself. Michele offered to take them for me, but as a self-made man I insisted I could do this myself. Here are those pix.

I know she doesn't seem especially happy to be with me, but she is. Trust me.

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Perhaps you notice the resemblance between Miranda and I. My brother Brad and his wife Allison recently had a baby named Lucy, who is a sweet and adorable little girl who is the SPITTING IMAGE of my mother at Lucy's age. (She has the pictures to prove it.) Well Brad, Mom, Allison, Lucy...if you want to talk about spitting images, surely you agree that a father and daughter never looked as much like each other as Miranda and I do. It's in the eyes, the cheekbones, the forehead. If you can't see it, picture Miranda with a gotee and it'll jump out at you.

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Anyway, my trip down here was nice, except having to sit at the back of the plane from Houston to Guatemala. (Why don't people want to sit at the back of the plane? It's because after breakfast everyone needs to take a big early-morning poop, and those lavatories do NOT contain very well the smells of early-morning poops.) Also, our plane in St. Louis had some hydraulic problems, so they had to reload us on a different plane. I didn't complain. Thank God for plane inspections. But it did make catching the next plane in Houston a bit too close for comfort.

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Once here, I had a nice conversation with Marvin (Mar-veen) on the way to Antigua, where Michele and the kids (not just "the boys", anymore) are staying. Mar-veen was the driver sent to pick me up at the airport. In broken Spanish we talked about politics, family, life, religion. Mar-veen told me that in Guatemala more and more people are leaving the Catholic Church for the Evangelical Church because evangelical preachers preach better. They use illustrations, humor, they talk about peoples' lives. They keep it interesting. I said "Amen, hermano!" Apparently they don't need me down here.

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Miranda is beautiful and lovely. She really seems to like me: she smiles at me, laughs at me. However, I think Miranda likes everyone. And, of course, everyone likes Miranda. Among all the Guatemalan babies God could have given us, he seems to have chosen one of the friendliest and happiest and prettiest kiddos in America de Central. We're grateful and blessed.

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Today we are going to continue bonding. We're going to go on a walk, we're going to go to the market. We're going to go see the sites of Antigua. I brought a bunch of church stuff to do on my down time here in Antigua, but this morning I agreed with God that getting work done was a distant second priority to my first priority of family-bonding. (Some of you are thinking it shouldn't be any sort of priority while down here.) So while I have church email access down here, if I don't respond your church-related email, deal with it. And God bless you.

April 30

Matt comes to Guatemala tomorrow! We are all so excited to see him. He will hopefully arrive in Antigua by 1:30 pm. Nothing too exciting to share today. Miranda decided to wake up in the middle of the night last night and wanted to eat. Today, she took two great naps, so we'll just wait and see how she does overnight. Just some photos to share from our past two days...

This is what we normally look like when we get ready to head out to run errands or whatever. Miranda is still a big fan of the Moby wrap and it is super helpful for me to have two hands to grab onto the boys!

Just after bath time.Look! I scooched myself all the way into this little corner between the bench and the table! Aren't I funny!? Max being a totally awesome dish-washing helper!
I love to roll all over the floor! Thank goodness for Patty who mops our floor every day because it gets really dusty here!

April 28-Monday

Yesterday I think I told you about Shreesh and Neena (maybe I didn't...I can't remember), our new friends at our hotel. Anyway, they are travelling all throughout North and South America and are driving the entire way. They have been as far as the Arctic Circle and are now headed south. They are chronicling their journeys on their blog and have given me permission to link you to it:
http://www.alongdrive.com/

Check it out! They are both computer people professionally, so their blog is really good...read the post about the mezcal in Mexico. This is a liquor that is made from the agave plant--Shreesh told me it is similar to Tequila. Anyway, tonight we shared one of their own drink creations--the "alacranes," with mezcal, lime, salt, and I can't remember what else. It was very good...Kind of a lemon/lime-aid with a "kick." Here are Shreesh and Neena with the alacranes...
Today we mostly stayed around the hotel, dropped off laundry, picked up laundry, walked to the store, and spent a few hours this afternoon at a local playground with a friend from Truman who is adopting her son from Guatemala and is also living in Antigua. One of her housemates and her son also joined us. It was very nice for the boys to have some room to run around. The lavanderia is just around the corner and Lily does our laundry for around $9. It comes back all nicely folded in a bag. Can anyone relate when I say it really is a glorious feeling to open up the nice, clean laundry already folded and ready to put away?

And now, leaving you with a cute photo of Miranda.

April 27

We did get everything done today that I wanted to do! We walked to the town square and went to the ATM, went to Pollo Campero for lunch (the boys actually wanted Pollo Campero over Mcdonald's!) and went to the grocery store, La Bodegona this afternoon.

There is a nice couple that have moved into our hotel. They have been travelling since October and will continue to travel until the end of this year. They are driving and have been all the way north past the Arctic Circle and are now heading south. They have a blog, so once I get the address, I'll post it.

No plans yet for tomorrow. There's a park a few blocks up that we haven't tried yet, so we may do that.

Miranda is doing GREAT. She wakes up happy, eats, plays, naps, and continues the cycle again. I'm trying to keep her from taking a nap around 4-4:30ish, so she gets pretty cranky and wants to be held all the time right around 5:30 when I'm trying to make dinner. So far, the routine has been for me to put her in the high chair with some toys while I make dinner for the boys, give her a bath while they eat, clean up the dishes, put a movie on for the boys, feed Miranda around 6:30, then put Miranda down for the night. The past few nights she has gone straight to sleep, no crying at all. And then sleeps for 12 hours!! After she's in bed and the boys are watching their movie, I'll make dinner for myself, read, call Matt, and just relax. After their movie is over, the boys go to sleep and I get the computer for internet time!

A few photos from the day for you all! Keep up the comments. It really is one of the highlights of my day when I get to read all the comments on the blog!

More Adventures (April 26)

First of all--I don't know what the deal is with the date that is posted on the blog...it seems like everything says April 21. So, I'm going to start posting the date in the title.

For lunch today, we went to a little store called Culinaria. It has a small patio in the back with a lawn and a small playset. The people are very nice and don't mind if you hang out for a while. I bought a yummy salad with olives, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. The boys each got a drink and ate sandwiches and oranges we had brought from our kitchen. It was especially nice for Max to have more area to run around and burn off some energy. The only problem is that there aren't any trees, so there is very little shade. I put a sheet down under the slide and that was where Miranda hung out and played!

Rachel--this was when I was trying to call you!After Culinaria, we walked home and while Miranda napped, the boys and I read and had a little "rest time." We then got Miranda back in the Moby wrap and headed out to find Deliciosa--to try some excellent chocolate as recommended to us by my fellow St.Louisan/blogger/adoptive mom, Katie Mohr. Katie: this picture is for you. We will DEFINITELY go back for more chocolate!

We then walked back to our hotel via El Arco, the street with the famous yellow arch. Along the way we stopped at a textile market and took some pictures. We're getting a lot of walking in while we are here in Antigua. I enjoy it, but have to tune out the boys when they are complaining about how tired they are. Doesn't Mitchell look like he's having a GREAT time!!!??Tomorrow we have to make another trip to La Bodegona (the grocery store), go to the ATM, and I promised the boys that we could go to McDonald's. If we get all of that done, it will be a successful day! The McDonald's here is crazy nice...a beautiful courtyard. I'll definitely get pictures for you to see!