MERRY CHRISTMAS!! DADDY IS HERE!

Happy Holidays friends and family! We hope you are all enjoying some much needed relaxation with your family. We hear it has been just beautiful in Washington with crisp cold frosty days. The fireplace next year at Christmas is going to feel so good - I miss it so much. Chris arrived at 1:00 am on Thursday and we've been busy ever since! It only took Blake a couple of days to remember who his Daddy was. He thinks he is the most hilarious person in the world. The pictures I'm posting today prove it. Chris makes funny noises and faces and Blake just cracks up. I've never had myself in tears quite this much from laughing at the two of them. They are quite the pair. Yesterday we went to Hotel Antigua and went swimming! Blake loves the water and he had a great time eating cheese puffs with his new friend Jordan who is also being adopted (they've been in PGN since May with 2 previos - can you believe it?) Jordan was so sweet sharing his bag of puffs with everyone at the pool.

Antigua is SO alive with Christmas spirit! We have seen a parade of floats with Santa and his reindeer, children singing, fireworks (nonstop), families coming into town to visit, white lights on every tree in the park, and lines of children lined up to receive toys at a local church. It is quite an experience being here. Chris is enjoying every second as we all are and every day there is something new to see. On Friday, Chris and I splurged a little bit and purchased a gorgeous Talavera (hand-painted pottery) sink for our Mexican style bathroom. It's been on our list for awhile and now that we're here and found one at an excellent price, we got it!! I'll have to take a picture later on to post. Chris plans to redo the countertop and whole sink area when he returns. It will remind of us this Christmas in Guatemala every time we see it.

Let's see...what else is new? Blake is growing like a weed. He looks like he's a year old and he's only going on 11 months. He has 8 full teeth now (4 on top and 4 on the bottom) and a full head of hair. In fact, we may get hair cut number 2 today! I wrote a list of everything he is doing now and it amazes me. We cannot wait to watch the list grow as he grows.

There is a possibility that I may be moving again before the end of the month. Our new apartment has bad mold and dust and after taking Blake to a lung specialist in the city last week (he has had lower respiratory problems since birth), the doctor took x-rays and concluded that although his lungs look healthy, he does have allergies to several different things. So, we are on a house hunt again. We may go look at one on Monday. The problem is it's pretty difficult to find housing here without mold and dust. It's the climate. We may have to grin and bear it until we go home.

Still no change in our adoption status at this point. Right now we're still hanging on for the 8-week mark of January 17th to have our adoption finalized. We PRAY we have no other kick outs in the meantime. There is a possibility we could get signed at 6 weeks which would be around January 3.

The adoption law passed here which is good and bad. It is good because all adoptions will continue between the US and Guatemala. Pending cases such as ours, have been "grandfathered" in and will continue as well, however as of January 1, 2008, our case (one of 3700 cases) will have to be registered at a place that has not been designated yet. Hmm...this could be interesting and to us, it sounds like another 3-4 week delay. Cases that are not in PGN yet, will have to abide by the new rules which will go into effect on January 1. These rules will be a bit stricter and therefore take families, once again, more time to be approved. At least all adoptions will continue and the past problems of illegal adoptions will stop ( with abducted/stolen children for example). What a relief for all adoptive families here. Families were quite scared they would stop them all from continuing and they would lose their children. Thank you, God for this not having this occur. We have so many pictures to post right now so I'll do my best to do as many as possible! Happy happy holidays!!! We'll see you in 2008!!