Just pictures because she's so darn cute . . .

Hello my friends. It has been a very long time. I don't have a lot of time on my hands these days. Unfortunately, my job is overwhelming, but I'm trying to make some changes there. I would appreciate any prayers; I know God will guide me. I try to leave work at a reasonable time, I come home to Sean and Elena and after she goes to bed, I work until very late at night . . . every night. For this, I hope to step down soon, whether I leave the company or step down to another job within. I don't care about the money; we will adjust. I just care about my family and my health. Well, enough about that! More importantly . . .

Elena is doing so great! She is just growing so fast. We can't believe that a year ago this week, we were visiting her for the first time. (Oh, which means HAPPY GOTCHA DAY TO OUR FRIENDS LORI, JOEL AND SONJA!). Today we went for her second haircut. She is napping or I would have given you a before and after. She needed a haircut BAD! You can see that in the pics below that we took earlier this week. We had wonderful holidays with our families and we are having a great year so far. Elena's health has been good; although, the runny nose is neverending. We don't know if that is becuase of constant cold (daycare) or perhaps she has alergies?? It doesn't faze her a bit, it's just messy. She had pink eye (both eyes) a few weeks ago and she dealt with that pretty well too. She's just amazing. She's such a happy child. The only reason she every vomits is because she is laughing too hard. We can't imagine life without her!

We're so happy that a lot of our adoption friends are getting OUT of PGN!! I haven't been very social lately and haven't been keeping up with Guatemala affairs very well, but we are just so happy that people continue to be united with their beautiful babies! We keep in close contact with Elena's foster mother and sister and they are really struggling financially. Please pray for them and all the people of Guatemala who suffer financially.

We hope that everyone is well and are having a great 2008! Blessing to you!

HELLO everyone! We are alive, this I promise. Elena is doing GREAT and we are having more fun than ever with her. She is growing so quickly and everyday is something new. So much has happened since the last time I posted. We did the trick-or-treat thing, celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families and are now preparing for Christmas. For those of you who know me well, know that I'm not a fan of Halloween; however, we had a great time dressing her up and visiting neighbors. We are so excited for Christmas! Elena obviously won't understand any of it this year, let alone understanding why we celebrate this time of year, but we look forward to giving her some fun gifts for now. Hopefully by next year she will know who Baby Jesus is.

Elena continues to blossom! She is waving now, doing great with her straw cups, and is even "eating" with a spoon. The spoon thing gets a little ugly sometimes, but we have to start somewhere! School is going well for her; still better than I'm doing. She's walking, but not on her own yet. She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING and pushes her push toys around, but still can't keep her own balance. We think it should be soon!

Sean and I are doing well! Work is still a bit of a drag for me and has become overwhelming again. I do not work late, but I have been working from home every night after Elena goes to bed. I still miss Elena every single day. I can't wait until the new year and I have some vacation days again! I haven't taken a day off since I was off with her this summer. Sean continues to do an awesome job with Elena! He takes over after I leave for work in the morning by changing the poopy diaper after breakfast, dressing her, and taking her to school. He picks her up after work too. It's their time together. She loves him soooo much and gets so excited when she sees him!

We have had our last social worker visit, which is great! We will miss our social worker very much though. She is such an incredible person. She's not far away though and we plan to visit now and again.

Things continue to evolve in Guatemala and with the adoption process and we continue to pray for all of those families still in process. We pray that the babies come home soon!

Well, pictures say a thousand words, so I'll wrap it up. MERRY CHRISTMAS & GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!!!!

Hello my friends. First and most importantly . . . the issues in Guatemala. For all our friends who are currently waiting for their babies to come home, we want you to know that we are praying for you and are doing everything we are able to do to encourage that to happen. For those who are not familiar with what is going on, effective January 1, all adoption from Guatemala are being stopped. There is a lot behind this and I encourage everyone to read up on it and do what you can as well. Sean and I cannot imagine not having our wonderful and beautiful Elena in our lives and we pray that our friends will be blessed with their babies home as well.

Our sweet Elena is now a year old. We can't beleive it. We had a lovely party on Saturday with family and friends. Everything since my last post has been just wonderful. Elena continues to do well at daycare and is just blossoming. I continue to struggle and just miss her so much during the week. Weekends are so precious. Unfortunately, this week, she was sick. She had a sever from Sunday to Wednesday, but is doing great now. She had a doctor visit today and had some vacinations and a flu shot. Last time we had vacinations, she had a pretty high fever. So far so good this time!

I'm keeping it short for now. Don't forget to say a prayer for all the babies in Guatemala who are in need of a loving home and for those babies already with loving parents waiting for them to come home.

John and Nina, we're praying for you for a safe trip and can't wait to here you are back with wonderful Anna! Woo Hoo!

Daycare

This was Elena's first week in daycare. It went okay. Elena cried a lot there, but I assumed, and her teachers confirmed, that it is normal at first. She went half days and I really missed her those few hours. She is taking a morning nap for them and even eating lunch, but for some reason, won't take a bottle from them. Now that is weird! She gets very excited for her bottle normally. When I get there to pick her up a little after Noon, I give it to her and she takes it from me. Next week is full time and hopefully she will begin to have a better comfort level. She seems to play well with the three other babies. It'll be fine. She is in an exceptional mood when we get home. I have a feeling I'll be in the same state when I get to my office on Tuesday. I'll probably sit there and cry . . . I'll eat lunch, but not drink my coffee. Then when I get home, I'll by happy and talk a lot.

On the home front, Elena is talking up a storm! She's so darn funny. She is also on the verge of crawling. She leans forward like she is going to get into the position. Soon enough. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time getting her down for naps. She cries and cries; however, she will go down for Sean. Hmmm . . . This has been ever since she got her immunizations last Friday. We pulled an all-nighter. I finally gave her Motrin at 4:30 a.m. and she fell asleep. She had a fever of 103 as a result of the immunizations. I was dead to the world on Saturday and she was wide awake. Oh boy. Sean was up at his cabin so it was a long day. He came home early to releive me. She slept well Saturday night, but we skipped church on Sunday and rested. We had to get ready for daycare on Monday, of course.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous right now and is suppose to be this way the entire long weekend. In fact, I'm headed out to the deck, as soon as I am finished here, to enjoy it. My great friend at work lent me a book just around the time we started the adoption process and I'm determined to finish it before I go back to work. Wow, 18 months to finish a book (and a really awesome one too). I guess I've been busy! If you are a reader of fiction novels, pick up "Blink" by Ted Dekker (or any Ted Dekker novel will do). Oh, nevermind, she's waking up . . . the book will have to wait. ;)

Hope every has a great holiday weekend!

Time Sure is Flying . . .

I go back to work on September 4. I'm pretty bummed about that. It's not so much that I will be away from Elena all day, it is going back to my job/company that I'm not looking forward to. I'm sure that's no surprise to many. I will miss her as well. I don't think at this point I realize how much I will miss her.

I don't think a summer has ever gone by so fast for me. It has been the best summer for me, however (of course)! Elena and I have been to the gym a few times last week and again this week. She did pretty well in the daycare. It is a great way to break her in. I keep my workout time to just around an hour. Starting August 27th, she starts daycare half days and I'm hoping these few days at the gym daycare gets her at least a little ready. We'll get through it!

Elena still isn't crawling or walking; however, she is standing pretty well. She has to hold on to me or something else. She doesn't pull herself up though. I have to put her on her feet. She reaches forward like she wants to, but gives up and starts doing something else pretty quickly. We'll keep working at it! Her new favorite food is whole grain pancakes. I have to slow her down; she shoves them in her mouth one bite after another! Breakfast is the easy meal. She loves fruit and carbs . . . the heck with protein and vegies! Oh boy. That's the opposite of mommy! I know that is typical of babies so I'm not too worried about it anymore. We went for ice cream the other night and she certainly loves to dip her lips into the ice cream cone! Daddy thinks that pretty funny. We don't let her have much, but she loves it!

'Till next time . . . God Bless you all.

I haven't posted for awhile! We're still doing really great and Elena is still wonderful and sweet (of course). I can't remember what it was like without her, nor do I want to. We just love her so much! She's still on a really great schedule; although, we are usually out and about every afternoon. This means mommy is messing up her afternoon nap. She sleeps really well in the car. Today we went to work again. I've worked for my company for fifteen years so I know a lot of people; all who want to meet her. This was our third trip to meet people and I still have another building to go to. She only lasts so long and I don't blame her for that.

We had a very special day on Sunday. Elena was baptized. It was very emotional for us and we had a very blessed day with our families. She did so well while being baptized. She just looked at our pastor while grabing at his robe. He said "she was a gem!" I love our pastor so much; he is so wonderful with children. Our families came back to our house and we had lots of food and just a very nice afternoon together. The day is just how I envisioned it. I've been waiting for that day for a long time. My daughter is a child of God . . . officially. What a wonderful gift.

Well Elena is still not crawling or walking. Is that bad? People say not so we will just remain optimistic and be thankful that all of our picture frames are safe on the end tables. She stands pretty well with our help so we think it will be soon. I also am struggling with things to feed this little girl. Now that we have introduced her to rice cakes, Cherrios, ripe fruit and other things that she can chomp on, I think she is doesn't care much for baby food. She still loves her banana cereal in the morning though. Sean called Enfamil just after we got home from Guatemala to ask them which formula here in the US is comparable to that in Guatemala. Ever since then, they have been sending us great coupons ($5.00 off) and samples too. We just got a can in the mail yesterday. Sweet!

I only have one more month until I have to go back to work. Ugh. I will miss her very much, but we found a GREAT daycare center. The original center we were to put her in fell though, which is another blessing! This center is secure, clean, has educated teachers, small ratios AND she loves the director of the center, which sealed the deal. We visited a center near our house the other day that was not secure at all (we walked right in amongst the children) and she cried like I have NEVER heard her cry before. We left her with one of the teachers to go talk to the director and when we got her back, we could hardly calm her. I couldn't watch that happen everyday! We feel good, actually great, about our pick.

That's it for now. I want to end this post by saying "CONGRATULATIONS" to Peg, Joe, and their son Timothy! They are finally home from Guatemala forever. I think they need to move to Pennsylvania.