Video: Meeting Lily

Returning to Guatemala!

Lily, I'm coming back! I can't stand it without you and Aaron. I can't wait for you to get home and for our family to be complete here. But for now, our family is only complete when we are in Guatemala and I have to get back. We have been home only 4 days and already we have planned our return trip. We leave on November 20th for 7 days. Lily will turn 6 months old while we are with her on Nov 21st. How great is that! I won't miss it. And, Kya will turn 4 years old while we are there. It will be a special trip. I look forward to getting my babies back in my arms.

More Lily Pictures

We are home and it's terrible being away from the babies. I don't want to post much about it but I did want to give you some more pictures of our precious babies. Here are some of my favorite of Lily.

First Full Day With Lily

We cannot leave the hotel since we do not have custody of the babies. We were able to get a family of 6 (showers, bottles, etc) all ready though in 1 hour to go to breakfast. I thought that was pretty good. They have a nice breakfast buffet here. We hung out there until it closed down. We met and talked to several people down there to pass the time. Then we hung out in the hotel room for about 4hrs for naps and lunch. Dinner was again at the buffet restaurant but we didn’t really know what any of it was (Friday fish dishes) so we ordered club sandwiches off the menu.



Lily was great all day. She whines just a tiny bit when she needs something but that’s about it. We had her giggling out loud. She has such a cute laugh and she smiles back at you whenever you smile at her. She loves to dance and is just content as could be just about wherever you place her.

Here are a few pictures from our first full day with Lily, Friday – October 12, 2007.

Love At First Sight

We arrived safely and uneventfully into Guatemala City about 3pm (5pm EST). Leaving the airport there were hordes of people in Mayan dress massively crowding the outside of the airport. I am embarrassed to say that even though I’ve been to such places before, I immediately went into a bit of culture shock. The people come from the countryside and come in crowds from the villages in flat bed trucks, chicken trucks, whatever they can all squeeze into to greet an arriving family member. It was quite wonderful actually just not what I expected and I was definitely not in Kansas (I mean Florida) anymore! Our shuttle was not there so we had about 15 minutes to immerse ourselves into this crowd and adjust. Everyone is so friendly here. I was getting antsy though. It was 4pm and were to meet the babies at 5pm. Even though I knew they’d be late, that is customary. And, they were late. We got the room all set up and went down to the lobby at 5pm.

Sometime closer to 6pm, in walked the woman that I’ve seen only in pictures over the last few months, Lily’s foster mom. She was a sight for sore eyes! I was thrilled to see her and I new under that bundled up blanket was my baby girl! Thankfully (and unexpectedly) our agency had arranged for a translator to be here who took pictures and interviewed the foster mother for us. He is a 4th year law student, a Christian, works with the youth at his Church and seems to be quite a nice young man. It was nice to be able to talk so openly about the Lord. We’ve only adopted in China thus far where you cannot mention anything about God or any religion.

So, what you really are reading this for is Lily! Oh my!!!!!!! You know how big we thought she was from her pictures?! Wrong! She is so small. She is a peanut and is very, very precious. Just big ole’ cheeks. And, I have to honestly say she is a million times more beautiful than her pictures allow for. She is just gorgeous. I have not been allowing myself to bond to her photos for fear of losing her. But that all faded away with first look. She became instantly etched in my heart forever. As I held her for the first time all my nerves from the past 2hrs faded away and a huge sigh of relief came over me. We spent about 1hr (or so) with the foster mother, chatting, and getting information. Aaron was still not here (we did get him a bit later though). We were getting nervous though and the big girls were tired, hungry and bored. They did warm up to Lily right away. Kya was instant little mommy and Lily smiled every time Kya came near her.



Lily is a beautifully behaved baby. She smiles a lot, moves a lot. She slept from about 9:30 to about 7:45 (or something like that). She woke up one time in the middle of the night (3am) for her middle of the night feeding (just like the FM told us). Dale and I both woke many times to check on both babies. Dale did not sleep well but I slept beautifully with all my babies surrounding me (and the hotel has wonderful beds and pillows).

Welcome

Welcome to Lily Bug's Photo Log.

We will soon be visiting our Lily Bug for the very first time. (Just 2 more days to go!). We will be posting pictures of our trip to the new photo log. We will use this photo log to post any future visits and pictures of the final trip to bring home our baby girl. Don't forget to check out Lily's Main Website for all other great Lily Information.

We are also adopting a baby boy. Check out Aaron Gabriel's web site and photo logs!

We have also provided a link to our family page, as we have 2 beautiful daughters already at home that have filled our life with so much joy!

And, if you are interested in Adoption, we have given you the link to our adoption agency.

Many Blessings,
Dawn