July 24

Sorry for the absence of text in the last blog.  I labeled each picture, but somehow didn't get it published completely.   The pictures were of our trip to Chichicastenengo last weekend and an outing at the zoo with some of the moms here.  Chichi is known for their large outdoor market. It was shoulder-to-shoulder packed so watching my backpack, holding Erick, and trying not to step on little Guatemalan women made the shopping experience a little different!

PGN is the Guatemalan governmental body that (I think) oversees all social services, not just adoptions.  Our file will be nit-picked by two reviewers in PGN and that process can take a month to several months.  We've been hearing that cases are moving more quickly recently so maybe ours will as well.  I am still estimating late October to November to be home.  That's just a guess.

Next week Emily and I are tagging along with a friend, Melissa Scott, and a team of church leadership people on a kind of "see and do" ministry week.  She is having them come to the area to work and also visit several different areas of future ministry/mission opportunity for their churches.  We are excited to get to help and meet the team coming!

The bad news of my blog tonight is that I'm pretty sure my computer died.  It's on the way back to KC now with Emily's dad to be either treated or buried.  I can use my housemates' computers but can't do much with pictures as easily.  If you don't see a blog for awhile, that's why.

A few more random things--we try to put toilet paper in the trash, not the toilet, as the plumbing here is poor.  Erick is fascinated with the wastebasket, which really annoys me, so I hung it on the wall!  Isn't that brilliant??  The wastebasket has slits in it so I can take it down easily to empty it.  Doesn't seem so out of place to have a trash can on the wall here!!  And my "mom" idea of the day, as I'm trying to teach Erick to use a fork, was to roll up small balls of playdo and let him poke them with a fork and put them in bowls.  OK...can you tell we get a little bored around here on rainy days?!

Thank you all for your prayers and very encouraging comments.  It really does help us feel connected!

We're in PGN!!

;h

Great week with Dad!

the stars of our 4th of July party

Jimmy came for a surprise visit...it worked!

Lake Atitlan

our boat dodging a rainstorm

Erick was thrilled to have Pat here to carry him around his shoulders all week! I was pretty psyched, too. Our 13th anniversary is July 8, so it was great for us to be able to be together this week. We had our first overnight outing with Erick at Lake Atitlan, about a 2 hour curvy drive from here. I can tell vacations are going to look different from now on! We spent most of the first day tag-teaming on taking naps (my close friends will be shocked) and watching Erick. The "r & r" just isn't quite the same! Definitely more tiring, but loved every minute...other than Erick throwing my cell phone into the toilet as soon as we got there.

I think this trip was a little harder on Pat and me both. Harder on Pat as he's watching Erick grow and learn new things and not be here for all of it, and harder on me because it makes me homesick for us all to be in KC together. That was part of our decision, though, in choosing to be apart from each other to foster down here. I'm super blessed to be in a great marraige and to have a husband who would let his wife be away like this. It's definitely worth it to have this kick start on being with Erick. We'll be home in a few months.













Our friends, Beth and Kimberly, hosted a 4th of July gathering for our fostering circle of moms and dads. We were craving American fare so I made baked beans and Emily made a delicious apple cobbler. It fit in amazingly well with the guacamole! Emily's mom sent down little USA tshirts for the kids, who wore them proudly. Thanks, Kyle! We also saw nice fireworks from our balcony. It doesn't seem like fireworks, or firecrackers anyway, are as special to the Guatemalans as they can be heard going off at ALL times of the day and night. We've heard the Guatemalans shoot them off at birthday celebrations--not sure if that's true. If so, do they really need to celebrate at 11pm or 6am?













Four foster moms moved in around the corner this past week. It's been great getting to know them and having other kids for ours to play with. They're mostly from the south--funny to hear that southern girl twang! :)