Erick and the boys swam in make-shift pools at our babysitter's house
Tuckered out Samuel at the pool

Erick loved the outdoor showers at the beach!

Samuel's party with Emily's homemade Texas sheet cake

Just a cool building on the square

We have a previo or kick-out from PGN, but it should be a quick fix. It was a numerical error on some paperwork for the birthmom. Our US attorney says we should hopefully be out of PGN in a few weeks. After PGN, Erick's birth certificate has to go through an organization called RENAP (an acronym for something) that I think just basically delays the processing of all birth certificates for adoptions! This has been taking around 2-7 weeks. Lastly Erick has a final DNA test and we apply for his visa. If everything goes smoothly that puts us wrapping things up around Thanksgiving. Maybe. If I'm not home, y'all better be sending down some stuffin' and sweet potato casserole!

Erick's new word is "shoes," or really it's "sshhz." But he does point to shoes appropriately and tries to put them on his our my feet. And he's getting good at pointing to nose, mouth, eyes, etc. He's climbing on and over furniture. He's hooked on the neighbors' trampoline and we can't walk by now without him pointing and getting super excited to jump on it. There's the Erick update!



I looked at videos of him that we took when we first got down here and he has changed so much already! He's more of a toddler than a baby! Ok, this is sappy, but I was teary watching him babble and goo. He was so trusting of us as total strangers. Wow, time flies!

Erick's first trip to a beach!
He was a little scared of the waves.
I thought this little girl looked a lot like Erick...what a cute couple!
Alice(Lee Anne's hilarious housemate) and her daughter Izzy(Isabella).
A picture of Lee Anne's "mother's day out". If anyone ever would like an incredible vacation at very cheap prices...Antigua Guatemala is the place to go(other than airfare now being around $800). Once you get there it is very cheap with some of the best restaurants I have ever been to. Oh, and the weather is always perfect outside of rainy season(June, July, and September).

Hope to get more pics on later...

Above is a picture of Erick's birthmom and his (assumed) 1/2 brother.
Erick sporting his Croc's that the Bunde's gave him. He loves wearing them.
All the kids from the house wearing their denim.
Pretty Izzy who has a VERY sweet disposition.
Samuel telling everybody that he is 1 year old!

More pics to come...

...we will post more pics hopefully by tomorrow night. For those of you who still come to check out our site...thanks. Again, the Armstrong's keep up on theirs regularly and Lee Anne and Erick are experiencing the exact same story. Thanks Emily for letting us point our friends and family to your blog!



By the way, this is Pat writing. I have been in Antigua for 7 days now and needless to say, I am having a blast. Erick and I bond more and more each time I come down here. Yesterday was a GREAT day with Erick. We sent Lee Anne to a bed/breakfast for the night so she could sleep in and have a massage for her birthday. This will be boring to most but it was one of the best days of my life -- a few highlights/firsts:



1) Lee Anne, Erick, and I all brushed our teeth together at the same time.



2) Erick and I played catch with a ball..he's right-handed and does a pretty decent job of throwing for a 18 month old.



3) We played soccor...he's very good at kicking..Lee Anne must be kicking the ball around with him, I'll have to ask her.



4) We played on a neighbor's trampoline together and did front somersaults and wrestled while laughing our heads off. We gave a high five as we walked away from the trampoline recognizing we had a great time.



5) Milo's walker broke and Erick and I each grabbed a screwdriver and fixed it together. We gave a high five after a job well done.



6) We took our first bath/shower together...let's just say it brought back memories of the guy's locker room at Blue Springs High School..lots of laughing and pointing.



7) After our bath I set him on the bed to dry him off and he pee'd a puddle on the bed.



A great day to say the least.



Also, yesterday was Samuel's 1st birthday. We had a great time with a "family" birthday party for those in the house and today we're having a fiesta for him with all of his other friends in Antigua. Happy Birthday Samuel!

Gotta run now...more pics tomorrow(hopefully).

Pat

Birth mother interview

We got news last Wednesday that our birth mother interview was to be the next day at 2pm, much sooner than I had anticipated--a good thing!  I was expecting to have to drop Erick off with our facilitator and wait 3 or 4 hours for it to be finished; however our attorney said I could go with them to the PGN building where the interview would be conducted.  Several moms have run into the birth moms in the parking lot, so I was hopeful of that.  Amazingly, I saw her on the way into the interview and got to talk to her and take photos afterward!  It was awesome to be able to meet her.  She seemed happy/content to meet us, but not overly emotional one way or the other toward Erick or me.  She is 28, brought her 10 year-old son with her, and has  7 and 4 year-old girls at home.  Pat and I would still like to meet her again when the adoption is final to ask more personal questions, if she would be willing.

This interview was the birth mom, Alba's,  last chance to either ask for Erick back or sign off for good.  Earlier this summer there were a few children actually taken back from the adoptive families and returned to the orphanage or birth mom.  There was an enormous amount of press regarding these interviews, as there was apparently harassment, coersion, and just alot of negativity toward the birth moms in general.  You can see why we've all been anxious about this interview.  Thankfully, the hype and harassment has calmed down alot and I feel like they are finally just trying to wrap up the remaining adoptions.

For us, the day was a good experience all around.  My prayer and praise was Philippians 4:4 and you probably may know it, but I just want to write it.

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.   Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your request to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus.  

I'm getting a bike!

I feel giddy like a little kid at Christmas getting a new toy.  A good friend of ours "knows a family who knows a guy" who can hook me up with a cheap, used mountain bike.  Thursday morning Erick and I are meeting them to jump on a chicken bus and go to some little nearby town to get it.  For those of you who haven't seen or read about them, the chicken buses are the main form of local transportation here.  They're brightly painted school buses that carry the Guatemalans, their chickens, I guess, and whatever else they need to transport.  I've been wanting to ride on one.  Anyway, it'll be so freeing to be able to zip up to the store to get milk or just zip across town! 

Last week Emily and I spent a day "behind the scenes" in Guatemala City with a team from Texas, Oklahoma, and California.  It was a group of people from different churches, all connected in some way to our friend, Melissa Scott, also an adopting mom here.  The purpose was to bring awareness to different areas of need in Guatemala, with the hope that people would return home and possibly connect with these needs in some way.  I just started to write about our experience, but decided to give you the link to Emily's blog :) She has some great statistics, pictures, and descriptions of our day.  Really, I'm not trying to get out of sharing the story, she just already has a good account of the trip! www.armstrongfamilyadventure.blogspot.com  Click on it! 

Erick is great.  He was obviously ready for his nighttime bottle the other night and brought me his can of formula.  Such a smart kid.  :)  He's getting more into playing with cars and trucks--getting down and crawling around on the floor with them.  He has a pretty good throwing arm, too...ugh, makes me selfishly fast-forward to sitting at 82,000 blistering hot summer baseball games.  Ha!  No offense, nephews.