Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a blessed happy holiday!
Now look at this cute baby:

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to my sweet husband, Matt.



He is going to be THE BEST Dad. No wonder Eliana insisted on wearing this bib even though it is 3x too big for her.

Santa baby

We were surprised this afternoon to open our email to find this:




Look at that ridiculous hat! She is the cutest!

Ok, Ok.... here are a few more....

More cuteness

This is a picture of us opening a gift that my cousins, T and Jill, had sent for the baby. It was really sweet. It's a book called 'My Pig Amarillo,' a children's book set in Guatemala. Eliana loves to be read to! We took several books to read to her including 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.' She listens intently and looks at the pictures on each page.

She especially loved the ribbons on the package.... so much that we had to take them with us to get a diaper change!

Look at this beautiful dress that Matt's parents got for her! She looked so sweet and girly in it. Thanks Nin and Pap!

Then what?

Well, being home stinks.
Maybe that's not entirely accurate. Being home without the baby stinks.
Yesterday was a pretty crummy day. I felt like we had actually done pretty well on Tuesday. Of course giving the baby back was difficult, but I felt better knowing that we would be seeing her again soon for the pick-up. When we visited in September it was really, really hard giving her to the foster mom because we had NO idea how long this was going to take or when we would see her again. We have had a lot of progress with our case in the past 6 weeks or so, so I am much more optimistic now. We entered PGN this week! Pray, pray, pray for a quick review and release!
Anyway, Tuesday was bearable, but Wednesday was rough. Being home without her was terrible. Worrying about if she's being well taken care of is miserable. We were also pretty exhausted from the trip so it didn't take much to upset me.
Today is better.
But still stinks.




On with the pictures!!



I love this look!

She is talking and babbling a good bit.
I love how silly babies' lips look while they're learning to control them.

Fresh out of the bath!


Matt went down to the lobby for a moment one day and came back to the room REALLY excited. We rushed downstairs for Eliana's first picture with Santa Claus!

It was really funny. Matt was so excited. He was a pretty good lookin' Santa. Check out that crazy beard! Lucky for Santa I held Eliana because less than 2 minutes after this picture was taken Eliana threw up all over herself and me! We were in the elevator with no blanket, burpcloth, nothing to clean up with..... There was nothing I could do but howl with laughter.

Home again, home again

Ok. Here are some pictures from the first couple of days. She's so cute, I had a hard time choosing which pics to post!
We are rushing around today printing pictures and getting ready to go share the video with the grandparents. If I don't get back to the computer tonight I'll be sure to post more pictures tomorrow.


This was just after we got her up to the hotel room. She's wearing a dress that Tia had sent for her on our last visit trip!


She loves to touch Matt's beard!


This is us in our bathroom...





Baby loves Daddy

Having a great time!

We got here safely, easy trip.
Sad news for you all: camera hookup isn't working so you'll have to wait til we get home for pictures. That's a real shame for you because ELIANA IS SO CUTE!!!!!!!
We are having a great time. Honestly, these past couple days have been 2 of my best days ever. We're just hanging out in the hotel room, playing and hugging on this baby!
She looks great! She's really alert and she likes to play with toys now. Even better, she likes to play with Mom and Dad! We\re getting some great big smiles and it just makes me tear up every time! I just love her!
We should be entering PGN next week!!!
We are out of family court. The attorney needs us to sign a form saying that we are aware of Eliana's medical problems and then we can enter! She also says she's going to meet with the head PGN guy and try to hurry the case through so we can get her heart taken care of at home. Hooray!
Keep praying! Everything is going great! Hopefully we'll be bringing her home before too long!!!!!!

All set

Well, we'll be leaving for the airport in 5 hours.
We're all packed, exhausted and not a bit sleepy. We're going to see Eliana tomorrow!
A special thank you to our friends and family. We've had so many phone calls, gifts for the baby (and us) and lots and lots of prayers.... we just appreciate it so much. We also, AGAIN, had a ton of donations for Mayan Families - they should be super excited to receive all of the shoes, medicine and toys we will be carting down.
We will try to update the blog and upload pictures while we're there so check back to see us having a great time with that sweet baby, Eliana.