"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."
-Anthony Brandt
Welcome!
This blog began as we documented our adoption of our third child, Caleb. It is now an eclectic journal of our often amusing lifestyle with 4 young children.
We do try to "keep it simple" because our lives are obviously busy enough! We try to hold true to what we firmly believe is the most important: family, friends, and faith.
Mariah has quite the fascination with keeping things clean. Hopefully this will continue when she is older so that she can keep up with the housework! If you listen carefully, you can her here say "go go go" as she is cleaning off the table. And when she is finished, she asks for more! :)
Halloween was a lot of fun at our house this year. Here are a couple of pictures from the big event!
Modeling our Halloween T-shirts!
Mariah, the Queen Bee
Mariah has been sick with the croup and double ear infection, so she couldn't go trick-or-treating this year. By the time I got back from taking her to Urgent Care, it was time to go trick-or-treating, so if you look at some of the pictures below, you'll see that she's just wearing her winter jacket. Thankfully she's not old enough to know the difference, Daddy dressed her up after we left and she was happy as can bee!
This is a huge step in the Guatemalan Adoption process. PGN is somewhat like the Attorney General's office, and oversees all adoptions. Our understanding is that two reviewers and the director had to go through all of the documents to check for errors, discrepancies, etc. Getting out of PGN means that we have the final approval from the Guatemalan side. It's a huge step, and we're really, really excited!
Pre-Approval!
Pre-Approval is the preliminary OK from the U.S. to go forward with our adoption of Caleb. It is a huge step in the adoption process. We received it today, May 9th. YIPPEE!
We have a DNA match!
One unique part of Guatemalan adoptions is that they do DNA testing to assure that the mother is truly the mother, not someone who kidnapped a baby and tried to somehow get money out of the adoption process.
We received the DNA test results today. 99.98% probability of maternity. YIPPEE!!!
Posted 3-15-07
DNA Testing is Completed!
All Guatemalan adoptions require DNA testing of the birthmother and child, to ensure that the baby was not kidnapped and put up for adoption for financial gain. We learned that the DNA testing took place on 3/2/07. We hope to have the results of this testing in a couple of weeks.
Added 3/6/07