Finally............

We did arrive in Guatemala City on the 30th, but we had encountered a terrible storm over the ocean and the trip took much longer than anticipated. The flight was very rough. The flight attendants were not even allowed to serve beverages or start the movie for the flight. They too had to remain seated. We tried to fly around the storm, but I would say we didn't make it all the way around it. It ended up that we arrived much later and we were not able to get ahold of Fifo to be able to get Karter. Fifo was attending college classes that got out very late and because we hadn't arrived before the class he couldn't get the baby to us. We went to bed that night not knowing the entire story, but we heard from Fifo later and he explained it and picked us up for our Embassy appointment. We met Veronica, the foster mother, and Karter at the place where they took passport pictures. Karter had to get his Guatemalan passport that day so he needed pictures. The minute I saw Karter I was relieved and felt some peace that I hadn't felt for over a year. He was healthy and strong. I knew he be, but at that point I knew he would be with me and I would know at all times that he was okay My heart broke for Veronica that day. She held him tight and didn't really want to hand him over. She had just spent an entire year caring for a baby that she was not allowed to keep. She cried as she told us that Karter would always be part of her. We found out before we left that Veronica was expecting a baby of her own. I think this gave us peace about the situation.

From the photo place Fifo lead us across the street to the U.S. Embassy. The line was very long outside of the building. It was full of men and women with Guatemalan children of all ages. Everyone in the line looked overjoyed, but maybe a little nervous. We went through security and then sat in a small room filled with chairs. for 2-3 hours. Karter was very patient and behaved very well while we waited. Finally Fifo came over and said it was our turn. We went to a little window and in about 15 minutes they told us congratulations on our new child and that we were free to go. Karter was already an American citizen and now a Vanosdol! Woo hoo!! Peace flooded over me and I wanted to scream with joy! We spent the rest of the day just loving on and staring at our son!

The Final Trip

Like I said before, we made it to the plane and everything went as planned. We had lots of time in the planes and airport to think about everything that had happened in the past 2 years. I remembered the day that we went with my parents to Amarillo to the seminar about Little Miracles. I thought about how sick I had been the day before the seminar and Jason tried to get us to cancel the trip. Evidently I had some kind of stomach bug, but between me and my parents, we encouraged Jason and convinced him that we needed to go. That is where we met Joanna. We thought Joanna, the lady assigned to help us through our adoption, was just perfect. We loved her and thought everything was going great. After a few months she quit returning emails and phone calls. Next thing we knew her mother was very ill and she was going to be out of the office for an extended amount of time. During this time our homestudy was finished and we had read it and approved it for submission. We thought that Joanna had submitted it to the INS and we just waited and waited and waited for an appointment to get our fingerprints done at the Department of Homeland Security. We finally found out that Joanna was moving to Illinois, but she would have an office and continue handling our adoption. We were fine with that because we really liked her. Another month or two went by and I started sending emails to her with a CC to Lori because we weren't getting any responses from Joanna. After a month or so more went by, Lori called to see how our process was going. It was then that we found out that not only was Joanna not going to work for them anymore, but she never sent our homestudy to INS so that is why we never received an appointment for fingerprints. This put us behind about 5 months. At first we were very angry, but we believe that God had it planned that way or we probably wouldn't have ended up with our Karter! Fingerprints were finally done in December and just a month later is when I received the call from Lori that a little boy in Guatemala named Abner Josue Velasquez Alvarado was available for us to adopt and we should go meet him! See, this process had started in January of 2005 and it was already January of 2006 before we had a little boy referred to us. At first we believed that we could be home with a baby in less than a year and it was already over a year before all of the foreign government mess got started! (When I say mess, that is exactly what it was!) You see, if the process had gone as planned, Karter would not have been born when we supposed to bring a baby home. The next 12 months was full of waiting and heartache, but also growth. I won't go into detail about it now because it is long, but I will eventually!

By the way, here is our first family picture taken February 2006 when we first held our baby boy! If I remember correctly, Karter was just 3 weeks old and it was even Jason's birthday! What a great gift!! The other picture is one taken of us this past fall as we visited Washington DC.

He's Ours!!!

Well, 3 years ago today around 4 or 5 in the afternoon we received another call from Lori at Little Miracles. This was the call we had been waiting on! All of Karter's papers had been approved and we were the official parents of Abner Josue (that was his birth name). The problem was that we had to be at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City by 8 am on January 31! That was only 40 hours away! Lori told us she understood if we had to delay the appointment, but she couldn't assure us how quickly we could get a new appointment. Evidently someone at the Embassy had dropped the ball and not delivered our appointment card to our lawyer or facilitator when they were supposed to. They generally made the appointment 1 week from when they notify the lawyer of the appointment. We had waited so long for our precious baby that we weren't about to reschedule our very important appointment! I was afraid it was impossible to get the trip to come together, but we had to try! We immediately got on the phone with American Airlines to see if we could get out on a plane in the morning to Guatemala City. It turned out that we could leave Amarillo around 10 am with one stop in Dallas and then we would leave in a few hours from there on the only flight from Dallas to Guatemala City! Wow!! It was possible. We might actually get to hold our baby and never give him back. We then called the Guatemala City Marriott and they had a room available! This was the hotel of choice for adoptive families and was often full, but we were blessed enough that we got a room. We then realized that we had to be on a plane in just 17 hours for an international flight which meant we had to leave our house in just 13 hours to be able to be in Amarillo and at the airport the 2 hours prior for the international flight! That also meant we had to pack for a 1 year old child, for ourselves and TRY to get a little sleep. We didn't even have time to call everyone that had asked us to promise we would call the second we found out anything. We had to rely on family and friends to pass the word. I'm not sure either of us slept that night, but we did manage to get packed and make it to the airport! We were so excited and nervous all at the same time. We were about to be parents!! That was only something we had dreamed about for years. Fifo, our facilitator in Guatemala, told us that he could schedule for us to receive our baby boy at the Marriott the night we arrived. We could hardly wait to hold and kiss our baby boy once again!


All three of the pictures today were from the our final visit to Guatemala City. I believe they were all taken in our hotel room at the Marriott. Most of the time we had to stay in the hotel because the country was unstable and dangerous. (Isn't he handsome!!)

Go Colts!!

Well, yesterday was a fun day at our house! It was the first time that Karter watched a football game. Of course he was taking a nap during most of it, but he woke up to see the Colts beat the Jets and win a position in the Super Bowl! The last time the Colts were in the Super Bowl we were in Guatemala picking up Karter! I can't believe that was almost 3 years ago! We tried to go to the lobby of the hotel and watch the game in the Sports Bar, but it was packed and the game was in Spanish! We went back to our hotel room to play with Karter and watch him as he was learning to walk. What a great memory! I still can't believe we had missed many "firsts" in his life, but we were still able to witness some of his first steps in the Guatemala City Marriott!

Happy Birthday Karter! I can't believe you're 4!!

I still remember four years ago the call that I received from Lori at Little Miracles International telling me there was a 10 day old little boy in Guatemala that we could adopt. Lori promptly sent me a picture of my future baby and a medical report on the little boy. I was so excited that I left my office and went to visit my mom, my dad, and Jason at the church. Jason was in staff meeting, but that didn't keep me or the secretary from interupting to show Jason the first picture of his new son! Wow!! What a feeling. Little did I know that it would be just over a year before that perfect little boy came to live with us! Anyway, we quickly planned a trip to Guatemala to be introduced to our little boy and to spend two nights and a couple days with our precious boy. We spent most of that time taking pictures and holding our baby. The time went by too quicky and we had to hand our first child back over to his foster mom. I believe that is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it helped that Veronica, the foster mother, loved him dearly. It was very easy to see that in her eyes. Although it was very difficult we made it because we believed we would be back to get our little miracle in just 3-4 months. Time went by and we heard very little about the progress of our adoption. We did receive monthly pictures and medical updates. We saw our baby's progress through 3-4 pictures each month. Oh how we longed to hold him again!!



This is a picture we received of Karter when he was just 2 months old!